OLana Light

Search to Belong is a new project by Olana Light involving a series of wearable sculptures, live performances, installations, and films, supported by public funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England and ‘a space’ arts’ Lucky Dip Bursary scheme.

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Search to Belong reflects the multiplicity of identity and the never-ending pursuit for belonging. Exploring notions of the ‘self’ and its connection with the body and others in the world, this work presents new perceptions by challenging audiences to accept the absurdity of the Other. Viewers are invited to observe the story of two creatures of an unidentified nature - neither human nor animal, yet simultaneously both. Embodied in a human-like form with reptilian skin, these creatures are ‘Other’ to the whole world but ‘Native’ to each other. With the flow of time, the couple metamorphoses into a singular organic being, it sheds its old plastic skin for a moss shell and requires a different ecosystem to maintain it as a new ‘organon’ to find its peace in the vastness of nature. Relationships between bodies, love, and compassion for our fellow creatures is the pathway to creating a ‘we-world’- an inclusive environment at the intersection of all systems, a realm in which everybody belongs.