Oliver Guy-Watkins is a British writer and artist.

Background

Guy-Watkins was born and raised in Gloucestershire, England. He attended Beaudesert Park School and St. Edwards School in Cheltenham, before moving onto Gloscat to study English and Drama. He would move to London in 2000, where he would attempt a career in the music industry, before following his love of art and film.

In 2007 Guy-Watkins curated the Ruhe Bewahren exhibition in Tacheles, Berlin. The exhibition was attended by actresses Susan Sarandon

Susan Sarandon

Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...

 and Christina Ricci

Christina Ricci

Christina Ricci is an American actress. Ricci received initial recognition and praise as a child star for her performance as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values , and her role as Kat Harvey in Casper...

.

In March 2008, Guy-Watkins was enlisted by American artist Marc Horowitz

Marc Horowitz

Marc Horowitz is an artist, actor, writer, filmmaker, comic, and internet celebrity based in Los Angeles, California....

 to assist in the writing and guest booking of 'The Me And You Show', an interactive exhibition, broadcast live on the internet from The Hayward Gallery

Hayward Gallery

The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre, part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames, in central London, England. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings and also the Royal National Theatre and British Film Institute...

 in London.

Postcard To Brooke

Following on from both of these experiences, Guy-Watkins began work on a 'quest' entitled 'Postcard To Brooke

Postcard To Brooke

Postcard To Brooke is a film based artwork by British artist and writer Oliver Guy-Watkins that began in April 2008- Outline :Since April 2008, Oliver Guy-Watkins has undertaken to film an unlimited amount of individuals reading the poem Doubts by Rupert Brooke...

', a project based around the poem Doubts by English poet Rupert Brooke

Rupert Brooke

Rupert Chawner Brooke was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially The Soldier...

. The work involves Guy-Watkins filming individuals reading the verse to camera, those who have contributed include Nobel Prize winning poet Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...

, artists Patrick Brill

Patrick Brill

Patrick Brill, better known by his pseudonym Bob and Roberta Smith is a British contemporary artist.-Life and work:Brill graduated from University of Reading, Brill was awarded a scholarship at The British School at Rome while still an undergraduate...

 (Bob And Roberta Smith), Adham Faramawy

Adham Faramawy

Adham Faramawy is a London-based artist of Egyptian descent. He studied at both The Slade School of Fine Art and The Royal Academy and is affiliated with the !WOWOW! group....

, Marc Horowitz

Marc Horowitz

Marc Horowitz is an artist, actor, writer, filmmaker, comic, and internet celebrity based in Los Angeles, California....

 and Jessica Voorsanger

Jessica Voorsanger

Jessica Voorsanger, born in New York in 1965, is an American artist and academic, living and working in London. She studied Fine Art at Rhode Island School of Design in Rhode Island before gaining an MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London....

, Mary Archer, actors Ryan Sampson and Glen Conroy, celebrity DJ Jodie Harsh

Jodie Harsh

Jodie Harsh born Jay Clarke Canterbury, Kent in 1985, is a London based DJ and Promoter.-Background:Clarke attended the London College of Fashion...

, comedians Mark Thomas

Mark Thomas

Mark Clifford Thomas is a left-wing English comedian, presenter, political activist and reporter from south London. He first became known as a guest comic on the BBC Radio 1 comedy show The Mary Whitehouse Experience in the late 1980s. He is best known for political stunts on his show, The Mark...

, Tony Allen

Tony Allen (comedian)

Tony Allen is an English comedian and writer. Best known as one of the original "alternative comedians" Tony Allen's artistic career had taken many radical turns before he temporarily abandoned his Speaker's Corner "Full-Frontal Anarchy Platform" in May 1979 for the stage of London's Comedy Store...

, Dylan Moran

Dylan Moran

Dylan Moran is an Irish stand-up comedian, writer, actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his sardonic observational comedy, the UK television sitcom Black Books , and his work with Simon Pegg in Shaun of the Dead and Run Fatboy Run...

, John Seagrave, Media:Chris Neill, Angus Lindsay and Tony Green, authors Patrick McCabe, Victoria Mary Clarke

Victoria Mary Clarke

Victoria Mary Clarke is an Irish journalist and writer. She writes a column for the Sunday Independent. She has also written for The Guardian and the Daily Mail. She is the author of Angel in Disguise?....

, Damain Barr and Ciarán Carson

Ciaran Carson

Ciaran Gerard Carson is a Belfast, Northern Ireland-born poet and novelist.-Early years:Ciaran Carson was born in Belfast into an Irish-speaking family...

, as well as the poet laureate of Vancouver George McWhirter

George McWhirter

George McWhirter is a Northern Irish-Canadian writer, translator, editor, teacher and Vancouver’s first Poet Laureate....

. During the period of March to September 2008, Guy-Watkins filmed these and over one hundred and fifty other individuals for the quest.

Postcard To Brooke was exhibited in 2008 at The Art Car Boot Fair, on Brick Lane, London; Miss Micks in Berlin, The Old Lodge, Minchinhampton Common, Gloucestershire; and The Flat Lake Festival, Clones, Co. Monaghan, Ireland. Guy-Watkins has also documented visits to Dymock

Dymock

Dymock is a small village in the Forest of Dean district of Gloucestershire, England about four miles south of Ledbury, with a population of approx. 300 people....

, the University of Gloucestershire

University of Gloucestershire

The University of Gloucestershire is a university primarily based in Gloucestershire, England, spread over four campuses, three in Cheltenham and one in Gloucester...

 archives and Grantchester

Grantchester

Grantchester is a village on the River Cam or Granta in Cambridgeshire, England. It is listed in the Domesday Book as Grantesete and Grauntsethe...

 in order to research the life of Rupert Brooke.

In October 2008, Guy-Watkins began to use Postcard To Brooke as a means to document groups and individuals that exist within the social fabric of the early 21st Century, by visiting GEAR Projects, a homeless shelter in the English city of Gloucester. During this visit, Guy Watkins filmed a number of individuals who utilize the facilities offered by GEAR Projects, some of these people would also ask to read their own poetry to camera alongside the Rupert Brooke verse Doubts.

During November 2008, Guy-Watkins visited the British Humanist Association

British Humanist Association

The British Humanist Association is an organisation of the United Kingdom which promotes Humanism and represents "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs." The BHA is committed to secularism, human rights, democracy, egalitarianism and mutual respect...

, to document the organizations staff.

Journalism

Guy-Watkins has also written for a number of magazines and held the post of UK Editor for Big Shot Magazine from June 2007.

Dubai Incident

It was widely publicized that Guy-Watkins was detained by Dubai customs officers on a visit to the UAE in late 2008. Articles have claimed that officials searched him after finding balls of mud in his suitcase, and threatened him with arrest, however he was released without charge shortly after.

External links

Postcard To Brooke http://www.postcardtobrooke.blogspot.com/

Postcard To Brooke at The Flat Lake Festival YouTube Film