Ocean Dobree

London, UK
ocean.dobree@gmail.com

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 Ocean Dobree (she/they/it) is a multi-discplinary performer and artist, with a pracitce centred in the transformation of space as a means to teleport the viewer to a place or time that is not yet here or there. Paint, material, light, sound and body based performances become a means of storytelling to take the viewer to a new orientation of themselves within a space. May that be one of joy, discovery, struggle or alienation. Ocean draws directly from their lived of experienced of navigating the world through a trans and non-binary body, never falling into place with the rigid categorisation we have become familar with in human society and culture. Alongside their own experience they use research to dive into a larger collective voice of other queer thinkers. Their thesis BEAUTIFUL MOSTERS: An investiagtion into queer post-human dreaming, explores these ideas in great depth through a platheroa of queer and post-human authors, artists and activists. 


Their most recent solo show MEDITATIONS at Salt Space Studios in May 2024, took on a more environmental approach to exploring post-human gesture and imagining. The body of work was formed out of a trip to Southern Spain volunteering at a queer art resdiency, Isla De Crear, followed by a month long residency at Salt Space Studios in Glasgow. The work created for this exhibtion was made through a direct dialogue with the land, using olives as a painting medium and sound recording and photography to documentation moments in time and place. The region in Spain is dominated by mono-culture olive groves that suck the land of its nutrients and bio-diversity leaving a thick sticky clay soil beneath the feet. The work for MEDITATIONS echoes this feeling of the land being sucked of its life, these small traces and glances at this navigation of a single space become gestures for a larger story of environmental destruction. This anthropocentric framework continually poses human and nature at opposition. The transformation of Salt Space’s Gallery encourages the viewer to rethink these connections and become immersed into a more harmonious and caring connection to ecology as they sit and relax into the vocalisations of nature.


As part of their Bachelors Degree at Glasgow School of Art, Ocean recieved a First Class Honours Degree and was awarded the Alice Duncan Prize for their work and commitemmnt to a thought provoking and radical practice. This was followed by winning the Salt Space Graduate award and residency. You can view thier degree showcase here.