Oliver Barstow's artistic research starts with the idea that knowledge is always historically and socially embedded. Using the archive, he works to reveal how the society of the present is entangled in the oppressive structures of the past. The focus of this enquiry are the currents of nationalism and their associated states of belonging, in particular as these manifest in the communications technology and architecture of the twentieth century. Using text, video and print, Barstow is engaged in a constant search for an epistemological shift or opening, working against the scripts of nationalism and its essential association with exile.