In The Studio: London
A series of interviews, and photographic study conducted by Hannah Sommer
This first In the Studio edition is a spotlight on working and studying female artists in London. This project introduced me to many talented and brilliant young women and their work. The women I chose to interview are either students or recent graduates who's talents and drive pushes them and their art. As an art student myself, I find it very difficult to have ones art taken seriously while one is still in University. The industry in regards to young artists can be too competitive and exploitive of their talents. I believe in the power and importance of giving platforms to young female artists who strive to make a career of what they learn and love to do which is what I tried to achieve in this project.
Anya Jane Maggee
Anya is a recent costume design graduate from UAL based in London, England.
Hannah Sommer: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
AJM: My name is Anya and I am 22 years old. I recently graduated from The London College of Fashion, UAL, with a First Class Honors BA Degree in Costume Design for Performance. I was born in London and lived in or close to London all my life and now adore working in London with all the opportunities and excitement here. I have been lucky enough to travel a lot and even interned in New York for a while which I also adored. I am super-excited about my working life which is all freelance or short term contracts and have been incredibly lucky to get off to a great start working literally non-stop since the week I finished my final year project at uni!
HS: How did you start making costumes?
AJM: I kind of fell into costume design as it wasn't something I dreamed of doing, because i didn't know it existed. I always wanted to work with clothes, and thought I wanted to be a fashion designer. I was working as an intern with a renowned wedding dress designer and stylist whilst deciding which university course to apply for. She very kindly offered to take a look at my portfolio and told me that I should look into doing costume as opposed to fashion. After looking into the course, that was it! It really made sense to me as I also love literature, and have always loved theatre and film from a young age. I adore analyzing texts and characters within them, which is fundamental to any costume design work. Costume design is about more than just making clothes. It is about creating a piece which tells a character's journey and story.
HS: Who have been your biggest inspirations?
AJM: My inspiration is ever changing as I continue to study artists, designers and people.However, Alexander McQueen has always been a key source of inspiration because his collections exude such history and beauty. I love the dark aesthetic and the way in which McQueen took historical inspiration and made it modernly aspirational. I also have always admired the way in which John Galliano creates narratives to inspire his own collections. Photographer Tim Walker has always been a favorite as his work has such a story behind each image, it is hard not to draw inspiration from it.
HS: What materials and design methods do you work with?
AJM: I really like working with alternative clothing materials such as metal and plastics, which I combine with fabrics to create some unique pieces. I particularly love working with processes which distress and age materials and fabrics, as this can create a really beautiful effects, and can also be very unpredictable, which I think produces an organic outcome, which can be incredibly beneficial to costume design and adding a history to clothes.
HS: What design periods have most influenced your costume work?
AJM: I really love history and historical design - pre 1900. I guess this is where my love of contemporary designers such as Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, John Galliano and Jean Paul Gaultier come into play, as they are known for incorporating historical influences in their own work. I have always admired structured and structural garments, especially corsets, not only because of the silhouette they create, but the stunning and complex construction they can be made from. I particularly love the 18th Century, however in my own design work, I enjoy mixing the historical influence with more contemporary construction techniques and fabrics.
HS: How does your work tackle issues of mental health?
AJM: My graduate project was all about mental health, based around a play dealing with a range of mental health issues including eating disorders and suicide. The ultimate concept behind the work was to illustrate how all-consuming mental health can be, and that it is something that is prominently out of the sufferer's control. I used the play '4.48 Psychosis', by the late Sarah Kane, as inspiration as it highlights the flaws in the mental health system which we see worldwide.
Mental health, the stigma and the political issues that surround it are subjects very close to home. I think it is important to get people talking about it, and to make help more accessible to those who need it.
HS: What challenges/stereotypes do you have to overcome as a woman?
AJM: I have to say I really don't think about my gender in the workplace. I suppose Costume is pretty female-dominated with lots of inspiring women having achieved great things and global recognition due to their immense talent, passion and sheer hard work. But there again there's nothing stopping a man climbing the ladder in Costume and I have already worked with some very talented men alongside the women.
HS: How well do you think women are represented in present day theatre and cinema?
AJM: That's an interesting one...I think it's one step forwards, one step back a lot of the time. For example my last work project for Mary Queen of Scots is about two incredibly strong real women in history but the last film I saw at the cinema, Blade Runner 2049, focuses rather too much on the female role of pleasuring men which felt rather gratuitous and somewhat old-fashioned for such a supposedly ground-breaking concept of a film.
HS: What projects are you currently working on?
AJM: I've just finished working as a trainee on the film 'Mary Queen of Scots' making for the title character, played by Saoirse Ronan. This has been an incredible experience so early on in my career and it taught me so many new practical skills which one can really only acquire 'on the job'. It also gave me some fantastic insights into the film industry as a whole and I adored working with a wonderfully talented team.
My current job is as Costume Assistant on the Christmas TV commercials for Tesco's supermarket, again a fantastic opportunity for me at this stage. After this I've got a few more commercials lined up, as well as some theatre design work for early next year. I'm feeling very lucky to be able to work in various areas of the industry and to get a feel for which direction I want to take in the future.
HS: If you could design any costume fantasy, what would it be?
AJM: I would love to design for a historical film, but with a fanciful theme. Historical pieces, although fascinating to work on, can be quite constraining to design for, as it can be very important to keep ideas as true to the original time period as possible. I feel adding some supernatural themes allows for greater creative license, and allows for deeper creativity. Something like 'Pans Labyrinth' - you have the historical backdrop of Wold War 2, to a story about a magical underworld!
C A T
C A T is an audio, video and performance artist studying at Central Saint Martins in London.
HS: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
C: Northern blood, Yorkshire born. Growing up in the country I spent a lot of my play time outside, in safe little clearings in the woods with my dogs. Singing along on journeys vocal expression has always been a part of my catharsis. I believe in compassion, reflection and exploration of imagination are key to happiness in oneself.
I have always had animals I do rather like plants I think it is important we look after the world we live in. I have aspirations of success, but the drive for that success comes from the desire to help people. I believe that all people as they come of age should learn as much about different peoples beliefs and philosophies in order to conclude how they should live their life and contribute to the world.
HS: As an artist, you are quite interested in multimedia. Tell us about the different mediums and projects you are interested in?
C: I feel as if my identity as an artist comes from method of use rather than the medium itself, and because of this my work could manifest as anything from illustration and painting, to audio installation and video. My work is recognizable by its strong emotional involvement and philosophical ideals matched with surreal and intense color use. For my recent exhibition, which i curated at The Concept London, I chose the title Technology and Ethics - I responded with an installation which was presented as an entertainment like format, a highly stimulating presentation of symbiotic sound and nondescript visuals.I aimed it to be a surreal reality that passed information by encompassing hearing and sight intensely. It’s title “a feeling of ignorance” was in relation to its purpose, to ask if we now require a higher form of stimulation in order to engage with information due to the normalization of an extreme daily influx of vibrant, noisy and distracting news media. It also discusses ideas around internet equality and digital privacy rights through spoken word poetry.
The piece is 20 minutes long and can be watched at : A Feeling of Ignorance - Cat Or
HS: Since you work with a variety of different mediums, how does this help define your artistic style and think creatively?
C: Having no limit on medium means that the concept or emotion I am aiming to convey is the source of value for the work. I believe this is the way art has been evolving over the past 100 years, it’s about challenging people’s perceptions with physical metaphors that represent ideas. Without art, society would become stagnant. This allows me to be much more free and to approach an idea or concept without a pre requisite of what it must be confined to. Images and sound together create a complete multi-sensory memory for the viewer, which is much stronger a experience and will remain in the mind. Voice is an opportunity to express yourself in a raw way that is accessible to all humans as a form of empathy.
HS: What are your motivations and concepts for your videos and performance art?
C: My work represents my mind, and how i see things from my own perception. A lot of my thinking and feeling is socially/philosophically driven and this is translated into a colorful madness. I relate to a lot of humanistic ideals and I believe we should all work to help each other regardless of belief or non belief in monotheistic judgement. I believe we should help each other as a basic means of coexistence, being nice is a means of survival for our species if not anything else. Other parts of my mind are reflected in my work, I have a deep interest in understanding how color can directly and instinctually effect peoples emotions. I myself feel heavily influenced by color and I believe when used in conjunction with symbology can be more powerful than the written word.
HS: Who/what inspires you?
C: People. Culture, diversity. Autonomy, the possibility for infinite action and consequence. Positivity, creativity and catharsis of emotion, power, weakness, ethics, Lady Gaga, Bjork, Noam Chompsky and adoration as art and a form of self expression, makeup, turtles, my parents, the innocence of animals. Cows. Couture, fashion, darling.
HS: What is the most exciting piece you’ve worked on so far?
C: My most exciting work I think for me was something I created last year on at CSM, which was a piece called *Sex+Agressive* I created a harness with images of gay porn adverts and hetero porn adverts and created what I believed to be a physical embodiment of the ways sexual advances/aggression/adverts/culture can make people feel, it had a tight grasp around the groin and hooked up the back making the wearers posture restricted and cramped. when worn it displayed the positive and negative aspects of the sex industry and its influence on people. It also acted as a physical experience if the viewer were to wear it they would have an experience through touch and restriction. Although materialistically different from my other work it taught me a lot about how to physically embody an idea into a human experience, through touch sight and movement. I developed a lot of ideas discovered in this project into some of my most successful works.
HS: In what ways do you think being a woman in the creative industry can be challenging?
C: I believe the larger parts of this I am yet to experience and understand. I am in anticipation of being underestimated. I am excited to prove people wrong. I started creating when I was young and since have always been concerned at the lack of female artists in Art History. The future needs to change this.
HS: How does your art embody concepts of femininity or women’s issues?
C: I think because I am creating work from a feminine perspective it does automatically. Regardless of my gender, my position and appearance in society is as a cis-feminine human who wears a lot of color/glitter/whatever and therefore is received by others as an individual to be observed and conclude about. I am within a section of society with (as many young females will understand) is perceived almost with another set of rules. I feel like game sometimes. I reject this by pushing my self expression further outward, but I guess by presenting myself as who I truly feel I am I am protesting the (occasionally unintentional )oppression I encounter from peoples reactions everyday. this influences my mentality as I notice these behaviors and they are reflected in my work as part of my thought process.
HS: Where do you create the majority of your work?
C: All my ideas are in my Moleskin diaries, which I’ve been keeping consistently since I was 10. For a long time, I have turned my emotions into illustrations and poems in these books as a means of understanding and working though life and mental things. They hold all my juicy concepts as well that then get branched out into bigger projects, but I do make a lot of stuff in bed, I edit all my videos in bed. I love bed. Lying down saves energy to think more. Although my uni studio is where I feel most inspired, theres something about coexistence and interaction with likeminded people that pushes you to keep going.
HS: What are your essentials for a good creative working environment?
C: Definitely your tool set, so you can look at everything and select what you need, pictures and posters random bits of paper on the walls. Images of your dogs to keep you going strong. Stickers. Glitter. Glue sticks and pens of every color, glitter glue. If you decorate your work space and make it more attractive to yourself the more you will find yourself creating in that space. It will be like a self-created dimension where you can see your thoughts. Ooh and post-it notes!!!
HS: Do you have any projects/goals you are currently working towards?
C: Yes! I am currently putting together a response for my next exhibition/event at The Concept London Lee Lewisham. Which is titled Fem Fatale. It is an exhibition which is all about female artists or artists who identify as fem (gender isn’t relevant) getting together to create work that causes discussion and awareness. Topics will be linked to sexual empowerment, what it means to be fem in our society and how people treat you based on this! There will also be performance art, (some real good weird shit) live music and dj-ing/ music performance from yours truly(and a couple others)! Check out @theconceptldn for updates.
Hadiyah Hussain
Hadiyah is a textiles artist studying at Central Saint Martins in London, UK.
HS: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
HH: I’m a 19 year old South Asian girl studying Textile design. My interests lay mainly with exploring culture and heritage; both my own and others. My aim is to educate people through my work in some way, shape or form. My other intents lay in photography, and videography and making small documentary style videos as well as blogging. A good accessory is my weakness in life so I guess If I didn’t study Textiles I would go for jewelry / accessory design … but I cannot handle finely things to safe my life so that would of backfired big time! I also love to travel and explore, soaking up the cultures around the world, educating myself and eating all the good food!
HS: What got you interested in textile making?
HH: I think I always loved to create patterns in drawing. I’m in no way a refined artists, however mark making is something that I think I really do enjoy. I have always been texture based and thats what I love about Textiles. I would always feel the fabrics of my own clothes and look up how they were made and specifically the print or design. My main inspiration is my grandmother who has always loved textiles and hand crafts, she gave me my first knitting needles and kept patterns I had created when I was 5/6 years old in her diaries. She encourages me and really got me into the the skill and craft of Textiles.
HS: Who are your biggest influences?
HH: Apart from my grandmother I would have to say designers such as Yayoi Kusama and Zandra Rhodes. I also draw my inferences from Pakistan and India as well as using the fashion industry as a source of constant research point.
HS: How does your work reflect your South Asian heritage?
HH: With the work that I produced last year I really wanted to focus on this idea of honor in my culture and how it can be warped into this ideology that leads to tragedy for so many women in South Asia. I wanted to show the struggles women go through such as, honor killings, child marriages, arranged marriages and the abuse that comes from them. It was a dark subject but It was something that I had never had the opportunity to work with before and it’s a subject close to me.
HS: How is your work produced?
HH: I mainly work by collaging and manipulating photography, turning them into my own pieces. I also collage them by using found materials and creating fabrics and 3D layers. I like to work with print but adding a layer and playing with forms.
HS: What mediums do you like to mix in your textile work?
HH: I love to work with knit and print as well as photography and paints. Collaging them all together to create inspiration for my project, OR create bigger pieces of textile or collage.
HS: What is your design process?
HH: Starting with research, I then move on to either collecting photography that links to my idea or if possible take my own series of photographs or create video clips that depict my thought process. From that I tend to move on to mark making and collaging my own designs or just getting my ideas into some sort of surface. It doesn't necessarily have to make sense or refined. From that I work with transferring things into 3D and color works
HS: What challenges do you face as a female studying art?
HH: Good question & I’LL GET BACK TO YOU ON IT
HS: What upcoming projects / goals are you working towards?
HH: At the moment I’m working with this idea of combining jewelry with my textiles. Looking at creating textiles versions of the Indian gold pieces that I’ve been brought up wearing and seeing my grandmother and mum wear. It’s a personal project that I’m very excited for. I’m working towards finding my own style in the next few years of my degree and continuing to portray my culture and heritage through my work.
Memunatu Barrie
Memunatu is a fashion textiles student currently studying at Central Saint Martins in London, UK.
HS: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
MB: My name is Memunatu Barrie, I am 19 years old. I am a student studying Textiles Design at Central St Martins. I am a Sierra Leonian born and I was raised for the majority of my childhood in the Netherlands and moved to London 10 years ago.
HS: What got your interested in textile making?
MB: I’ve always loved the arts. As a child I loved to draw. People would always say to me ‘You’re such a good drawer, you’re so good at drawing' so I kept doing it. I also used to play with dolls and Barbies growing up. I used to take off the doll’s clothing and make my own using various materials, scrap bits of fabric and balloons for swimwear that kind of thing it used to annoy my mum but I kept doing it anyways. At school we would have design and technology with a rotation. One week I would do wood work , the next it was making puppets, painting and one week we would have crafting where we would use fabrics. I don’t remember what exactly we used to make or do with the fabrics but I do remember that I used to pinch bits to take home to make cloths for my dolls. I kept an interest in the idea of fashion design so at school picked up the closest available course to fashion design, which was textiles design. I enjoyed Textiles so much that I continued with it at college (sixth form), then went on to study on the Fashion and Textiles pathway Foundation at CSM and now I’m in my first year of BA Textiles Design here. It was a natural progression for me and I absolutely love Textiles. More specifically Fashion Textiles!
HS: Who have been your biggest influences?
MB: No one in particular influences me or my work. I am inspired by many and enjoy the work of designers such as Duro Oluwo, Ellie Saab, Stockholder and many many more. I could name one . I don’t have any ‘idols' per say.
HS: How does your textile work explore your identity?
MB: My textiles work explores my identity in the sense that it kind of reveals aspects of my identity which I in person may not . My work is generally bold and colorful and when I work with print generally quite busy ,maybe even chaotic. I feel that in person I may not come across in this way as I feel we all filter ourselves and parts of our identity in order to become socially acceptable or appropriate. I do feel that my work in this sense explores my identity. Apart from that Ive also explored the idea of what forms ones identity previously in my works. Taking an approach much like Oluwo looking at how my heritage, childhood being raised in the Netherlands and settling in London has shaped my idea of my own identity.
HS: What are the differences in art and culture that you’ve seen having lived in Sierra Leone, the Netherlands, and the UK?
MB: I’ve never visited Sierra Leone unfortunately let alone lived there so I can’t really speak much on the Art culture there. All I can say is that I’ve never really come across any art from there until recently, but it depends on what you consider to be art I suppose. Both my grandfathers are from a tribe in Sierra Leone called the Fulah also known as the Fulani and my Grandmothers from a tribe called the Timini. Portraits of the Fulani peoples hairstyles and culture have recently been circulating the web and media and become a popular topic so I guess from this aspect that Sierra Leone is slowly becoming more recognized in terms of Art amongst more well known countries in the west of Africa such as Nigeria. I moved out of the Netherlands say 10 years ago and at the age of 9 wasn’t really visiting any galleries. The art we did look at at school was classical, Van Gogh that kind of thing. I also come from a very small town in the Netherlands called Zwolle. There wasn’t really much going on back then in terms of art . I don’t know about now.
HS: How do you use color to express your work?
MB: Color, particularly bold and bright colors is something I often use in my work. I think of the mood I am trying to emote through my work and select colors which I believe can convey these.
HS: What challenges and stereotypes do you face as a woman in the creative field?
MB: I feel that the Textiles industry in terms of designers is female dominated. Some might see Textiles design as something which is only female or feminine I think that’s an issue. In terms of stereotypes I guess some might say I am fulfilling it. You know a “female doing something feminine". I don’t know if I answered the question, but I hope you get what I’m trying to say.
HS: What materials do you enjoy working with?
MB: I enjoy working with found materials, apart from that I enjoy working with anything which isn’t very intricate and small. I like working with big chunky yarns, textured fabrics that kind of thing.
HS: What is your design process?
MB: Design for me always starts with an idea. It could be anything random . If I still like the idea the next day... I write it down . I would then do a little bit of research and create something visual out of it, most likely a collage. I start to draw, do some more research then begin to focus on textures / colors or anything inspiring from my research and then I begin to create tactile responses to my research an just experiment with scale, shape, texture, color until I am pleased with whatever comes out of the process.
HS: What projects/ goals are your currently working towards?
MB: I’m not working on anything specifically right now. I’ve just started on my BA so everything right now is about developing technical skills before we (students/aspiring designers) can get into really designing. I will be working on something soon though, and through that work I would really like to explore the idea of culture, identity, experiences and social issues and interactions more.
Talitha Bell
Talitha is a photographer and artist earning her BA in Photography at the University of Westminster in London, UK.
HS: Tell us a little bit about yourself…
TB: Umm... I’m a human on this Earth planet but not from this planet, I sometimes get homesick for Neptune where I used to ride my giant Attacus Moth with a saddle over the purple dunes of my hometown.
Life on Earth is good but there are certain things you can’t do here, like people don’t like it when I read their minds.
But ja, I live in North London where I haunt the Heath dressed in black with my big scruffy white dog.
HS: What got you interested in photography?
TB: I’ve always been interested in making images. I’ve dabbled in various different kinds of image making processes. I wouldn't say I’m stuck on just photography but I think its a good baseline for other things to grow from. It’s good to have solid technical ability and knowledge firstly and then you can throw all the creative dreamy bits at it. Working in a photographic darkroom is an alchemical process and requires basic scientific understanding. Beyond that I feel the stories I want to tell are ones that straddle this reality and the next, the hidden, the unseen, the mythological, bizarre and uncanny. Photography and film as a medium are perfect for me to tell these stories. I wish I had better drawing abilities because I have so much crazy stuff in my head! Photography is my way of drawing the pictures in my head.
HS: How would you define your photographic style?
TB: I’m not sure I have a specific style or at least a definable one. Not sure if thats a bad thing. I guess the themes I work with are metaphysical. And conceptually perhaps Kantian in nature.
HS: What are your inspirations for your surrealist work?
TB: I guess you could say Im a neo-surrealist but really I don't want to hold any label as there are elements of my work that are very dadaist, abstract and symbolist. The futurists were pretty amazing too, though it’s a pity Marinetti was such a fascist. But to answer your question my inspirations mainly come from dreams. I’m a big dreamer, ha! I mean at night time dreaming. For quite some time I’ve had long, epic, vivid dreams which I remember more often than not. Ive always felt that I live two lives and my sleep is very important to me because its when I travel to see my other family and friends. Sometimes I just want to stay there and not come back. This realm is so tricky but I understand the work that I need to do here now.
Other than that I love reading books! Im quite prone to the sci-fi and horror genre. I also find humans interesting, they talk nonsense mostly but some of them are really interesting, usually not the ones you would think!
HS: What other mediums and forms of art do you work with besides still image?
TB: At the moment, I’m making a film about spirits that materialize and dematerialize in strange places, it’s not a serious thing at all it’s just crazy, weird fun! I’m shooting it in a green screen studio and gonna edit the whole thing together with music and some trippy visuals. Its super colorful! Like less isn't more, more is more! I have a fashion design background and I used to have my own lil indie label. So I now make costumes for my shoots. Ive also been doing a bit of performance recently. I was a writhing maggot in the new Nick Knight and Gareth Pugh SS18 fashion film and I also played a Witch in a cult horror film House Of Violent Desires which comes out this year. Movement and dance are definitely important to my work as well as music and sound.
HS: What technology and experimental processes do you like working with?
TB: I like to use both analog and digital platforms and wholeheartedly will advocate for both. A lot of people are stuck on either one or the other and thats fine for them but for me they each can give me different things so I generally swap around. For my film I’m using a Canon XF305 video camera, a 90's era mini DV cam as well as doing portraits on a medium format digital Hasselblad *swoon.
I also recently did a fashion shoot where I shot on film (Bronica Medium format) and hand painted prints then digitally edited. Hand processing your work is really magical. Im teaching myself 'After Effects' post production software and would love to one day do something in virtual reality. I guess it’s all experimental for me at this point. Experimenting is learning and I don't think I will ever stop experimenting.
HS: What challenges have you faced as woman in the creative industry?
TB: I think specifically technical based creative industries are largely male dominated. Especially with photography and film most of the camera operators and the people dealing with complex technical tasks are men. I’m not saying they all are obviously, but I've often gotten this feeling on set or in conversation with a male 'techie' that I’m an imposter, like “what's this girl doing here?", gah! and the countless amount of times I've been mansplained technical stuff! Just shut up! I get it! And let’s not forget the term "Camera Man", self explanatory. Haha! Talitha Bell, job title: Camera Man. I love my job as a Camera Man!!