Twin Talks: Melanie and Stephanie Hausberger

05.11.2019 | Art , Blog | BY:

Taking inspiration from Tyrolean mountains and New York, Austrian twin sisters Melanie and Stephanie Hausberger make striking work about womanhood, connection and nature. Twin caught up with the twin sisters to talk about the synchronicity of creativity, New York hang outs and the creative power of two.

Duplications in nature and the female form are subjects that you return to in your works. What are you both drawn to?

Recently we were going though our works we created when we were really young and its striking how figures and the female form always have been the major subject. Being identical twins we always were very much of aware of people judging our differences and compare us. In our work its about the way these figures embody the world, the way they relate to one another. And then of course there is body image, which is another big theme we are interested in since we have a history of struggling with it. 

Also, growing up we never really had access to art museums or gallery, for us getting a magazine like I-D or Vogue, was a big deal. They certainly influenced our aesthetics and style too, the people featured but also the fashion ads and campaigns. We like to add nature since its timeless and also calming. Expressionist artists work such as Kirchner or Otto Mueller also incorporated a lot of natural scenes, and those works are the first ones we were exposed to. Also we grew up in the Alps, being outside in nature was a big part of our childhood. 

But we think our work has many layers and is quite complex sometimes, as art should be, so there is always the possibility to have a different perspective and one can read many things into our work. We like to let the viewer question our work, and we like if its not too obvious.

What does your creative process look like?

We are not working from photographs or pictures, its all out from our imagination and the accumulated input and inspiration. We are really sensitive to colors, patters, atmospheres and we always explore the places we are traveling to, whether for work or pleasure, often wonder how beautiful something is although nobody else seems to notice.

Also, we are very much influenced and inspired by the history and language of painting, we look and read a lot about art, so whether consciously or unconsciously we incorporate all this in our work. 

We love how art opens up new horizons and teaches one to think in different ways. For us, Painting and drawing is our way to reflect and explore everything, and we love how working together on a painting you never quite know what it will come out in the end since you don’t have full control – it can happen that I paint over something my sister just painted so one really has to let go of control. 

On larger drawings we also work on at the same time, with smaller ones we switch around until its finished. 

When it comes to creativity, do you think collaboration is generally more powerful than individual effort?

We find that our collaboration is a huge blessing – unless we have a hard time agreeing on something. We both have a very strong sense of what we want to make, so it can happen that we argue for a while…but that is rare because we instinctively know what the other wants and vice versa, maybe thats a twin thing… In the end every work we make is a teamwork  and we work toward a common vision. So yes, if things run well, a collaborative process can be more powerful than an individual one.

As both individuals and artists your visual identity is very distinct, how did this develop? 

Well, it is probably a mix of many things. The location (in the Tyrolean Alps) we grew up, our early influences, our own curious characters, and of course New York. We both always knew what we liked or disliked aesthetically. Early one we were drawn towards paintings and drawings, even though at that point we had no idea that one can become an artist per se. We both remember always feeling the impulsion to make things, not only to look.  We are very interested in many subjects outside art which eventually inform our work. Aesthetic decisions were always much easier for us than deciding on the mundane things of daily life. Its interesting that even though we spent time apart for longer periods, attending different schools at times, we were always drawn to the same artists and art movements.

What do you see as the relationship between photography and drawing / painting? 

Photography is a quick medium and for us, since we draw very quickly they both are quite similar in their ability to capture impressions and moments. 

Photography has always played a part in our live, shooting each other all these years when growing up and studying in New York. 

We both have this urge to record things, which we used to do through solely drawing before the iPhone came out. Now drawing and photography go side by side. We photograph a lot of inspirations, have separate folders sorted by theme and so on, but when it comes to painting then we try and trust our own instinct and ability to 

You both studied in New York, did the city help to shape or impact your work?

We love NY, its pace and energy perfectly lends itself to our lifestyle. The city definitely shaped our work – we love the New York School artists such as De Kooning, Lee Krassner, Joan Mitchell and also Francesco Clemente and Alex Katz. Those mixed with Austrian and German Expressionism seems to be the base of our work. 

What are your favourite places in New York?

Our regular go to spot has always been Souen, unfortunately there is only one left. Tomoe Sushi has the best sashimi platters, and we love classic New York restaurants more than the new “trendy” ones, such as Odeon, Balthazar or Raoul’s. For drinks in the evenings, when we go its usually Paul’s Baby Grant, Primos or Alley Cat at the Beekman Hotel. Bemelsman’s Bar at the Carlyle Hotel is also really beautiful.

Which other creative duos are you inspired by?

We like what Gert and Uwe Tobias are doing and the Haas Brothers,  and we think there are a couple of Filmmaker duos such as the Dardenne Brothers, which we think make great work together.

What are you working on at the moment, and what are you looking forward to for the rest of the year?

Right now we are preparing work for an upcoming show in Brussels in December. The rest of the year we Milan, where we are excited to work on a new body of work. 

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Public Gallery: “The Redemption of Delilah” by Alexi Marshall

02.05.2019 | Art , Blog | BY:

Cover Image: Your Hair Was Long When We First Met, 2019, Alexi Marshall

In less than a week, London based gallery Public Gallery, will present an exhibition featuring the work of British visual artist Alexi Marshall titled The Redemption of Delilah.

The exhibition, set to open on the 8th of May will reveal a series of work from Marshall exploring and reimagining denigrated women of history through the humanity and nuance that lies in what has been traditionally known as sin. In her work, with the use of print, fabric, drawing and embroidery, the artist invites her viewers for a deeper analysis of condemned female figures, with the story centred around the biblical story of Samson and Delilah. As Delilah’s name has been known to be synonymous with the qualities of being voluptuous and treacherous, her fate following her actions highlighted in the bible has never been revealed, which in turns, forever shows her in a degenerated light.

Throughout the exhibition Marshall highlights the characters’ powers as well as their fallibilities as she explores the internal and external forces and at play.  Each pieces of wrk highlights characters from different narratives including Mexican and Trinidadian folklore that tell stories of tragedies, fate, forgiveness and life and death. 

“At a time when powerful women are still regularly denigrated in contemporary society, Marshall shines a new light on these ‘imperfect female sinners’ offering them a voice beyond the confines of history. These characters from religion and folklore become Marshall’s own personal deities, neither benevolent or malevolent but acting as symbols for fate and the innate wild nature of humanity. ” The exhibition will run its course throughout May at the Public Gallery until the 4th of June. 

Sweetest Downfall, 2019, Alexi Marshall
Jezebels Burden, 2019, Alexi Marshall

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Six artists to discover during Art Brussels

28.04.2019 | Art , Blog | BY:

Cover Image: Autour de nous huile sur bois de Karine Rougier, 103 x 93 cm, 2018

Brussels is increasingly becoming one of the most refreshing European cities in which to discover art. Young spaces like collective Ballon Rouge and the collaborative La Maison de Rendez-Vous are opening new spaces and giving a new dose of oomph to the scene. Last week’s Art Brussels, an annual fair in its 37th edition with 148 galleries, was not too big, not too small – the goldilocks porridge of fairs. Here were six artists worth only a Eurostar away.

Merve Iseri

Turkish painter Merve Iseri was both a focus’ at Balon Rouge’s beautiful peach painted booth at the fair and the subject of a solo show at their downtown space. Her graphic large scale paintings touch on the body and landscape, balancing the figurative with a strong sense of abstraction and colour. An off-modernist breath of fresh air.

vision of holding a star in motion, Merve Iseri
Night Walk, Merve Iseri

Kayode Ojo

One of the NYC’s hottest current artists, Ojo originally emerged from a photographic background which he still balances with a glamorous and intelligent take on sculpture. His mirrored, misused furniture works covered with diamante jewellery or lame dresses were perfectly paired at Martos Gallery’s booth with a sexy large scale images of a trans model.

Boohoo Plus Verity Slinky Plunge Split Maxi Dress, Kayode Ojo
Balenciaga Bootcut, Kayode Ojo

Anicka Yi

Outside of the fair, the highlight of gallery night on Wednesday was Anicka Yi’s incredible show at Gladstone Gallery. Aiming to dissolve the boundaries between the human, animal, and vegetable, the show included sculptures that played with the living and kinetic. Its central room was filled with small animatronic moths flickering inside bulbous sculptural balls accompanied by a flickering electronic sounds.

Anicka Yi: We Have Never Been Individual
Anicka Yi: We Have Never Been Individual

Rubem Valentim

Mendes Wood DM devoted their booth at Art Brussels to Brazilian artists on their roster. It included some stunning paintings and a wood carved sculpture by the late Rubem Valentim, a self-taught artist who fused modernist ideas with the geometry, religion and aesthetic of Brazilian cultures. His Afro-Brazilian references were intentionally political, and the results exude vibrant energy.

Emblema 78, (1978), Rubem Valentim
Emblema-Relevo, (1980) , Rubem Valentim

Hoda Tawakol

It was impossible not to love Egyptian artist Hoda Tawakol’s sculptures at Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde’s booth. Made from tights, synthetic hair, rice, wadding and resin, these fetish-like small nudes are strongly rooted in the legacy of feminist 1970s art and the use of textiles as a loaded material. These gorgeous little fat figures questioned the representation of femininity.

Nude #20 (2019), Hoda Tawakol
Nude #20 (2019), Hoda Tawakol

Karine Rougier

Another off-fair highlight was Karine Rougier’s incredible detailed show at the young Fondation Thalie. Born in Malta and based in Marseille, this show brought together every element of her practise from scrapbook collages to tiny found object sculptures to her surreal miniature paintings. The work was filled with disembodied hands, doses of sex and horror and a dreamlike fantastical brilliance.

Soulever les Frissons, Détail, 38 x 45 cm, huile sur bois, Karine Rougier, 2019

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Cadogan Contemporary: Chance Encounters, Ilana Manolson

27.03.2019 | Art , Blog | BY:

London based gallery Cadogan Contemporary recently teamed up with Canadian painter and botanist Ilana Manolson for the conception of a solo exhibition titled Chance Encounters. Set to open on April 23rd, the exhibition will be Manolson’s debut showcase in the city and will feature over 20 of her acrylic paintings with themes of representation and abstraction presented in ways which challenge traditional depictions of nature in nature in art. 

 A trained botanist, Manolson offers the viewer an intimate and profound knowledge of the natural world , she began painting while working at Canada’s National Park system in Alberta, where her office became a de facto art studio. Eventually, her passion and talent led her to study printmaking and painting at one of America’s most prestigious art schools, The Rhode Island School of Design.

 “I  see being a naturalist and being a painter as being very much related in that you are looking at an environment closely, looking over time and looking for the details that explain the larger whole,” the artist explained. The showcase will make its run throughout mid April and take its bow on the 10th of May.  

Cover Image : Yarrow, 2017; Shape of a trek, 2018; Wind teaser, 2018-19; Hunter, 2019 © Ilana Manolson, courtesy of Cadogan Contemporary

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Doodling with Illustrator Carla Uriarte

05.03.2019 | Art , Blog | BY:

Carla Uriarte’s doodles are dinky, wonky, pinky-plonky. She incorporates scrawls, bubble writing and statements, the catching’s of a conversation, passing thoughts and internal monologues into her drawings of birds, creatures, women and abstract landscapes. Her approach has a way of presenting a female sensibility amongst her make-believe Australiana landscape lilt and intriguing creatures and friendly monsters: some of her work are simply abstract forms that might hold mouths, tongues, teeth, housed in globules of colour and shade. 

They are definitely doodles, in the sense that they seem to be scratched from the surrealism of her mind, yet are brought forth into reality through the statements that neither start nor stop. It almost feels like the images and the words reflect one another: they neither have sharp edges or some no edges at all. Merely soft openings without the need for a cathartic finish.

They are surrealistic, they are eye-catching, they are calming: they are doodles destined to define nothing in particular but open a frame into a world Carla has created for herself and her viewers, invited to enter and interpret as they see fit. 

What do you do for fun, what’s your favourite colour, how did you get into drawing and illustration?

Swim, wine, dance, socialise, paint. Mustard. Natural Instinct. 

What were you good at in school, what were you not so good at?

Sport. Focusing. 

What defines a doodle?

Quick movements without too much effort or thought. 

When you draw, what comes first: the statement or the illustration?

Still unsure. Can’t say. Either or depending on the moment. 

Who is the best doodler in history?

David Shrigley 

In the UK, the government is increasingly moving focus away from the arts, leaving a potential massive gap in young people’s education of art. How important is art to you?

Very IMPORTANT – for obvious reasons. I think that without the education of art it is easy for a young person to think that they cannot make a career out of ART which can cause them to feel forced into working in a field that does not interest them — leading to a life with no passion or pizazz, resentment etc. etc. 

Does Australia enter your work?

The landscape, feelings, people and experiences of wherever I happen to be always enters my work.

Does your mind drift as you draw or does drawing help your mind drift?

I think my mind drifts 24/7. I find that the mediation of drawing brings me inside of my head allowing me to explore the different layers of all that goes on within.

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30 Days 30 Female Artists

26.08.2018 | Art , Blog , Culture | BY:

British cinematographer/screenwriter Molly Manning Walker is a creative best known for using her work to speak up on prominent issues within society from a unique perspective. 

In 2015, Walker collaborated with director Billy Boyd Cape to create a powerful short film titled ‘More Hate Than Fear’ which gave insight on the experience of an unjustly imprisoned graffiti artist as he navigated the first months of his 3 year prison sentence.

Previously, Molly also teamed up with producer Joya Berrow to create the mini-documentary ‘Not With Fire, With Paint’ which explores the impact of the murder of Diego Felipe Beccera — a graphic artist shot in the back by police officers while painting in the streets of Bogota, Colombia during 2011.

Painting by Camilla Rose

The cinematographer is now turning her lens to the subject of rape and is currently working to produce a short film entitled ‘Dark Is Her Shadow’ which is set to explore the emotional, physical and mental traumas and stigmas surrounding sexual assault. “We follow Amy, who is a 16 year-old girl who is trying to resume life after being raped, the day after the incident, she struggles with being provided with little to no guidance while the ghost of her rapist returns to haunt her,” says Walker.

Once a victim of sexual assault herself, she explains that the intention of the film is: “to prevent people from losing eye contact when the word rape is brought up and counteract people from asking victims what we were wearing when we say we were raped.”

In order to raise funds for the film — set to be shot in London this November — Molly has brought together a team of 30 female artists for 30 days of an instagram auction.

Over the span of these thirty days, the donated work of each of these artists will be auctioned off via Walker’s instagram to raise money for the film.

Big Titty Kitty by Netty Hurley

“The film is being funded through Kickstarter and the page will go live on August 29th. Each day we will have a different piece, an image of this piece will go out on instagram, facebook and twitter, the artist will self-evaluate this piece and that will be the starting price. When the image goes up, the followers will have until midnight to bid on each piece. At midnight, the winning bidder will donate to the Kickstarter page and the piece will be marked sold.”

The group of women include illustrator Alice Rosebery-Haynes , music photographer Natalie Wood, portrait photographer Charlotte Ellis, fashion designer Jazz Grant, along with several other poets, painters and talented creatives.

For more information and to get involved, tune in to Walker’s instagram.

Portrait by Charlotte Ellis

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‘Our world is a riot of clashing images, sounds and smells’: Twin meets Nicholas Moore

30.07.2017 | Art , Blog , Culture | BY:

Joy, being a post-bear bearded gay man, Greece and copious sequins: Nicholas Moore is adept at bringing great overarching themes of love and identity and intricate techniques to create artistic works that are unmistakably his; dissecting a whole into independent moments of meaning, then bringing them back together into a final finished piece. Having spent much of his life in Crete, Syros and Athens, the Greek influence is consistently evident in his work, with motifs, soft light and poignant splashes of colour pervading early oil paintings which covered landscapes as well as portraits. Although now London-based, Moore worked from Athens before and during peak times of austerity, witnessing and participating in the artistic revival of the city in spite of the economic crises in the country. The last five years have seen a widening of his approach, working with assemblage and sculpture to offer textured portraits of both individuals and pockets of feeling. As he starts planning solo shows this autumn, Twin caught up with him to discuss ByzantoJapanese Pop, celebrating gay and trans culture and perceptions of masculinity in 2017. 

Your work focusses on mythology and also on portraits of people, I’m interested in how you perceive the relationship between the two – do you find that the two feed and influence each other?

Mythology has been an obsession with me since childhood and it is the core to a lot of what I do. There are times where I make obvious allusions to various stories and myths and others where it informs the work subconsciously as it has been part of my life for so long.  I also have a huge comic book collection dating back to the 30s. These are modern Myths, their continuing success shows us how important such stories are to us.

The figure is an important part of my work however I am hesitant to use the word portraiture as it conjures up a certain type of work that I don’t aspire too. My work is most definitely representative and I’m commissioned to make portraits, however my work is as much interested in portraying, ideas, stories and myths, as much as character and appearance. When I make a portrait of someone, I surround them with objects relating to them and their life. There will be texts, either quotes from favourite songs etc or a stream of conscious memories and associations I have about them. Sometimes in the bigger works I will also have texts directly relating to mythology.

'Stanley', 2014 © Nicholas Moore

‘Stanley’, 2014 © Nicholas Moore

In this context I’m especially interested in how you depict the male body using mythological motifs. Do you feel that perceptions of masculinity have changed in recent times?

These things shift back and forth: just as you think things are all cool and dandy, someone calls you a poof on the streets – I didn’t expect that in 2017 ! Fluid sexuality, gay marriage, tolerance – all these other good things threaten those poor beleaguered straight men, so they fight back. Maybe in Europe and parts of America these perceptions have become more fragmented, and yet each of those fragments have a longer staying power than they once had. There are lots of different tribes in the gay community, I tend to get shunted into the ‘Bear’ community just by virtue of my beard. I am neither particularly fat nor hairy. It’s ridiculous, I’m Post-Bear! I would say the young (and the young at heart) care less about such things.

For your portraits, you often often focus on couples and dualities within one person. What is it about relationships that interests you as a subject?

I think it is more about the contrast between the two that interests me. I don’t paint these couples on the same panel, each individual has his own space, they then play against the other. The Stanley portrait being a good example of that.  On one panel is his more serious business side versus his more playful ‘Hedwig’ role. I hosted a talk in a community collage in NYC about this painting. It was amusing to hear the students coming up with all these stories about who they thought he was. A few students got very involved in imagining his troubled life in the corporate world, and how he would find a release cross dressing at night – I hated to break it to them that, he was in fact a very happy guy, a Mexican silver dealer who just had a large sense of fun and a tad provocative. Who’s to say which version is the truth.

In recent years your focus has moved towards assemblage. What was it about the medium that interested you?

I had made small works using that medium in the 80s, but it wasn’t until my show in Athens in 2008 that I really started showing any. I had seen in the Topkapi museum an Ottoman miniature that was stuck on a page with seemingly random images surrounding it. I liked that, to my uneducated eyes, I could see no connection between the images. At the same time I had my first computer and the overlaying windows of different programs always fascinated me – how more and more disparate images were somehow ok within that context: the screen fixing the random images into one whole.

The Last lighthouse Keeper’s World- The Octopus

Last year I started to make images that were surrounded by borders that have charms, flowers, alphabet beads, etc. in them. This allows me to join disparate images together as if they were part of one of those cross-stitched samplers children used to make.  I can then make larger images, sort of portraits of a person, from lots of seemingly disparate parts. In my series “The Last Lighthouse Keeper” the figure is broken into symbols: a leg is an octopus, an arm is a ray gun, and so on. Our world is not some marvellous minimalist construct but a riot of clashing images sounds and smells.

What are your favourite materials to work with? Do items assume significance once placed within the content of the portrait, or is it because they have significance that you choose them?

I still love working with paint but enjoy combining the different textures of paint, beads, sequins etc., layering different types of colour on top of each other. When I do someone’s portrait I ask them some set questions to get some ideas as to objects I could add, texts I could use, colour. This then governs what materials and objects I choose. In general I am fascinated with the power of objects and the personal history we attach to them. Also the cultural importance objects gain over time.

A previous interview classified your work as ‘Pop art’ – is that a label you feel represents what you do?

I feel ByzantoJapanese Pop is best.

Matt and Lucy

Matt and Lucy, 2015 © Nicholas Moore

More generally speaking, who and what are you influenced by?

Music, Mythology, Matisse, Sex, Humour, Colour and most of all Joy.

You spent a lot of time in Greece over the years, and that’s very present in your work. How would you describe the art scene in Athens at the moment?

Blossoming in adversity: I love Athens. Like everywhere else it’s hard for artists to survive financially. However it’s cheaper than a lot of places to live and work in, assuming of course you are not trying to live off a Greek income. There is the gallery scene which, though abundant, is again like elsewhere – struggling with sales. There is a huge street art scene and a strong sense of political struggle in a lot of the work.

What’s in store for the rest of 2017?

I was just in an exhibition at the Stash GalleryVout-O-Renee’s to raise funds for survivors of Grenfell fire, which has a strong resonance for me as I lost my Mother in a hotel fire. In September I’ll be showing at the Mykonos Biennale and later in September I’m part of a group show in Amherst Massachusetts America. Then I’ll be focussing on upcoming solo shows in Athens and New York.

Nicholas Moore will be on show at the Mykonos Biennale, from 1st September and at Hampden Gallery, Massachusetts from September 10th. 

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Lady Skollie Doesn’t Play By Anybody’s rules

26.03.2017 | Art , Blog | BY:

South African artist Lady Skollie is a creative force to be reckoned with. Born in 1987 Lady Skollie (real name Laura Windvoge) is part of a new generation of artists in South Africa who are working within and against the digital sphere, and her work emanates a captivating and sensual energy across the range of mediums that she works with. Her most recent, and first solo, exhibition ‘Lust Politics’ at the Tyburn Gallery gave the city a riveting introduction to her provocative vision, and followed on from an acclaimed stint at Frieze last year. Twin caught up with Lady Skollie to talk working in South Africa, having a sense of humour and how women are going to lift each other up.

 Growing up, were you always inclined to express yourself visually? How did your aesthetic develop?

When I was about 4 the Zorro franchise was really taking off in South Africa. I crawled underneath my mum’s tables, beds, inside cupboards and covered everything’s underside with wax crayon Z’s – all in different sizes. I remember being terrified that my mother would realize. So I suppose I have always expressed myself visually. When I was younger I thought that to be an artist you needed to paint realistically, and then I understood that my mark making did not need to be mimetic to be respected or convey a message. I took inspiration from Khoisan drawings because of my own Khoisan culture – as a coloured South African, and my work just became hard, fast, fluid.

Where did the name Lady Skollie come from?

Lady Skollie, for me, has been a lesson in identity. I’ve always had these disparate elements of my personality. Not long ago I wore cute 1950s dresses and had ringlets. Although I looked like a lady, inside I felt this urge to rail against authority and challenge the norm. I would talk about sex and paint little dicks on people’s things. Lady Skollie was a performative thing; it was the space where these two things -masculinity and femininity – met.

 Your work is striking and honest, drawing on personal experience. When you started did you ever worry that it wouldn’t resonate with a wider audience?

No, this was never a worry really because I also draw on a range of socio-political issues, like rape, rape culture and plight of women, which are so prevalent within our wider society. They are issues which everyone, even those outside South Africa, should engage with.

It is time for people to feel uncomfortable, and for people to ask themselves very hard questions about how they relate to women, how they treat them, how they talk to them.

LS

Your most recent exhibition was called Lust Politics. Do you think there is always a relationship between the visceral and the political?

Yes, from Monica Lewinsky to Marilyn Monroe to politicians blocking any means for women to have a more equal life or even just reproductive rights. I think there has always been a love hate relationship between politics and lust.

The names of your work are as powerful as the pieces themselves, which comes first when you start to create?

Usually the writing comes first. The works come separately and then I edit and chop to make the writing and the work correlate more.

You’re wrestling with gender, sex and societal structures, why did you want to investigate these ideas in ink and crayon?

I like the tension between a granny-like medium like watercolour and the garish, crayon drawings of sex. Depicting something as visceral as sex with a medium as soft and delicate as watercolour and childlike crayon is thrilling.

Why do you want to use humour in your work?

In South Africa humour is often used a vehicle for social change. People don’t always want to listen if you are being serious. They would rather not listen to preaching and they don’t want to hear about rape stats, HIV stats, etc. I think in some ways I’m pretty funny, so I use humour as a way of unwrapping serious issues in a palatable way – so that people will actually start thinking about change.

Screen Shot 2017-03-26 at 17.24.08

One of your pieces focusses on the ups and downs of competitive sisterhood. As you see it, how can women better enable each other?

Women need to engage with each other about issues; communication is key to a united front, and we need one. At the moment, I definitely feel part of a zeitgeist and movement, especially in South Africa, where women are speaking up against feminine debasement and subjugation. Whether we make a social commentary with watercolours or whether we post an online status – that is what I’m part of. 

How does Johannesburg influence your work?

J’burg pushes you to achieve things you might have only ever thought about; it’s a city that’s totally alive. My surroundings make a big impact on my work, and I think it’s important to address issues around gender and sexuality because Johannesburg, and South Africa in general, is rife with sexual assaults and abuse. Art is an accessible way to bring up the narrative and I think we need to talk about it more and more and more.

Is now an exciting time to be an artist in South Africa?

Being an artist in South Africa right now is very important and very exciting. Finally the international market is catching on, and it’s actually becoming a financially viable option. In J’burg there are a lot of new independent studios opening where people are reclaiming spaces, especially in Troyeville which was a huge centre of resistance during apartheid. Most of Troyeville is studios, huge buildings which were abandoned in the ‘70s and are now being taken over and are really cost-effective. People are now offering funded residencies. As a creative person it’s a real privilege to have a space to make, without the worries of having to generate a huge income to sustain it.

Lady-Skollie-Paw-Paw-print-2016-Watercolour-ink-crayon-on-Fabriano-70-x-50-cm-courtesy-the-artist-Tyburn-Gallery

What are your processes when working? Do you have a specific routine?

It’s difficult to say, because my process entirely varies; I don’t really have a specific routine when it comes to making work. However, usually I think about the image for a long time before making a single mark. Sometimes I write about the work before I create it, which allows me to have a context for it. I listen to a lot of hip hop in the studio; hip hop can take you places and it especially helps me with confidence. 

Who are the artists that inspire you?

I am totally inspired by Athi Patra Ruga’s ability to immerse you into his world without even trying. Also Robert Mapplethorpe, for his beautiful way of shocking and Mary Sibande for her sheer brilliance of identity dynamics.

What’s next for you? And what are you most excited about?

I prefer not to talk about ‘what’s next’. I am in the present; I’m hard, fast, now. I don’t play to anybody’s rules. I am a rebellious person!

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Maripol rocks

11.10.2010 | Art , Blog , Culture , Fashion , Music | BY:

Stylist, creative director, jewellery designer, Polaroid artist, cult film producer, boutique owner: Maripol’s CV reads like a Soho House members list.  But no, this is one woman’s work. Wholly appropriately, then, is it that her first monograph, entitled ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, should be a mixed media scrapbook.

Drawings, designs, Polaroids and writings chart her creative journey from a stint at the famous Fiorucci house to her recent collaboration on a line of accessories with Marc Jacobs.  Thrown into the mix are snapshots from her work with Grace Jones, Deborah Harry and, most notably, Madonna, whose iconic ‘Like a Virgin’ style was Maripol’s brainchild.  This is one seriously covetable coffee table book.

Published by Damiani.

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