Interview: Chantal Goulder

CHANTAL GOULDER is a multimedia artist going into her second year at Slade. Her work explores themes of identity, cultural heritage and the environment. RUBY ANDERSON interviewed her about how her practice has been affected by lockdown. What kind of things had you been making before lockdown started? Before everything cut off, I was doing a big mixture of stuff. I wasn’t focused on one specific medium; things just took their form naturally. At the end of second term, I had started doing a bit more work in the dark room, learning how to enlarge and print from colour negatives. It was really fun – I had a lot of time to experiment. So would you say you were focusing more on exploring mediums than themes this year? Whatever I am making, it is always centred around the key themes of my practice. Most of the work I make is…Continue Reading

Interview: Chantal Goulder

Interview: Poor Mother

POOR MOTHER is a multi-disciplinary artist finishing their first year at the Slade. Their drawings, performances and writing play with ideas of the surreal whilst working with elements of reality. JEAN WATT interviewed them about their practice.  What have you been up to at the moment? I’ve been trying to keep going with art as normal. I’ve also been making T-shirts which has been fun and feels like more of a hobby. It’s made me think about my drawings a lot more. In terms of reading, I’ve mostly been reading science fiction, which influences my writing. I’ve also been reading a lot about the uncanny as an influence for my work about surreality. It’s almost the opposite [of surreality]. The uncanny kind of shakes your reality and forces you to acknowledge something out of your control but surreality is making you accustomed to weirdness and surreal situations.  What work have you been…Continue Reading

Interview: Poor Mother

Interview: biogal_

biogal_, also known as Jamie Cottle, is a non-binary transfemme interdisciplinary artist who studies English at UCL. Shelby de Rond interviewed them about their practices. What have you been up to at the moment? I’ve recently moved back up to London with my girlfriend. We’ve been trying to protest as much as we can, doing a little bit of organising, and then we’ve also just been chilling out, watching old campy B-movies and trying to spend some time together because we weren’t together over lockdown. That sounds really nice. Have you been able to work much with your artistic side by creating anything recently? Yeah, I’m constantly Facetuning; that’s something I’ve never really stopped doing. The great thing about it is that it’s all mobile so I can just take a photo, Facetune it and get going. I’m quite lucky compared to some other artist’s processes; my process is often…Continue Reading

Interview: biogal_

Interview: Jin Wei

JIN WEI is completing his Sculpture MA at the Slade following a BA at the Glasgow School of Art. He works across the disciplines of sculpture, drawing and textiles, centring his investigations around the body. JEAN WATT interviewed him about his practice.  What have you been doing at the moment during lockdown? I started growing plants on my balcony. A lot. The process of caring and researching is very meditative. I am also reading Escapism by Yi-Fu Tuan, a Chinese-American geographer. He talks about this ‘middle landscape’, which could be a garden, theme park or shopping mall. These places become the destination for escaping to another reality, which seems to be very relevant to what we are experiencing now. Your work seems to be inspired by the natural world, has growing these plants influenced that? The shapes of [my embroidery] are very organic. I think nature has always been my…Continue Reading

Interview: Jin Wei

Interview: Emily Webb

EMILY WEBB is a multi-disciplinary artist in her third year at the Slade. She is a painter, printmaker, writer, and music-maker. JEAN WATT interviewed her about her practice.  What have you been up to at the moment? I’ve been finding it quite hard to do art to be honest, and a lot of my stuff had to be left at the Slade before the lockdown. So I’ve been playing a lot of my harp because I have so much free time at the moment. How long have you been playing the harp? I started learning in January, so not long, but it’s a really fun instrument to make noises with, freestyle; it’s quite an intuitive instrument. And because you hug it, it’s a really physical experience. I find it super relaxing, you can just play it for hours and you forget. I’ve also done some radio shows with harp on…Continue Reading

Interview: Emily Webb

Slowing Down

JEAN WATT speaks with four creatives who are making bespoke and up-cycled clothing to explore how fashion is slowing down, becoming more personal and more sustainable. Bespoke and commission based brands have been growing in popularity since the dawn of ‘slow fashion’, a term coined by Kate Fletcher in 2007. Combatting the wide-ranging negative effects of the fashion industry, this movement encourages more sustainable work practices and a more personal experience of buying and owning clothes. Artists and creators are up-cycling clothing and fabrics to create unique, handmade pieces which take in to account the resources and processes that go into their production. With many people stuck at home at the moment and feeling inspired to take up their own making as well as buying from smaller businesses, will this lockdown period speed up the progress of slow fashion? I spoke with four creatives about their work and their relationship…Continue Reading

Slowing Down

In Conversation with Aysha Almoayyed

INNOKA BARTLETT interviews artist Aysha Almoayyed regarding her exhibition piece at the ArtBAB Pavilion. Aysha Almoayyed’s Lost Paradise was showcased at the 2019 Art Bahrain Across Borders (BAB) Pavilion as part of Bahrain’s International Art Fair that took place in March – Manama, Bahrain. Displayed in the pavilion were selected works by thirty of the most creative Bahraini artists. Born in 1988 in Manama, Bahrain, Aysha Almoayyed studied Marketing at Bentley University. She then completed her MFA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths University. Experimenting with mediums including drawing, photography, and installation her artworks explore societal forces in Bahrain and the transformation of the artificial and natural environment. Almoayyed is the youngest recipient of the most renowned art award in Bahrain, the Al Dana Prize. She shares her opinions on contemporary art in Bahraini culture: –Your work is featured in the ArtBAB Pavilion – what is your interpretation of this idea of ‘Bahrain Across Borders’, and how…Continue Reading

In Conversation with Aysha Almoayyed

Disjointed Anatomies

THOMAS NGUYEN interviews Sharon Yip and Magda Tchorek-Bentall, the director and curator of UCL Anatomy Society’s first-ever art exhibition, Disjointed Anatomies. On Saturday 2nd March, the UCL Anatomy Society will be holding its first-ever art exhibition around the theme: ‘Disjointed Anatomies’. For an entire day, the South Cloisters will transform into a curated display of intersectional works from student of all academic backgrounds. Each artwork will showcase a unique interpretation of the anatomical body. Sharon (Exhibition Director) and Magda (Curator) share their thoughts: Talk me through your roles in organising Saturday’s exhibition. Sharon: We started this project last year when I was elected exhibition director at the AGM of the Anatomy Society. This role did not exist before so I’ve had the freedom to make it – just like the exhibition – largely what I wanted it to be. I started thinking about it in June last year and the concept…Continue Reading

Disjointed Anatomies

The Legacies and Memories of Bahrain

INNOKA BARTLETT interviews co-curator of Bahrain Art Week 2018, Kaneka Subberwal. Kaneka Subberwal’s elegant articulations of thought, as revealed in this interview, was reflected in her recent co-curation of Bahrain Art Week 2018. The founder and co-curator of Art Select and Bahrain Art Week discussed the depth and intricacies of ‘Accumulation: Legacy and Memory’, the title and theme of the exhibition. This idea of accumulation unfolded throughout the exhibition, as artworks explored concepts of built up legacies of loss, and the memories of traditional as well as contemporary Bahrain. Kaneka founded Art Select in 2008, an art consultancy and creative platform. ArtBAB (Art Bahrain Across Borders) is Art Select’s flagship enterprise. It is an annual art fair that is aimed at exhibiting Bahrain’s Modern Art movement, tracing its development over the past 50 years. Bahrain Art Week is a project which was generated under ArtBAB. It seems to be cumulative…Continue Reading

The Legacies and Memories of Bahrain

Sonti Ramirez

SONTI RAMIREZ uses photography to explore interlocking urban identities and environments from a micro-perspective.  Upon talking to Sonti Ramirez, I am struck by her exuberant vivacity, which is clearly present in her highly curated and delicate photographs of minority presences. Her interest in photography began very simply, when she purchased an old film camera from Brick Lane. This provided her with a way to begin to visually documenting her local area of Camden – both its historical buildings and its residents. Always driven by a story, she applies the same approach to her work today, as she tries to “figure out people’s identities via spaces”. She explains how she wants to use her photographs to reclaim the concept of “otherness” from its negative connotations, and evoke complexities and details that others tend to not notice. Mainly, her interests lie in the how the spaces we inhabit influence our collective identity, both past and…Continue Reading

Sonti Ramirez

Save Péniche Anako

FLOSSIE WILDBLOOD interviews the team behind Péniche Anako, a Parisian cultural barge facing extinction due to a new wave of gentrification in the French capital.  Paris doesn’t exactly spring to mind as a city with an artistic scene under threat. There seems to be plenty of culture to go around in the City of Light, with its galleries, theatres, opera houses and general aura of romanticism. But beyond stereotype, and a far cry from the Monets and Manets of the Musée D’Orsay and the palatial walls of the Louvre, there exists a different, equally important side to Parisian culture. It’s one that’s more progressive, more accessible, and more reflective of the city’s diversity today – and it’s this that’s currently at risk. This is no longer the city Joni Mitchell sung about as being ‘old and cold and settled in its ways’ in 1971, dominated by tradition and big C ‘Culture’.…Continue Reading

Save Péniche Anako

Tejas Verdes

JESS HOWLEY-WELLS talks to director EMILY LOUIZOU about her upcoming production Tejas Verdes. Fermín Cabal’s 2004 play, Tejas Verdes, is ‘a haunting and compelling piece about humanity’s brutal ability to cause pain and horror.’ The play takes its name from an idyllic Chilean seaside resort adapted into a torture camp during General Pinochets dictatorship, from 1973 to 1990, and focuses on the story of Colorina, ‘one woman … who comes to symbolise the 3,000 who were violently killed’ during this time. Forty-four years after the coup that brought about this regime of terror, UCL alumna and director of Collide Theatre, Emily Louizou, brings the play back to life. It was instantly clear that Louizou’s connection with the text was inseparable from her deep respect for the story it tells, as was her awareness of the necessity to strike a balance between theatricality and sensitivity: ‘You have to be careful with the way that you deal with texts…Continue Reading

Tejas Verdes