Lauren Wilcox - AW23

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AW23-008 · INTERVIEW BY STEPHEN COX

Participating in the act of small talk will forever be a challenge for me, generally I’m not bothered about what someone thinks of the weather or what they watched last night on Netflix. What’s fascinating about people is understanding the layers which make them who they are, their opinions, their up bringing and their ideas. Art, in whatever form, becomes special and takes on new meaning when you dive beyond the surface and start to think about why choices were made. Thinking about what is actually being conveyed presents opportunities for connection and emotion.

Lauren Wilcox is an unbelievably multi-talented and multi-layered artist and designer, my conversation with her has introduced me to new ideas and thoughts not only to how I view her work but others too. Small talk is built out of a tradition of politeness and whilst it’s clear that Lauren rejects the pressures of tradition her ability to express and commentate through layering in her pieces is done so with such decorum and class. Lauren’s work is eclectic and the way she collates, collages and channels her ideas, opinions and tastes which make her who she is, is an inspiration.

I spoke with Lauren to find out a bit about her story, work and what inspires her.

SC: Tell me a bit about yourself, how did you get to where you are right now, I read earlier that you trained in architecture? Is that right?

LW: I have an education in between interior design and architecture, I can’t call myself an architect by any means, but I do have some training. It's a little more technical than interior design, but it's not quite as technical as the architecture education that practicing professionals might have. I think it gave me a really strong design education in the sense that I can always circle back to it, a foundation if you like.

SC: Why didn't you pursue it (architecture) further?

LW: This goes back a little further, my Dad is a furniture designer and I always like to credit him with fostering a sense of design and art in me. I don’t think I realized it was such a privilege to have a supportive family when it comes to creative careers until I got to design school. Historically, going to art school is kind of a rebellious thing, there’s people still clinging onto the starving artist narrative, which is unfortunately a valid one. I felt blessed, not everyone's families were supportive of them taking a creative career path but I had seen my dad do it and support a family of five with his career.

I had a lot of encouragement in that era, we tossed around so many ideas. My dad thought I would be a great Jewellery designer or something along those lines, I was really into fashion but I started to realise that in the fashion industry you either make it big, or not at all. I still wanted to be able to support myself. I loved painting from the get-go and thought about taking up fine art, however, when I really started to think about it, I wanted to do something I could enjoy for the rest of my life as a career. Something which I loved that could also make me enough money to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle.

I started attending a community college, close to home and got a fine art and design Associates, this included a ton of art history and a lot of the fundamentals like figure drawing or colour theory. I learned so much on top of what was already fostered in my younger years and throughout school. I then decided, actually I always knew I didn't want to stay in my hometown, whilst I know that's a pretty cliché art kid dream, once I had a little bit more money and was able to secure a few more scholarships, I moved to Seattle. At this point I had settled on Interior Design.

I settled on Interior Design because it was something that I thought could really scratch the itch of fine art and composition, colour, texture and materiality, but could also be a marketable creative field. When I was looking at different programs in different schools I didn't even know interior architecture existed as a career path, it really was a sweet spot between the more technical architecture route and decorative interiors.

SC: Why Seattle?

LW: It was a mix. My now partner and I were together at the time, and he had come out here for a job, I had spent a lot of time visiting but had never really had Seattle on my radar. I had my cliche art school dream of going to California, pursuing an education there, living in the Sunshine State, then a lot of those doors started closing.

I ended up being introduced to Cornish College of the Arts which is where I ended up getting my BFA in Interior Architecture. It was perfect. It's a small school in the middle of a city, it's a very unique format, founded by a woman over a hundred years ago and has a great story. I really connected with the Interior Architecture program and their teaching style.

SC: When I look at your work, and I guess this influenced by listening to your story, you have this ability to curate and combine different art forms, you have an amazing eye for composition which feeds through into interiors and even down to say your Instagram feed. It’s almost an ability to collage all of these things together, a method which of course features heavily in your work, tell me a bit about that?

LW: Slightly going back to your first question, I've been in the creative field professionally for a while now and I've been a creative my entire life. I still have a hard time summarising in a quick title who I am or what I do. I think I've settled on Designer and Illustrator, but collage is something that's been consistent through my creative practice for as long as I can remember. I had an elementary school art class that first introduced me to the concept of collage, it’s a pretty common elementary school creative practice because it's super accessible and there's really no wrong way to do it.

Ever since then, I've found it as a consistent in my practice, during the Tumblr days, I don't know if you remember those? I found a little bit of online success and interest in my collages that I would upload. At the time it was very moody, very angsty and so that was step two of expressing myself through this technique.

Then, when I was at that point of deciding career-wise where I'm going to go, I thought of interiors as a life size collage. You're working with all the same elements, but in a more robust 3D format. On paper I'm thinking about textures, I'm thinking about colour, I'm thinking about symbolism with objects, I'm thinking about how they work cohesively together. Interiors are a life-sized version of that. You're balancing furniture elements, you're balancing lighting and what mood it's provoking. You're thinking about colour and layering and all sorts of things, pillows and texture. I think it made sense to me in addition to my dad being in the furniture industry, it was something that I was familiar with.

SC: I feel like layering is this consistent, the process of collaging or interiors obviously aligns with this, but looking further all the things that make up your decisions and choices, then right through to specifying a job title. You’re a multi-layered, multi-talented creative and it’s unique to find someone who can sit across all these different practices and deliver them to such a high standard, whether that’s photography or a specific artistic technique. I know this such an obvious question, but it is a great question which i’m sure plays into the above narrative of layering. In terms of your inspiration, where do you look for it, whether that's people, places or maybe a specific platform?

LW: It is obvious, but it's such a good question. I think diving into art history back in my undergraduate times and focusing on the Baroque Era or the Renaissance, in fact, all of these really ornate time periods for opulence and wealth, ornamentation for the sake of ornamentation is really fascinating to me. I pull that into the clothes that I wear and the eclecticism of how my house is decorated. A lot of my collage artwork focuses on these kind of renaissance figures and the sense of wealth coupled with ironic elements that come along with that, how society is ridiculous, how it's been ridiculous, and it will continue to be ridiculous in different ways. That kind of time period of art is really inspiring to me, even the colour palettes of skin tone and beige ruffled curtains or soft florals.

There's also someone I reference all the time, one of Picasso's scandalous lovers, Dora Maar. She was one of his many lovers but was also a photographer and a collage artist in her own right. She had a very unique style and did a lot of black and white film photography which was then used, cut up and manipulated for her collage work.

I reference her all the time, in fact she's my desktop background. She photographed a lot of female figures and manipulated their figures which I do in my work. I find her work inspiring, she was also multi-dimensional, very introspective and kind of moody. She talked about mental health as much as you could in that time period, she’s very inspiring to me.

SC: A pioneer?

LW: Exactly. A lot of my work focuses on religion and human autonomy, specifically being a woman in society and unlearning some of the religious structures that I was brought up with. She fights against female societal stereotype in her work and I feel like we have the same spirit in some ways.

SC: There’s an obvious parallel to draw between your work, but for me at least, it’s not an obvious source. I love that answer. I also love the reason that what makes her special to you is those parallels and being able to resonate with her ideas and experiences, that connection through shared thoughts or opinion.

Strong female figures are a common theme in your answers and this topic is an ever-present theme in today’s society. Why do you think that is?

LW: Great question. I was raised in a really religious home but at the same time, like I talked about, a very creative focused and encouraging space. It was an interesting dichotomy, growing up between this side of encouragement to be an individual while also combined with a strong religious structure. A lot of teachings in the Christian religious structure have this idea that the male is the head of the household and there’s shame surrounding sexuality or expression. That never quite sat right with me and I think my work has always pushed against that

Specifically referencing, my ‘Brown Bag Collection’ at a surface level, you're looking at female figures with this tantalizing, alluring sense. It looks soft, very feminine, very digestible, a little bit racy. I feel like to the male gaze it can be lost, they're taking something from it comparative to a female or more feminine energy. What I'm really trying to depict is taking back a sense of autonomy, bodily autonomy. Especially in the movement of Roe v. Wade being overturned in the United States, pushing against this religious structure that women specifically don't have autonomy over their body or their sexuality.

I wanted to incorporate this nonchalant-ness, this quiet confidence of these female figures. There's one piece specifically, it's a woman holding up a blanket and behind it I've layered this bonfire, this burning flame, she's emerging from this seashell form. I think it's a really simple composition, but it shows a quiet rage. It shows a quiet anger and that's what a lot of these pieces embody.

We haven't talked about shells and shell symbolism, but that's something which has inspired me throughout history. You see seashells, way back when, being a symbol for female genitalia. I wanted to layer shell silhouettes or physical objects into these compositions as another female, feminine element. If you really think about it can make people uncomfortable when they relate it back.

SC: It’s so interesting, what’s wonderful about art, and talking to you first-hand, is when you explore beyond the “Oh, that's nice.” initial reaction, then hear and learn about the reason why. The thought process, X, Y and Z are included because…What's really special is this ability to share your experience, opinions, attitude, to have them living and breathing through your work.

LW: For a while I thought my work had to be, to get the point across, I needed to make work that looked angry, or looked frustrated, fed up, or super bold from a normal societal standpoint. But, I think there's also a huge freedom in being soft and being inherently feminine, leaning into that energy while also having something really impactful and powerful to say.

To me, that's a healing element of taking back my power, saying I can be angry, I can be outspoken, I can be disappointed in the system that I am involved in, but I'm still going to make beautiful things. I'm still going to speak what I want to speak, and I'm not going to let anybody tell me how I need to be or how my work needs to be. It’s been healing in a way.

SC: I think one thing that younger people struggle with as well as actually being authentic or true to themselves and not just saying it, is the pressure from older generations. There’s a really nice quote which goes something like ‘Traditions are peer pressure from dead people’. I think in life you have to go through this process of unlearning traditions and questioning whether you believe what you’ve grown up being told, or at least picking the parts you want to believe. You’re hugely inspiring to me, to see work being created which frames how you feel in moment and is authentic to that is special.

“

I can be angry, I can be outspoken, I can be disappointed in the system that I am involved in, but I'm still going to make beautiful things. I'm still going to speak what I want to speak, and I'm not going to let anybody tell me how I need to be or how my work needs to be.

”

I want to ask you a couple of more quick-fire questions, then I ended my last interview with some my advice which I think is a nice way to wrap things up.

LW: Let's do it.

SC: So, music; who’s your favourite artist, what’s your favourite song?

LW: Good question. Someone that I've been listening to recently and that I listened to in High-School all the time is an artist called Trevor Hall. He specifically has a song called Lime Tree that I really love.

SC: Favourite film?

LW: Ooh, another good question. I have friends who know all their favourite directors and their favourite movies. There's one film that I love and have it on DVD and DVDs are not even relevant anymore, but I hold onto it because it's such a good movie. It's called Never Let Me Go. It's a love story, but it's kind of a fucked a up love story. I'm not going to spoil it but I think everybody should watch it.

SC: Favourite city?

LW: I feel like I still have so many places to go but I love LA. I don't know if I could ever live in LA but I love visiting. Maybe it's because every time I'm there, I'm doing something fun and I’m vitamin D deprived. I love the landscape and the pastel colours of the mountains, the hills and the sky, there's always a really creative energy going around. Somewhat chaotic, but it's fun in its own right. So I would say right now, LA.

SC: The penultimate question, what's next for you? What are you working on at the moment?

LW: Do I even have an answer? I don't know. This is a bit longer of an answer, but I think it's a good question tying back to other things that we've talked about. Going back to interiors I worked at some architecture firms for a while and eventually found the niche of lighting design. I'm a practicing lighting designer in the commercial world, I do a lot of office spaces, performance halls and a little bit of hospitality. It's just another subset set of the interiors world but I find a lot of joy in that work.

I could never leave behind any of the more fine art or creative work so I'm finding a way to meld those worlds. I haven’t had a great result yet but I'm doing more editorial illustration with different publications using my collage and illustration work.

I’m also researching sustainability in the world of lighting design and pushing towards a more green direction, wrapping in some of my visuals into that work and partnering with different creatives on creative direction for different product launches, things like that.

It’s a melting pot right now of just doing more and seeing what happens. I am hoping that I can hone down what those end results are, and have a little bit more consistency, but right now I'm thrilled to be doing a little bit of everything.

SC: To end then, any advice?

LW: This is a good question…. We’ve been talking a little bit about social media, every other day I'm like ‘fuck that, who cares about the internet and building a brand’ and this and that, then other days it's like ‘well, it is the world that we live in, and I've made so many great connections and I am always inspired by different creatives online’.

I think trying to have a healthy viewpoint and knowing that you have to do things for you, that feel right to you, that feel authentic to you, otherwise, no matter what you put online, if you're not being authentic to yourself, it really doesn't matter because it's won’t mean anything.

I think self-promotion, specifically on the internet, at least for me, is very uncomfortable. It feels very weird. It feels very, maybe self-centred? But it has to be done if you want to grow a certain type of business in the society that we live in right now.

Just don't be worried about it. Put yourself out there, do your thing. People are interested in what you're doing, whether you think they are or not, it's just part of the deal.

To view Lauren’s instagram click here. To view her site here or to view Lauren’s profile here.