Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with artist Katherine Tulloh

All Images: Katherine Tulloh, nurse website courtesy of the artist and Transition Gallery

For a new exhibition of film and drawings at East London’s Transition Gallery, sales Katherine Tulloh explores the possibility of a hidden system of codes within Alchemist drawings and the dream diaries created by Swedish Natural Scientist, Swedenborg. In the aftermath of a crisis of spirituality, Swedenborg began researching -with academic rigour- the possibility of an “‘ultra-terrestrial’ London, a secondary city in which spirits inhabited their past lives.

Amelia’s Magazine spoke to Katherine about her interest in writers who utilise London as a character within their own stories and her visualisation of writing through the moving and static image.

Your exhibition at Transition Gallery explores the dream diaries of the Swedish Naturalist Swedenborg. How did you discover the dream journals?

I went into the Swedenborg Society bookshop out of curiosity, I like that part of town (Bloomsbury). It is also near to where Poe lived in London and The Conway Hall. I loved the imagery in the dream diary and the struggle between reason and imagination.

Previously your illustrations and films have explored the literary landscapes of Poe and Baudelaire – what drew you towards visualising their writings?

They are both writers who utilise the city as a character within their own mythology. They blur the line between the now and another world. There is an atmosphere of insubstantial things, essences and emanations, of beauty as a manifestation of a perpetual beyond. Of smoke, fogs, shimmering obfuscations and of a moon setting sail over the city. Through their absent, distant world, I can better see my own city, with its scuffed, graffiti-layered surfaces—another forest of symbols, veilings and half-read signs, a world of unstable meanings, porous images which flow into each other.

Your exhibitions contain both the static and moving image, how would you describe your relationship to these methods of representation?

The drawn images both in the show and the film are an attempt to crystallise a particular idea or thought. The moving three dimensional fimed sections are more about conjuring up a state of mind or world

What possibilities of expression or narrative does film offer over the static image or vice versa?

I can be more open ended with film. When I’m making the images for my film, I create sets and project light and images into them and take hundreds of pictures, so I often end up with something very different from what I began with, film allows me to juxtapose and arrange images and have more than one thing going on at the same time by appealing to both the eyes and the ears. It also overlays images so someone’s impression of the film is a group of visual memories

The sets of the film resemble Victorian Children’s Theatre, possibly a stage for shadow puppets, is this a design inspired by research or relationship to the themes within the films?

I think my Poe film was more theatrical because his writing is very stagey and melodramatic

Where did you study?

Cambridge University and Chelsea College of Art and Design, I studied English BA and Fine Art Painting, which represents both sides of my work really, the literary ideas and the practical realisation.

Which illustrators, artists or filmakers inspire or are used as reference within your work?

The Quay Brothers, David Lynch, Kiki Smith, Paul Klee, Marcel Proust, Goya, Leonardo Da Vinci, Henry Darger

Have you seen Jan Svankmaker’s Alice? It has a similar enigmatic mood as created by your short films.

Yes, I have seen it and I very much like it so I’ll take that as a compliment.

What do you find interesting about Alchemic Drawings or the relationship between Science and Faith?

I like the use of Heiroglyphic language in Alchemy, the linking of the rational and the irrational and the idea that the smallest thing is linked to the greatest, the idea that the whole universe is a code where everything is both itself and something else.

Watercolours are frequently used within your drawings, what attracts you to the medium?

They’re very bright – I use radiant watercolour inks. also I like their irreversableness

Hermetickal is at Transition Gallery until 21st November.
Opening Times: Friday to Sunday 12-6pm.

Categories ,alchemy, ,angels, ,Bloomsbury, ,Cambridge, ,Cathy Lomax, ,chelsea, ,Conway Hall, ,East London, ,Emanuel Swedenborg, ,Faith, ,hieroglyphics, ,Katherine Tulloh, ,london, ,Poe, ,science, ,spirits, ,Transition Gallery, ,Victorian’s Children’s Theatre, ,watercolours

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Amelia’s Magazine | Favourite Christmas Indie Tunes for 2012: listen to the best here!

christmas olive grove by bex bourne
Christmas Olive Grove by Bex Bourne, based on As A Child I Awoke by Jo Mango.

A hugely successful Christmas tune is the holy grail for many musicians: just think how many times Fairytale of New York has been played. With royalties like that you’d never need to work again, not that this is the only motivating factor for the majority of musicians. It would just be nice, wouldn’t it, to have a song played every year… welcomed back like a much missed friend and enjoyed once more as if it were new. All of which is great because it means that every time the Christmas season swings around there is a host of brilliant new themed tunes to add to the mix, each hoping for a slice of immortality.


One release that is raising money for charity is the Olive Grove Records EP which features three original recordings and a cover of that famous Muppets song One More Sleep ’til Christmas.

For Folk's Sake it's Christmas 2012
For Folk’s Sake it’s Christmas 2012 cover illustrated by Sarah Oxley.

For Folk’s Sake It’s Christmas returns with another album featuring an absolutely stellar mix of tunes by the likes of Goodnight Lenin, Boat to Row and many others I don’t know but probably should. If you buy one thing this season make it this: the hard copy album has long since sold out but you can get the digital version for a piddling £7 and all profits go to the Evelina Children’s Hospital. It’s also worth downloading previous versions too.

Zombie Christmas by Lorna Scobie
Zombie Christmas by Lorna Scobie.

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Other returnees are Tim Wheeler and Emmy the Great, who have created a new video to celebrate their Zombie Christmas, just one track from last year’s fab Christmas album. Armed only with an assortment of decorations they must defend themselves from their foes, mid gig.

Kate Nash adopts that most seasonal of instruments, the sleigh bell, for Faith, her lo fi paen to the end of a tough year. It’s a taster of her new grungey sound, with a bass driven melody that segues into some pretty retro style harmonies.

Holiday Joy by Jacqueline Valencia
Holiday Joy by Jacqueline Valencia.

One of my favourite new tracks this season is a cover of Mary Margaret O’Hara’s Evermore by Cold Specks, a gloriously cosy song that makes me want to curl up next to a roaring log fire.

Tracey Thorn has released a collection of Christmas songs entitled Tinsel & Lights which comes accompanied with an innovative bit of marketing: open the doors on this virtual advent calendar to find a series of links leading to exclusive material. I like Joy… which is a self-penned tale of defiant seasonal celebration and In the Cold Cold Night is suitably frosty.

In the Cold Cold Night by-Christine-Charnock
In the Cold Cold Night by Christine Charnock. Tracey Thorn’s ‘In the Cold, Cold Night’ has dark and mysterious undertones to it which I wanted to reflect in my illustration response. The song creates an atmosphere of longing and loneliness, and a determination to find companionship in whatever way possible.

You can always bank on Darren Hayman for something a bit different: this year’s seasonal ditty concerns Oliver Cromwell‘s efforts to ban the festive occasion. He failed, luckily.

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A really sweet video accompanies Dog is Dead‘s cover of Paul McCartney‘s classic Wonderful Christmastime.

Dog is Dead - Wonderful Christmastime Music Illustration by Sharon Farrow
Dog is Dead – Wonderful Christmastime by Sharon Farrow. I tried to take elements of the song and I wanted to include several Christmassy things: reindeer, snow, the tree, crackers, along with the humorous elements of the video. Hence the Christmas jumpers and the veneration of the humble (but essential Christmas delight!) brussel sprout. Where would be without them this time of year? The Christmas jumpers are also a nod to the Save the Children Christmas jumper campaign.

Tender Trap‘s Christmas tune Leaving Christmas Day tells the tale of a girl who discovers that her boyfriend is a Creationist Christian.

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Rock band The Hype Theory cover Winter Wonderland with silky female vocals

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The Other Guys is an A Cappella choir from St Andrews University and their Christmas Gets Worse Every Year is a beautifully sung reminder that sometimes nothing beats a classic bit of choral singing at Christmas time.

Christmas Gets Worse Every Year by Suky Goodfellow
Christmas Gets Worse Every Year by Suky Goodfellow.

The Voluntary Butler Scheme have released seasonal melody Quinzhee (Building Us A House Out Of Snow) with a grainy film of wintery figures building an igloo.

Katy Edelsten illustrates The Voluntary Butler Scheme
Katy Edelsten illustrates The Voluntary Butler Scheme – House out of Snow. I wanted to create something that mixed the breezy tone of the song with the simple lyrics, I settled on the castle made of snow because i thought it captured both the the air of the song and the dreamy-Beach Boys-esque haze of the lyrics. The colours and naive style were also executed for this reason. 

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Dan Croll gets into the spirit with his cover of Low‘s Just Like Christmas, accompanied by a kitsch video in which he smears his face in chocolate and luxuriates in a bubble bath whilst wearing a woolly jumper and smoking a pipe. Go on, watch it. It’s Christmas time everyone! Enjoy x

Katy Edelsten illustrates Dan Croll - 'Just Like Christmas'
Katy Edelsten illustrates Dan Croll – Just Like Christmas. I was inspired by the artist himself- as the video is pretty captivating! I wanted something quite whimsical, with no line breaks, as the lyrics repeat and continue. I used a continuous line, in conjunction with pale colours, to depict the artist as Father Christmas. Inspired by the song (and Movember perhaps) I incorporated the song title into Dan Croll’s beard.

Light the Night by Roshni Annia
Inspired by Light the Night to accompany the new film The Snowman and The Snowdog by Roshni Annia.

Categories ,2012, ,A Cappella, ,As A Child I Awoke, ,Bex Bourne, ,Boat to Row, ,Choir, ,Choral, ,Christine Charnock, ,Christmas, ,Christmas Gets Worse Every Year, ,Cold Specks, ,Dan Croll, ,Darren Hayman, ,Dog is Dead, ,Evelina Children’s Hospital, ,Evermore, ,Fairytale of New York, ,Faith, ,folk, ,For Folk’s Sake It’s Christmas, ,Goodnight Lenin, ,In the Cold Cold Night, ,Indie, ,Jacqueline Valencia, ,Jo Mango, ,Joy, ,Just Like Christmas, ,Kate Nash, ,Katy Edelsten, ,Leaving Christmas Day, ,Light the Night, ,Lorna Scobie, ,low, ,Mary Margaret O’Hara, ,Muppets, ,Olive Grove Records EP, ,Oliver Cromwell, ,One More Sleep ’til Christmas, ,Paul McCartney, ,Quinzhee (Building Us A House Out Of Snow), ,Roshni Annia, ,Sarah Oxley, ,Save The Children, ,Sharon Farrow, ,St Andrews University, ,Suky Goodfellow, ,Tender Trap, ,The Hype Theory, ,The Other Guys, ,The Snowman and The Snowdog, ,The Voluntary Butler Scheme, ,Tim Wheeler and Emmy the Great, ,Tinsel & Lights, ,Tracey Thorn, ,Tunes, ,Winter Wonderland, ,Wonderful Christmastime, ,Zombie Christmas

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