There are so many talented and creative people out there that this year we’ve decided to showcase the ones that really catch our eye. First up is Danish fashion illustrator Mia Overgaard.
While training as a fashion designer in Denmarks Designskole in Copenhagen she realised her true passion was in fashion illustration rather than actually creating the pieces, viagra look so focused her talents on design illustration.
Born in Copenhagen in 1978, abortion she now lives in the grand old US of A, where she illustrates for magazines and fashion design firms.
She kindly answered some questions for us, so we could get to know her a little better.
Hi Mia, what are you currently working on?
Right now I am working on a website design for an up and coming Danish designer called Nikoline Liv Andersen. After that I am giving my own website a much needed makeover!
Who are your favourite designers?
This is actually a very hard question for me, because I find that there are so many extremely talented designers in this world, but if I had to mention only one, John Galliano definitely never fails to surprise and amaze me.
With that said Rei Kawakubo has the same effect on me, even though her approach to fashion and design is of a totally opposite tradition. I guess regarding successful design, raising emotion is key for me.
How would you describe your personal style?
I love items that have character and remind me of something from my childhood, both in interior design, in fashion and in getting dressed.
I love thrift stores and spend hours flipping through the clothes and looking at all the things left from another time. I don’t really follow a certain trend, but try dressing out of emotion and mood, rather than putting on whatever the runway predicts.
I love the way children choose to dress when their parents let them pick out what to wear. They follow no rules – but choose their clothes out of emotion. That is inspiring to me.
What or who inspires you?
Music, children, fairy tales, art in general, nature, my life!
Do you think you’ll ever go back to fashion design?
Maybe… probably, I just have to figure out the right approach to it though. I have to have my heart with me.
What do you think of Karl Lagerfeld‘s work as a fashion illustrator?
He is such an icon! But personally I would get bored with having the same look for decades! As for his work as an illustrator, I must say that he has years of experience and he has a great talent for depicting textures. With that said I think that his style is timeless but then again I do not find it contemporary… if that makes any sense at all…??
Yes Mia, it makes sense to us, so does your wonderful, whimsical take on fashion illustration.
With Omnifuss it’s all about engaging with everyday space. No white gallery walls for a backdrop; instead work must respond directly to the space in which it is displayed, approved forming an intimate interaction between art and place and blurring the lines between.
With their second show and seven artists stepping to the challenge, medicine Downstairs was all about domesticity in its rawest state; and where better to stage it but in their own basement flat in Whitechapel? It cannot be said that Sam Hacking and Christopher Patrick, treat the partnership behind Omnifuss, do not live their art. Learning about the lead-up to the exhibition was as intriguing as the work itself: converting your home into an art-space is clearly a major enterprise, particularly when said artwork consists in covering an entire bedroom, object by object, in toilet paper. “We’ve been sleeping under the bed and we cook on a camping stove”, Chris told me proudly.
Of all the pieces, Hacking’s piece – the one with the toilet paper – was perhaps the most striking. With a typewriter and three months devotion, streams of consciousness were typed onto the rolls relating to her own personal engagement with each object the paper would then cover; a labour of love that she joked had slightly un-hinged her, “I haven’t really talked to people in a while”, she apologized. It was with irony that her work formed a white walled space with a twist, to which other artists could respond.
It is in the blurred lines between art and everyday space that all the work excels. Esther Ainsworth, one of the seven artists featured in Downstairs, explained that it is in these subtleties that she likes best to work, “I am particularly interested in manipulating time and place in the pursuit of an individual way of understanding the things that we come into contact with each day” says on her blurb, and in person, told me about an intricate and slightly ornate piece she had done on the pavement outside, that unfortunately could not be seen by night. These are the details of our everyday landscapes that become so familiar they are no longer noticed – blink and you might miss it, but that’s the point.
Omnifuss is a project to watch in the future, expect something novel and refreshing; whatever next?
Categories ,Christopher Patrick, ,Esther Ainsworth, ,Installation, ,Omnifuss, ,Sam Hacking
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