ISSUE 012 // SAADIA MEBCHOUR
You can work with different mediums (from print, t-shirts, a puffer coat!, nail decals to glass) so you really don’t limit yourself. But what do you enjoy the most and why?
I love applying things I’ve learnt from different processes to new mediums, it’s pretty cool to see how each project informs the next, even subliminally. I think it’s really important to have an arsenal of tricks up your sleeve, even if just to provide a different perspective to what you’re working on or how you’re making.
In your work you have a couple of recurring symbols (hands, snakes, stars,...) Is there a reason behind it?
It’s funny because if I think back to what I might have been doodling in the margins of my books in class, I’m not sure much has changed. As motifs, I’m definitely interested in the multitude of meanings these hold in art history and symbolism as a whole - to think a whole language lies behind painted fabrics, still life arrangements and composition, and like spoken language, these all vary around the world and the interpretations could be endless. Recently I’ve been learning about hand gestures in iconography and Chironomia. Romans man, doing their Roman things.
How has this year been for your creative process?
I’m not sure what month I’m in <3
What’s an art exhibition you think about often and why?
Kehinde Wiley’s The Yellow Wallpaper was the last exhibition I went to before London went into lockdown, so I’ve been thinking about that show a lot. Otherwise, I’m reminiscing about CWDT shows my friends and I curate, think an exhibition in a house party.
You’re so passionate about so many things - what’s your advice to people who struggle with finding or exploring their passion(s)?
I’d be lying if I said I felt like I had this half figured out. In that same vein, it’s fine to be learning, to have questions and doubts and feel like you’re not getting the hang of something - there’s a reason why seeing the behind the scenes of your favourite film or the first sketches to a painting is so interesting. The mess really makes the cake, and I know that sounds vague and dramatic but life is very vague and dramatic at the moment.