Interview by Eva Coutts
My graduation project is about the concepts of alignment, the inner voice, and the inner child.
Recently I’ve gotten back into making stop motion animations, as I did when I was a child. There’s something magical and satisfying about the medium of stop motion animation.
My graduation project is extremely special to me because it’s like I’ve come full circle. Starting as a child making animations, to losing myself in my teen years, to then exploring myself and other mediums after leaving school, and now coming back to what ultimately makes me happy.
I started off writing poetry about my experience as a trans man and about mental health. I find this extremely healing because it gets all the feelings out, but it also helps others understand and relate to my work. From all of this, I make several different works from all mediums. Some successful, some not. I think stop motion animation works best because it communicates the concepts I’m trying to get across – plus it’s therapeutic to make.
Cassils and Harry Dodge both influence my work because they use multiple mediums to communicate their ideas. They depict positive representation and normalisation of trans bodies in their work – which is something I also do. Seeing these positive depictions of trans people reminds me of before I came out as a trans man and I would watch trans men on YouTube going through their journeys to becoming their authentic selves. These videos really helped me to realise I wasn’t alone in how I was feeling and gave me hope for the future. I hope my artwork can do the same for other people. I think it’s so important for trans youth to see happy trans adults living their best lives.
One highlight would have to be my tutorial with Intermedia visiting artist, Jesse Jones. She made me realise something about my work that I didn’t see before but was doing subconsciously, making a link between the body and sound. This inspired me to make more stop motion animations and was a turning point in my practice.
Art school is more than just tutorials and lectures, it’s about the connections we make with others around us. It doesn’t fit into this traditional idea of the university. I missed going round the studio spaces and talking to others about what we’re making. I think this is why a lot of artists, including myself, have gone back to using traditional mediums like painting and model making - we crave human connection and we feel that more with traditional mediums.
The pandemic really made me think about what makes me happy and what I want to make. This is when I started to make stop motion animations again. I’ve lived alone during most of the lockdowns, so I’ve had lots of space to spread out and build these set-ups for my animations with no distractions.
I would like to give advice to those applying, or currently at art school: do and make what makes you happy. People will try to get you down, but this should push you to be better.
Also, some advice to the queer and trans youth: be the best version of yourself, it doesn’t matter what other people think. People will try to convince you you’re something you’re not; try not to let that get you down and think of the future where you’ll be living your best life.
