Aggie is a multidisciplinary, feminist artist inspired by females around her and her experience as a woman in today’s world.

Hi Aggie! Can you tell us what challenges you experienced in the creation of your work and how you overcame them?
During the creation of my monoprint series that I’m displaying, I struggled with the theme that I had chosen. I had decided to choose a rather personal theme about a miscarriage that I experienced halfway through last year. I basically wanted to use my art as an outlet and a form of therapy however I did struggle with the subject coming up on a regular basis and I do think I had decided to explore this theme a little too early, however I overcame this. I tried my best to detach myself from the subject and look at it from somebody else’s perspective so that I wouldn’t injure my mental health in the process and I soon realised that my creativity was flowing and it was a lot easier to create these prints. I do also think that the media I’ had chosen ‘d chosen helped me to overcome this too as its quick and imperfect, which was exactly the atmosphere I wanted to create.

How has your practice changed over time?
My art practice has greatly changed since I started studying art at college back in 2018. Initially, I was creating art that looked visually appealing but didn’t have any meaning behind it. Over time I was getting dissatisfied with the work I was creating so I was experimenting with a vast amount of media, e.g. painting, lino printing, crochet/stitching, mixed media, as well as experimenting with different themes. I had never really created art that meant something to me and I knew that was what I wanted to create – art with a meaning. So then came HNC where I pretty much got to do anything I wanted and I did experiment with mediums and themes and during my graded unit I had finally found my thing – feminist art.

What emotions or reactions do you hope viewers experience when they see your artwork?
I hope that my art provokes a conversation. Especially with my FGM duo; I want the viewer to look at the art and contemplate the meaning and think of any other meanings it may have. If people react to my work, whether it’s a negative reaction or a positive, I still think that my work was successful because that’s what art is to me – people taking my work in and reacting to it and talking about it.

Which artists inspire you? Are there non-artistic influences such as literature or music that impact your work?
My main artistic inspirations are from artists such as Tracey Emin, Chandelle Waugh (a recent GSA graduate) and Sarah Lucas, however I derive my main influences from my own experiences as a woman in today’s world, as well as other women’s experiences. Music and poetry also have a huge influence on my art as I sometimes like to include quotes from songs and poems that are relevant to the work that I am creating, you can see this in my monoprint series where I have used different song quotes from a variety of different songs. I am also inspired by issues that affect females that are going on right now in the world such as the FGM problem (the two canvases that I am also displaying are about FGM) and the abortion ban, along with many more.

What advice would you give to artists who are just starting out?
Be patient and experiment. Your work may not turn out the way that you had imagined but that’s okay – just evaluate your mistakes and what went well for you then experiment some more. Your art practice is meant to be a journey so let the art take you on one. Don’t worry about the imperfections because nothing should be ‘“’perfect; perfection doesn’t exist, it’s subjective. Something may be imperfect to you but to someone else it would be absolute perfection.

See Aggie’s work at our HND showcase, Saturate Your Mind, running at Six Foot Gallery until Thursday May 9th. You can also find her on Instagram @art_byaggie