socksmagazine - Tumblr blog

[socksmagazine]

An Interview with Logo and Silvia Clo Di Gregorio.

Duo creativo’ composto da due sorelle; sembra uno scioglilingua. Bello! Com’è collaborare in famiglia?

LOGO: collaborare in famiglia funziona solo se hai Silvia Clo come sorella.

CLO: Credo che il rapporto di sorellanza sia il più sincero e nello stesso tempo il più supportivo a livello professionale. Collaborare in famiglia può risultare difficile ma se hai un buon rapporto come lo abbiamo noi diventa un’intesa vincente.

Come nasce Logo? è il tuo primo progetto musicale?

L: LOGO è il mio progetto solista, ma ho avuto altri progetti musicali: ho suonato il basso nei Van Houtens, amici cari, ho avuto un duo in Chile è un gruppo punk in cui ero cantanti. Però è con Logo che sono riuscita a costruire quello che davvero volevo fare. Non è un caso che io sia indipendente al 100%, nonostante diverse proposte. Voglio fare tutto come dico io.

Com’è il vostro processo creativo? Sia musicale che visuale

L: sfrutti diverse tecniche per scrivere canzoni, è la parte più divertente del lavoro dell’autore. Quando inizia ad esserci un'idea la lavoro in studio col mio Producer Simone Waxlife Lanza. Ci divertiamo parecchio. Tutte le canzoni che scrivo sono molto visive, quindi mi visualizzo già una storia, un mood. C: Per me inizia tutto ovviamente dalla musica. I brani di Logo li conosco già dalla genesi, dall’immaginario con cui lei ha costruito l'intero percorso di scrittura e di scelta musicale. Il percorso del videoclip inizia attraverso il concept e le immagini che mi creo nella testa grazie al mio approccio ossessivo nell’ascolto in loop del brano. Così mi creo un immaginario, un mondo visivo e collaborando con i vari reparti del mio team (costumi, trucco, direzione della fotografia, scenografia, coreografia) che accolgono le mie idee sempre con grande entusiasmo e creatività, affiniamo questa visione.

Logo nei luoghi, colori accesi e ambienti eccentrici nel video di Rompompom. Qual è il vostro legame con le location? E’ come se ci venissero raccontate diverse storie in pochi minuti.

C: Le location sono davvero pazzesche. La serra di Villa San Remigio, il Grand Hotel des Illes Borromee, la barca vintage in mezzo al lago, non potevamo davvero chiedere di meglio. Ogni angolo era studiato e ricercato. Sto organizzando per settembre un Festival di Arte e Sostenibilità, Muttolina, proprio perché Verbania ha delle perle così meravigliose ed inesplorate che vale la pena farle conoscere a tutt*.

L: vengono dall'Australia e la Finlandia a sposarsi nel posto dove siamo nate, ne andiamo molto fiere.

Logo, tre album che ti hanno cambiato la vita. L: Enema of The State - Blink -182

    An Awesome wave - Alt-J

    Let Go - Avril Lavigne

C'è un'estetica precisa e forte. Quali sono i vostri riferimenti top?

L: accetto un’estetica che sia nelle mie corde quindi che mi si cuci bene addosso e che dica qualcosa di me. Mi piace il contrasto delicatezza-punk che trovo molto mio, che rende tutto lievemente ironico, come d'altronde lo sono quasi tutti i miei pezzi.

C: Io non ho riferimenti unici, sono un mix di mie passioni dalla storia dell'arte alla letteratura, alla scultura e al cinema. Wim Wenders, Laura Marling, Nanni Moretti, Virginia Woolf, Donna Tartt, Ernst Kirchner, Francesca Woodman, Fiona Apple sono solo alcuni nomi che hanno caratterizzato il mio immaginario.

Collage by SOCKS magazine

[socksmagazine]

An interview with Emerson Snowe

You recently published your new song “Frankenstein”, would you like to tell us the story of this song? Do you feel a little bit like this character? Is this song a clue for a new Ep?

Sure, it feels good to finally have it out. The song was written fairly quickly, then I left it for a few months. Eventually when a few friends told me which songs out of a couple hundred I had written those previous few months, I put a list together. Frankenstein was one of the tracks on the list - so I went back and gave it some retouches. Yeah, it will be apart of a release, an EP. It’s definitely the simplest song out of the one's coming out.

How your musical project started?

I came up with Emerson Snowe when I was 15 years old. It was a way of showing friends my music and to get an honest opinion from them, rather than saying it was my own work. I moved to a new city and did shows under the moniker, then I became apart of a band and Snowe got put on the back-burner. Each year though I would try and do at least one Snowe show.

What are your influences and inspirations?

When I was starting the project I was heavily influenced by the ‘Illinois’ album by Sufjan Stevens and ‘I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning’ by Bright Eyes. Since then it’s gone through whatever I am influenced at the time, for example songwriting by Bradford Cox and his emphasis on the last syllables of his vocal delivery - the simplicity in songwriting of Lou Reed - the power of Patti Smith's live performances and living inside your art. It’s all one thing.

We love the drawings of your songs covers! What is your relationship with the art world?

Thanks - but I don’t have any relationship with the art world - nor do I think I will. Maybe in the future it would be nice having another show - I was apart of a group exhibition a couple years ago. I started doing those line drawings a few years ago, I like having the backdrop of the line faces with myself in them. A continuation from the first EP cover, and single artworks - because everything is just a continuation of my previous work.

Tell us three very significant books for you.

‘Significant’ makes this question a bit more complicated. I guess ‘Just Kids’ by Patti Smith has always been maybe the most influential books in my life. Recently i’ve read a lot of Otessa Moshfegh books, my first being ‘My Year Of Rest And Relaxation’. I’d say that ‘Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim’ by David Sedaris is important to me, because that paved a lot of ground with using humour in my work alongside supreme honesty and almost sadness. ‘I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp’ by Richard Hell is great too.

Where do you live? Which is the relationship with your city? how does it influence your work?

At the moment I live in Berlin - as far as a relationship goes I guess it’s nice being in a  new atmosphere. Although I would say that my songwriting is just as prolific. I don’t go out to bars, which in turn means I don’t interact with new people.

Five albums you would recommend to Socks readers.

Here are some of the most influential albums to me.

WORDS OF WISDOM AND HOPE - Jad Fair and Teenage Fanclub                  ALBUM - Girls                                                                                          ILLIONOIS - Sufjan Stevens                                                                        HORSES - Patti Smith                                                                                  CONEY ISLAND BABY - Lou Reed

Photo by Miriam Marlene Waldner

[socksmagazine]

An interview with Alan Power

Alan, you’re a kind of mystery. We don’t know anything about your story. Would you like to tell me something about yourself, your experience in the world of music and your beginnings?

I like the idea of being a mystery but I can’t claim that was my intention. Because I self-release my music I’m just not very well known. I don’t have much of a story. Nothing special anyway. I grew up in London, I went to art school, I was into music so that’s what I decided to do. I was in a band for a while and we had some minor success but then I had kids young and life took over. I was lucky because when I was 16/17 years old a new wave of guitar music was emerging in the UK. Bands like The Libertines and The Strokes gave birth to a new generation of wannabes and I was one of them. A lot of London based bands came out of that time: The Horrors, Larrikin Love, The Video Nasties and The Arctic Monkeys were among the first bands I saw that totally blew my mind. Ten years later and I’m finally getting my act together. But it makes sense now, I was never going to be in an indie band. I needed to live a little more before I could fully express myself.

I think you’re a complete artist, in every single way, like David Bowie or Marc Bolan was. You don’t stop at the music and the lyrics; you have built a very strong identity in your character. On your website I read a quote by Alexa Chung: “It’s like if Johnny Rotten meets Roy Orbison”. I think this description fits you perfectly. What do you think about this?

Thank you. I’ll take that gladly. I think I know what she means.

I listened to your album, Greatest Hits Vol.1, thousand and thousand times and it seemed to be a real declaration of love for the folk and country music. Your music is a continuous quote from the past but at the same time, it sounds like something totally new. How much do old records affect your work?

Ninety per cent of the music I listen to is older music. I just like the way it sounds. I guess it is, in part, a declaration of my love for the culture. This music moves me very much and I am very grateful for that. People like John Prine, Townes Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen, Gram Parsons and many many more have profoundly deepened my emotional pool. It is timeless. I try to emulate that in my work, for sure.

What’s your favorite old record?

I have no idea to be honest. If I had to say, maybe Tunnel Of Love [Bruce Springsteen] because it reminds me of driving with my wife and kids.

What are your music idols? And what about art, films and books?

I’m a simple man. I’m not particularly cultured like many of my contemporaries. I couldn’t answer this question without it sounding forced, because it would be. I just write songs and they come out how they come out. There’s not much of a process. I don’t get much time to read and watch movies. I have three young kids and a vegetable patch so that keeps me busy when I’m not writing or away recording or playing live.

The first time I saw a picture of you on the internet, I immediately thought of Richard Prince’s series of photos with the Marlboro’s cowboys. If for Richard Prince re-photograph the cowboys of the advertisements wanted to be a sort of criticism of the American ideal, for you it seems to be a celebration of the American style. Dressing like a cowboy defines your character, but you live in the Somerset. Where does your passion for cowboys come from?

I am infatuated with all things American. My grandfather on my mother’s side lived in Florida, and when I was a kid, we went over to see him. It wasn’t the New York or LA experience most people get when they go over there. It was something else. Anyway - that’s a whole story in itself, but I loved it. It was tacky, over the top, bigger, better and more beautiful than anything I’d ever seen. I came back to the UK aged 8/9 and I’ve been American ever since.

The figure of the cowboy is always associated with the freedom and the power of maleness but the cowboy you play is deeply nostalgic and romantic, sometimes even decadent. It’s really amazing this opposition.

This cowboy is from the UK. Which is a totally ridiculous notion in itself. But it allows me to play on the cliché in a way that maybe someone from Texas wouldn’t get away with. It gives me a license to be playful. I often catch myself in the mirror at a show and laugh at the absurdity of it all. Which, for me, is a good headspace to be in. The moment I start taking all of this too seriously is the moment the magic disappears.

Where did you find that beautiful white hat?

I have a few now. One of them I got in a store called Ogg’s Hogan in Preston, Arizona. The rest are just cheap knock offs from online stores.

Your lyrics paint your self-portrait, they reflect perfectly your style. But there’s also a lot of humor in them. It’s like you move down -in a positive sense- the original style of the country music’s lyrics, creating something funny, making them Pop. Prodigal Son is an example. Do you really feel like “A shark in a goldfish bowl”? What does it mean?

“If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.” Oscar Wilde.

There is an expression in English, a big fish in a small pond. Which is perhaps a roll I have, at times, played.

Unfortunately, I’ve never seen your live shows. How would you describe your gigs?

I probably wouldn’t. I am very temperamental on stage. If the magic decides to join me I love it, but if the energy isn’t there and I’m not feeling the room I’m not very good at bringing it back to life. It’s something I’m working on.

Why did you decide to answer my questions?

You seem like a nice person and I enjoyed your questions. I liked the aesthetic of your Instagram page and I reserve a deep love for Italy and the people of Italy, I lived in Milan for two years when I was a student. I hope you’re all doing ok during these uncertain times. I saw Andrea Bocelli singing on the Piazza del Duomo in Milan yesterday and I cried and cried.

[socksmagazine]

In between

È il 1985 ed esce nel Regno Unito My Beautiful Laundrette, diretto da Stephen Feares e scritto dal trentunenne Hanif Kureishi. Il film è destinato a diventare un cult e a far affacciare il suo sceneggiatore ad un successo, che lo porterà a diventare uno dei più importanti scrittori inglesi contemporanei. Siamo in pieno Thatcherismo nella periferia londinese di Battersea, Wandsworth, e vengono presentate sullo schermo le vicende di un giovane pakistano, Omar, di suo zio Nasser e del punk Johnny (interpretato dal giovane Daniel Day-Lewiss tutto ok) con cui Omar ha una relazione. Nonostante le sollecitazioni del padre (giornalista socialista in Pakistan, alcolista che non riesce a tagliarsi le unghie dei piedi da solo a Londra) Omar decide di non andare all’università e di gestire una lavanderia per lo zio, esempio perfetto di self made man che non perde mai l’occasione per fare un brindisi a Margaret Thatcher. Il desiderio di avere un’alternativa concreta e una realizzazione immediata porta Omar a investire tempo e denaro (non proprio suo) nella Laundrette di quartiere, cercando di farla diventare non soltanto una lavanderia accettabile ma un vero e proprio luogo d’incontro di uno tra i tanti e anonimi suburbs londinesi. Il giovane anglo-pakistano si fa aiutare da una conoscenza della scuola, Johnny, frequentatore di una banda di pseudo skinheads, che non accettano proprio benissimo il fatto che il loro leader vada a lavorare per un “paki”. La relazione amorosa tra i due è ripresa con una leggerezza ed ironia tipiche dello stile di Kureishi, molto simile al modo in cui è mostrata quella di Karim e Charlie in The Buddha of Suburbia (primo romanzo di K. del 1990). Ed è proprio la semplicità di questo film ad essere la sua forza propulsiva e disarmante, semplicità che ci rivela che la realtà è molto più complessa di come ce l’hanno raccontata fino ad ora. La lotta sociale, la stratificazione urbana, la nascita del neoliberismo con la sua lampante violenza ma con il suo ottimismo così tangibile, anche se illusorio, sono tutti insieme i catalizzatori e allo stesso tempo i protagonisti di una storia che, in fondo, non ha nulla di straordinario. È un film realizzato in 16 mm, pensato per la Tv e che risente un po’ degli esordi letterari del suo sceneggiatore. Kureishi inizia la sua carriera scrivendo libricini pornografici fino a quando non inizia a comporre opere teatrali per il Royal Court Theater; il suo debutto come commediografo si riflette molto sui suoi personaggi. I quali, di fatto, vengono mostrati quasi come vere e proprie maschere teatrali, predefiniti nel loro stare in between. È nel mezzo Nasser che vorrebbe costringere la figlia a sposare un pakistano ma che ha un’amante inglese, è nel mezzo Johnny che è innamorato di Omar ma che non riesce a ripudiare completamente i suoi amici, e sono nel mezzo Omar e Tania, inglesi di seconda generazione che costituiscono, volenti o nolenti, un nuovo modo di rappresentare la stessa identità inglese. Ed è proprio la raffigurazione di una nuova identità l’immediata novità di questo film. Afferma infatti Kureishi, in un’intervista della British Library: «And so when I did my beautiful laundrette it was the same kind of revolution you might say, that these people have never been portayed before. You had never seen Asian characters really, on the telly or in literature. So one of the things you can do as a writer is  bring in new news. This people are here too. This country is changing, and hello, you know, that’s how creativity develops, by people opening the door to new voices». Trovare, dunque, uno spazio per la rappresentazione è una necessità attuale oggi come allora, in Italia come in Gran Bretagna (forse oggi in Italia un po’ di più). Agli inizi degli anni ‘80 gli inglesi avevano una vera e propria ossessione per il loro impero coloniale e la sua rappresentazione sul grande schermo (nel 1984 esce A passage to India di David Lean); peccato però che i protagonisti siano bianchi (etero ovviamente) e che gli unici indiani che si vedono siano quelli che preparano il curry o il the come dice lo stesso Kureishi sempre in quell’intervista. In filigrana ma lampante è l’immagine della città, totalmente stravolta rispetto alla dimensione che ne aveva la generazione di scrittori precedente. La Bond street di Clarissa Dalloway è lontana. In The Buddha of the Suburbia il punto più estremo in cui si spinge Karim nelle sue peregrinazioni è West Kensington, ancora distante da un centro politico ma anche culturale e sociale. La denuncia di Kureishi inizia con My Beautiful Laundrette ma continua fino a The Dark Album, una critica feroce, sempre irriverente, verso quell’idea di città centralizzata e barocca, come ci ha detto il caro Lewis Mumford (da cui oggi possiamo imparare tanto tanto tanto). T.S. Eliot e Virginia Woolf ma anche, e soprattutto forse, Henry Green, erano loro contro gli altri, in una città che oggi è piccolissima, unici in grado di possedere un’individualità rispetto ad un’indistinta folla omogena. Con Londoners di Maureen Duffy (1983 libro super bello super queer) questa omogeneità inizia a sgretolarsi e a popolare il mondo delle peregrinazioni notturne del/della protagonista del romanzo. Kureishi prende tutti questi elementi e li mescola insieme, facendo di un non-luogo per eccellenza il place to be. Dunque la realtà, ancora una volta, si rivela proteiforme e la convivenza degli individui estremamente problematica. Insomma, per concludere, è nel dialogo tra Tonia e Rechel, all’inaugurazione della lavanderia, che si posiziona lo sguardo sagace di questo narratore che è, finalmente lo dico, in tutto e per tutto dickensiano: due donne di due diverse generazioni, di due diverse classi sociali e che rappresentano due approcci opposti alla vita ma che hanno la stessa ipocrisia e un analogo desiderio di sentirsi libere. Personaggi che nel loro relazionarsi non fanno che criticare al contempo il razzismo, la sinistra borghese che vede immigrati e operai come un’unica idilliaca classe sociale, la stessa comunità pakistana. Grazie quindi Kureishi per la totale assenza di paternalismo, per l’impossibilità di un’assoluzione, per il senso dell’umorismo e per la dolcezza che questo film stringe a sé in maniera indissolubile.

Text by Eugenia Gaudio

[socksmagazine]

An interview with Alessia Stranieri

Alessia is an Italian photographer based in London.

On April 13th on Bandcamp you released, under the name Homeware, a new album, A tiny pot of salt. Would you like telling me about the project and the album? Are they born together?

I would lie if I didn’t admit the album is about a guy. Back-story: it’s 2020, I’m 25, got dumped and found myself single, back on dating apps, started dating this guy who could’ve easily been my dream-love when I was 14 and used to listen to black metal. But quarantine started and he turned out to be an asshole so I found myself locked down, becoming one with the couch, having to deal with my obsessive love disorder and anxiety all by myself. I looked into my laptop and found Garageband. At this point I had never written any music and never used any software, but I guess I really needed something to do so I just started to make one song a day, ish, until I felt completely emptied of what I was feeling for him. ‘Homeware’ is what I feel I am right now during isolation.

You play bass in a band called Blue Tongue Rabbit, can you tell me something more?

The band is definitely the best thing that happened to me in quite some time. I am so lucky to have met these three amazing human beings and to feel such a genuine connection with them. Cal, Caleb and I started playing one year ago as a trio, guitar, bass and electronics, then after a while Cam came along with his terrific drums. Just in the past few months we were starting to play regularly in venues and make our connections etcetera so we can’t wait to go back to it as soon as possible. We are probably going to release our first song soon, but I don’t know any detail yet, just keep an eye on our Instagram page!

You studied photography in Rome but now you have lived in London for a long time . What brought you there and how is your relationship whit the city?

I moved here when Rome was starting to feel tight. I love Rome and it will always be my favourite place in theworld, but after my BA I just felt I had to move. So I came here and got a master’s degree in photography. I deeply love and hate London at the same time. It’s a city that sucks everything out of you and you need to be very careful in getting something in return. There’s so much going on it’s terrifying, but at least for now I feel home here. I know where to go when I feel overwhelmed, I know where to buy good tuna steaks or how fast I need to walk if I wanna catch the last train after a gig. It’s very different from Rome, and I like it.

How did your interest in photography start? Every girl ever goes through a photography phase. My phase just didn’t stop after a few years in high school Iguess, and I don’t even know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing. But if I really have to pinpoint source it’probably because of my family photo albums. I spent my whole childhood with my mom taking photos of every single moment with her compact analogue camera, then going to the studio and getting the films developed and printed and then arranging them in these albums with such care and devotion, I guess it just stuck with me. I have very few memories of my past and I’ve always been scared of time passing, so taking photos and videos it’s probably just a way to keep everything with me until I can.

Can you tell me something about your photographic work? And what are your references?

I think I haven’t yet got to what I’d like my work to be. I got close some time, but not quite. So far my main thing has been fashion, and I love it, but I also hate it. It’s been a weird couple of years of my life where I felt I wasn’t connected anymore with my work. So now I’m giving myself time to understand what I want and what is going on with me. I have a ton of fashion photographers that I love and admire and I’m jealous of, that I could name as a reference, but at the end of the day if I close my eyes and think of what I would like my work to be like it’s always Doug DuBois and Rob Bremner. With time I am getting closer and closer and seeking more and more that feeling of wholesomeness and authenticity and warmth, and I would love for my work to express something like that.

Your photos have appeared in various magazines such as Contributor, KALTBLUT, As-I-am, The disco and Pink trolley. What do these collaborations mean to you?

I love collaborating with magazines! There’s something great about seeing your work amongst other amazing works that just makes me feel very good about myself. At a purely selfish level it’s this feeling of recognition that I am constantly seeking, but I am also genuinely happy to be part of a collection of art and beauty and expression.

What are you listening to at the moment?

Since last year I’ve been forcing myself to listen to one album a day that I’ve never listened to. I started because I hated myself for listening to the same stuff over and over and be stuck in thinking that this genre is better than that one etcetera. So I’ve been listening to all sorts of different things and it’s been great. On my website there’s a list of all the albums I’ve listened to in 2019, and next year I will post the ones I’ve been listening to in 2020. Experimental jazz so far is been a big part of this year, but also a lot of ambient electronic sounds, synths and drum machines.

Is there an album you would like to recommend to Socks readers?

I’ll give you three because I can never choose only one thing. Ricky Eat Acid - Three love songs Dylan Carlson - Conquistador KEYAH/BLU - Sorry, I forgot you were coming

[socksmagazine]

An interview with Claudia Pezzini

An Italian in Cornwall. What made you move there?

I was lucky enough to be sent to the Uk from an early age to practice my English during summer holidays. I started when I was 11 and I was always hosted by local families which really made a difference: I was forced to speak and I could properly immerse myself in the environment. This relationship with the UK carried on for years and when it came to choose a University I decided I was going to move there and I searched for the right course and place to study. That’s when I discovered Falmouth University, one of the top art Universities in the UK. Falmouth is a small town in the Cornish coast; when I came here for my interview after an incredibly long journey (it takes 8 hours from London) I fell in love with the place straight away.  The University is immersed in a subtropical garden and it’s less than 5 minutes away from the beach (by walk!). Falmouth itself is such a precious town. Luckily I was offered a place at the University and have been here for 3 years now. I really couldn’t have made a better choice.

You are an illustrator that focuses on adult narrative. What led you in the direction of drawing and writing stories? Tell us a bit about your path of artistic training.

I should point out that my background is in the humanities. I attended Liceo Classico in Bergamo, my hometown, and had never received proper artistic training. I have always been passionate about art but I was mainly a self-taught “artist”, filling pages and pages of drawings between a Latin and a Greek translation. When I decided that it was no longer just a passion, I researched on the possible art courses and I found Illustration. Illustration combines words and images. The images created, the illustrations, “illustrate” the meaning of the words. They explain the text and complement it but one cannot work without the other: words need images as much as images need words. Having always worked with words, I figured that Illustration was the best compromise and I jumped into it, I applied with what I had and that’s how I started. During these three years of training, I discovered that Illustration is a much broader field than I expected, ranging from editorial to advertising and packaging design but I eventually specialised in adult narrative illustration because my focus is mainly working with stories for adults. I occasionally write my own stories as well but I am still a bit too shy to share them.

Would you mind telling us a bit about your current and future projects?

I am about to graduate as an illustrator so in these last months I have been focusing on finalising everything and putting together a coherent portfolio. I am mainly working on illustrating given stories with surreal atmosphere and metaphorical meaning where I can challenge myself with unusual imagery (Murakami’s stories are my favourites for this!). Along with that, I am still working on more authorial projects. I am aiming at keeping these two paths going at the same time, working on projects with a given brief and some more authorial ones where I get to design the project completely and focus on the graphic design bit as well. The presentation part is crucial for me, I love putting together projects in the shape of little books.

At the moment I am working on a silent narrative (with no text) based on the theme of 'the promise’. I came up with the story and I am now illustrating it… it’s taking its time ahahah

What is your artistic process?

I love traditional illustrations and I think that the quality of a drawing on paper is never the same as the one on a digital tablet. Therefore I always start by drawing traditionally either with pencil or ink pen and I only use the digital programmes as tools to add something after. I scan the drawing at a high resolution and then move to the digital. With the years I have learned how to use Photoshop and Indesign and I discovered the incredible potential they have. I now colour my images only digitally and add textures to give them an organic textural look which is all I am after. I love when the illustrations have that grainy textured print vibe, when you cannot tell if they are digital cause they look entirely traditional.

Where do you draw inspiration from? Who and what inspires you the most?

I am an avid reader and cinephile. I am always on the hunt for inspiration that I draw mainly from photographs, movies and music. Every time I dive into a project I spend a lot of time researching the right mood and the aesthetic, it’s one of my favourite part of the process. I must admit that despite being obviously aware of the trends, I don’t really look much at others illustrators’ work or at least I try not to be influenced as much. I have a very personal relationship with my work and I am a bit stubborn and impulsive, I do things my way. Generally though I have a thing for very crisp and clean design, blues and teals colours, textures and details. Some of my all-time favourites who never fail to inspire me are: Gauguin, Wong Kar-Wai, Japanese printers, Murakami, García Márquez and Evgenia Arbugaveva (this is a recent one, go and check out her photographic series!).

When you think about your future, do you see yourself living abroad or potentially going back to Italy?

When you live in a foreign country for so long you get used to it and it becomes difficult to go back. Falmouth is a chapter in my life and I am now looking for a place to go after where I can live and work. I do feel deeply Italian but I don’t think I will be ready to go back any time soon, I just want to experience living in other countries first. I am still not sure where I will end up, if it will be possible for me to stay in the Uk or move elsewhere but what I know for sure is that I need to find a place that is young-people-friendly and with a vibrant artistic community where I could start off as an illustrator whilst having a part-time job. Both are things that are not so easy to find in Italy, unfortunately.

What are your thoughts on independent projects led by young artists?

I love the fact that young creatives challenge themselves more and more with independent projects. There are some important things to consider though. First of all it’s vital that the team sets a common aim and that there is an equal distribution of the roles from the very beginning cause often the difficulties derive from having people that are not used to working professionally and sticking to deadlines. Ones you have the right team, you can then focus on the actual challenges of independent projects such as budget, promotion, production, technicalities… you name it! It’s a lot to keep track of but I think that our generation has access to more means for network and sharing given the skills we all have with social medias and technology. It’s also very important to keep up the standard and focus on the quality of the project and strong concept to be able to stand out in the crowd and be effective.

Socks thanks you for this collaboration. Did you collaborate with artists before? If so, tell us more about it!

Thank you!! I am honoured to be part of this collaboration! Despite the fact that I work mainly independently, I do really value artistic collaborations and I did collaborate with course mates and friends before. Living in a creative community means that there is constant need of people with different skills so I managed to join projects in many different ways: by making the poster for a film campaign of a friend to taking part in a collective zine with some course mates. In May 2019 me and some course mates set a collaborative exhibition with a common theme in the centre of Falmouth and we ended up creating a proper event with visuals, songwriters, dj’s, graphic designers and photographers from other courses. I then collaborated with a very close friend of mine that studies music on a more authorial and intimate project based around feelings where we responded with music and images to the text we came up for each feeling. That was a difference sort of collaboration, one that you cannot do with anyone but it definitely made me understand how important it is to work as a team especially when you just start your career as a creative.

Good luck Socks!

[socksmagazine]

An interview with IDEA

How IDEA was born? What is your story? I always loved books from the first time I could read. I have always bought books and collected them and used them in so many ways; for inspiration, for dreaming, for information. I used to have a flat share in west London and the owner of the flat was friends with Sarah Lerfel who owned Colette in Paris - she came to our flat in London and saw my books there and asked if I would sell some to her for her new shop called Colette! I was reluctant at first but I went out and found doubles of things I already had then every time I would go to Paris I would take some over. When Dover St Market opened in London, David, my husband, joined me in the business and we opened a store within the store there.

Is there a criterion that you follow to choose the books and magazines you sell? Do you have any trusted places where you can find them?               The only ever criterion there has ever been since day one for me is that I only sell books and magazines I love myself; I always wanted the type of bookshop I would want to go in myself. The type of place that as a teenager I would go and look in even if I couldn’t afford anything; I used to do this as much as possible when I was at school - I went to school in outer London and it was about a 35 minute tube ride into central London. Thursday was late night shopping at that time so I used to regularly go as soon as I could get out of school and go and look in all the exciting stimulating inspirational shops, I particularly loved fashion and books. We have many places we buy from including online, actual physical stores and people come and sell us books too in the office 

What is it like to sell books without having any kind of relationship between you and the buyer? Actually easy, I think there is always a connection, for a start your buyer ultimately likes the book as much as you do so that is already some sort of connection; a shared appreciation of something good/something worth having and treasuring 

Your books seem to be unique pieces, is it difficult to separate from them? Does it happen that you become attached to someone of these books? Sometimes yes very difficult especially if I think I will not ever get another one!

Have you ever collaborated with magazines, artists or publishing houses? If so, what was the most significant? We have collaborated with many magazines and artists notably Self Service, SYSTEM (a lot), MARFA JOURNAL …David Sims, Glen Luchford, Collier Schorr …...

Are there any books you would recommend to young artists? Just look at ones that you are drawn to really but I love the work of Wolfgang Tillmans, Tina Barney, Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky, Fischli Weiss and Michael Schmidt and Juergen Teller 

2020 July