Art Chat with Lola Dupre
Chica Desnuda en la Playa by Lola Dupre
Lola Dupre is a traditional artist in an ever increasing digital world. Using the bare essentials such as paper, scissors, and glue, the Glasgow based artist creates surreal collage work that's simultaneously striking and uncomfortable. As one of the artists featured in the upcoming exhibit Platinum Blend 2 at Modern Eden Gallery, we took the opportunity to have a chat with Dupre. Here she talks about her love for collage, her art process, and what a typical day entails.
Although your hometown is Glasgow, you mentioned in previous interviews that you spent your childhood in Paris and London. How did growing up in art enriched cities shape your creativity? Did anyone in your family nurture your creative talent?
I also grew up in Spain and in the Scottish highlands and Islands, I think inspiration and beauty is everywhere and I think I am lucky to have lived in a few locations. I still love to go to new places, we are moving to Sevilla in February, and Gijon in March, don't know after that. Cities and the countryside, the same but different.
The collage medium lends itself to surreal imagery. What is it about this medium and genre that fascinates you?
I always loved the accessibility of collage, now I have a good camera, tripod, printer and a few things necessary to work, but the only really essential things are paper, scissors and glue. For me it transcends fashion, art, and many other things which are really all the same thing. Beauty.
Tell us about your process. How does a work evolve from conception to completion?
I try to remain open to new techniques, its all about layering paper and joining or breaking apart lines. Sometimes I begin with a plan, sometimes I follow a chance two-dimensional assemblage.
Your work for Platinum Blend 2, 'Chica Desnuda en la Playa' has a mid-century European flair and I'm intrigued by her hat of hair. Tell us a little bit about the inspiration. What's going on here?
Since the beginning of 2015 I have been trying to focus my work in style and beauty, often now I am leaving garments in the collages unaltered. So it is also interesting to after alter the body underneath the garments. This piece is a study for a few larger collaborative projects I am working on at the moment.
If you could hang only one artwork from art history in your home or studio, what would it be and why?
Tricky, I think it would be too overwhelming, I would prefer to have a wall painted white.
Tell us something about yourself we wouldn't necessarily know.
I'm generally very secretive.
If I were to spend the day with Lola, what could I expect?
Only one day?, totally depends on the context! Something around debauchery and meditation.
Platinum Blend 2 opens January 9th at Modern Eden Gallery, 801 Greenwich St., San Francisco, CA 94133, www.moderneden.com
