Megan Broadmeadow is the inter-disciplinary artist who worked across sculpture, installation, and performance. Her work, as much as it is a tantalizing visual experience, is very much concept-driven. Broadmeadow finds inspiration in all corners of life; places, objects, and characters and how they have the ability to transform. Be sure to visit the artist’s exhibition, Mercury 13, taking place at the Galeria Melissa in Covent Garden. I get to know the artist who loves to escape into the fantastical.
Megan, how are you today?
Great, thanks!
Tell us about your latest installation, Mercury 13, in the Galeria Melissa?
The Installation at Galeria Melissa is an immersive work in which I’ve used, mirrors, sculptures and projections to create a fantasy world which explores the idea of the cosmos, and character which might inhabit it. The title is Mercury 13, which comes from the name given by the media to a group of women who were trained to become astronauts, but due to restrictions by NASA were not allowed to go on a space mission.
In my work all the characters are female, and I’ve created a cosmos, which explores what the cosmos might be like if inhabited by female characters. I made costumes using mirrors to create characters, which include an alien queen who inhabits the nebula and creates stars and pair of twins who are satellites, and always strive to communicate with each other across the galaxy.
The whole room has been transformed, and I’ve tried to represent the infinity of space and oddness of galactic phenomena such as black holes and nebula, by using lots of mirrors, which distort the sense of space in the room.
Do you conceive of the storyline behind the pieces first or do the visuals help create it?
This work came from a research trip I made to the National Space center in Leicester. I’ve been thinking a lot about the combinations of the man made objects and unexplainable landscape of the cosmos. While I was there I saw information about the Mercury 13 women, and felt like that would be a good starting point to begin to create work around this topic.
The work evolves in lots of different strands at a time, I started with the floor layout, as I knew I wanted it to be immersive. The ideas for the sculptures also came early on, then the video content and other elements then began to emerge from that. The process has been collaboration between myself and the dancers, composer, filmmaker and animator. Each person has brought something into this exhibition. I had the ideas and thoughts about how to present this idea, and wanted to make an immersive space, but I also like to work with people and add a bit of their spirit to it. Especially with the dancers, each of them has their own unique style, and I wanted their movements and feelings to bring the costumes and characters to life, and so we worked together on set to discover the personality of the costumes.
What kind of emotions do you want your pieces to evoke in the viewer?
I hope they will feel a sense of fantasy, and that they are stepping into another realm. I’ve also created some fun elements, as I felt that flying in space could be quite an enjoyable thing to do!
In one space I’ve made an inverted mirror ball into which the audience can enter. This part has recordings of astronauts telling of their experience of space, and for that part is was my intention that people reflect on the human side of the endeavor to fly into the galaxy, and the experiences the Mercury 13 women missed out on.
How much does fashion influence your work?
I have a strong interest in making and researching carnival costumes, and so this means that I also take an interest in fashion. To me fashion is a powerful thing, in that out of all the art forms it can influence many people, and the trends that are worn by people become the image of humanity for that period of time. I find that fascinating.. Like why were flared trousers so popular in the 70’s, and why did all men wear wigs in the 18th century?!
I really like the work of designers such as Gareth Pugh and Iris Van Herpen and so it feels like a privilege to be following on from Gareth’s show at Melissa!
My costumes are a lot more rough and ready than couture outfits. They are designed to be sculptural and theatrical rather than being well made, for me it doesn’t matter if they aren’t perfect! I like the feel of something being homemade, and like the naivety of a child’s costume, or mask made for carnival. A lot of the time I recycle my costumes, and so they become sculptures or turned into another costume, or used in a different video. I like them to have many lives, and to explore where they can exist.
There is a strange distrust sometimes between fashion and art as if one might be better than the other, yet to me this doesn’t make sense. I’m not in a competition! People like Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood are to my mind absolutely artists. I look broadly at creativity and am inspired by innovation in all kinds of mediums.
You sometimes use mirrors in your works – do you like involving the viewer in the artwork?
Yes, I always think about the viewers experience when making the work. I use mirrors a lot, because of the way they distort our sense of perception, and by using them I hope to return the gaze of the viewer looking at the work back to them. It creates a kind of never-ending loop, and in some ways means that the work is looking back at the viewer. The spaces I create are also supposed to be somehow psychological, represent physical reflections of our imagination.
You went from Coleg Menai, to Slade School of Art, to Goldsmith College – how did your time in university help you in creating your visual identity?
I’ve been very fortunate with my art education. I come from a modest family, and always felt like I had to work hard as I didn’t have the school education that a lot of my peers had. Artists learn from each other, and by seeing art, and I’ve always felt the desire to make the most from my education and learn from my experiences art school. Art has been the only thing that I can do, and so being around artists and being taught by great tutors such as Phylida Barlow at the Slade and Lindsay Seers at Goldsmiths has been an amazing privilege for me.Art school has no set ideas of how you should make art, that’s the joy and the struggle, you have to figure things out for yourself! What you do get is tutors and students who try to figure it out with you. Its like a strange therapy group, where the focus is on the things you make, not on you personally!
Congratulations on the Mark Tanner Sculpture Award – How did achieving that make you feel?
I’m really happy about the reward. Standpoint Gallery was one of the first galleries I visited when I moved to London 5 years ago. I like how they have broad idea of how artists work, and support artists from across the UK.The award has enabled me to get a decent studio, and given me confidence in the work that I am making. Although I create installations, sculpture is my first love, and what I am doing is testing out what sculpture is. For me sculpture includes lights and sound as they both affect space, and by putting dancers inside sculptures I try to find out how sculptural objects can come alive.
Finally, is there an achievement or project that you’re particularly fond of?
I particularly fond of the piece called ‘Mastaba’ It was my first major mirrored sculpture in which I used video, performance, projections and audio. It felt like the start of a new chapter in my work, and I also think it looks pretty cool!
Interview: Nada Abdul Ghaffar
