insideKENT Magazine Issue 95 - February 2020 | Page 26

ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
KENT ARTIST PROFILE:
HOLLIE MACKENZIE
DRIVEN BY FEMINIST POLITICS, ASHFORD-BASED ARTIST HOLLIE MACKENZIE CREATES TOTALLY
PERSONAL AND TRULY INTERESTING WORK, USING A VERY UNIQUE SCULPTURE TECHNIQUE. INSIDEKENT
SPOKE TO HOLLIE ABOUT WHAT INFORMS HER ART AND WHERE HER IDEAS COME FROM.
If you had to define your art, how would you
describe what you do?
I make melting wooden sculptures! Through the
artistic practice of sculpting, I explore a unique
process of melting wood. I carve into solid pieces of
wood to bring out the flows and drips to transform
wood into a fluid piece of art.
How did you become an artist?
I’ve been artistic ever since I could pick up things –
crayons, food, even nappies didn’t escape artistic
experimentation! I’ve always been lucky enough to
know that I needed to pursue art in whatever way
I could, so I began specialising in it by studying Fine
Art at the Arts University at Bournemouth. My love
for art and learning then developed into a life-long
journey in which I’m an eternal student!
For me, art and learning go hand in hand and so I
continue to present my work regularly at academic
and artistic events nationally and internationally.
Did you find that your feminist ideals were
easy to incorporate into your art?
Absolutely! My creative process is driven by my
feminist politics, whether that is obvious within the
artwork or not – that is subjective to the viewer –
but it is what fuels my creativity. My artworks are
personal, and the personal is political. Maybe that’s why
I hate Crits (where an artist presents work to a group
for feedback and often results in an emotional
exchange of criticism and disempowerment)! I’ve
actually renamed Crits as “Affirmative Crits” when
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I teach, and students are only allowed to give each
other constructive feedback rather than negative
critique. By practicing a feminist politic of affirmation,
the students (and artists) feel supported and
empowered by each other. creativity, learning, imagination, and thought within
their own artistic practices.
You work in a variety of different media
including film, sculpture and paint; does the
subject matter define the medium you use,
or the other way around? My artistic heroes are the Guerrilla Girls! Who I
was fortunate enough to interview as part of the case
study I conducted into their “Complaints
Department” at Tate Exchange for the Tate
Exchange Evaluation Report (2016-17). This research
role was separate to, but in connection with, my
Lead Artist role in relation to the new Tate Exchange
Learning Program.
I find that both the subject matter and medium
define each other. Given the male orientated history
of sculptors that has spread into contemporary
carpentry trades, I chose to use wood as my medium
within a feminist artistic practice to breakthrough
that tradition. By reinventing a labour traditionally
represented as masculine (sculpting), I carve out a
challenge to the traditional ideas of the “master”
artist, and propose that we can all have equality of
the imagination.
What is the most special, unusual, daring,
or interesting commission you’ve ever
received?
I was recently invited to present and lead a
workplayshop focusing on the future role of art and
artists in the act of public protest, at Culture Lab,
Liverpool in October. This has been my most
rewarding invitation so far as it provided me with
an opportunity to explore and implement innovative
forms of teaching with artistic encounters that
encouraged learning through collaboration, creativity
and experimentation. The workplayshop was a huge
success with the participating artists as it stimulated
Do you have any artistic heroes? Or feminist
heroes you create art from?
You’re studying for a PhD in political
and social thought, are you able to use
your art in your thesis, or is it an entirely
separate entity?
I am creating my thesis as an art-thesis! Instead of
submitting a traditional academic thesis, I am
planning to submit my thesis as a melting sculpture
– but it will still be a thesis containing the required
80,000 words, only it will be an enfolded art-thesis.
Creating the traditional academic thesis as a melting
sculpture is my proposal for different forms of
expression and apparatuses for academic writing.
Where can we see your work?
On my website at www.mackenzieartist.co.uk
or on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
@MackenzieArtist