LIVE 24-SEVEN
showing heads – portraits – and when it’s portraits I have a sitter who sits for me and I take photographs, then when they’ve finished sitting for me they can leave and I carry on working from the photographs, then half way through making my sculpture they will come and take a look. It’s the same when I do hands, so they come, I take photos and then they come back in the middle and I keep working on my own until it’s been cast.
‘Folds’ is different because I need the models throughout to take photographs of the body – it goes on for months. Firstly the model will come and I take photographs, she’ll sit and I do a little macquette in clay and then when I’m satisfied with my macquette and I’ve worked on the photographs and decided which part of the body I’m going to do the live cast from, then the model comes back and I cast that part in my studio – so the process goes on and on; depending on what you do it’s different.
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Working with glass is a different process to clay. Also, what is exciting for me is that I’m learning new crafts as I go along. I like the fact that I’m working with different skilled technicians, in fashion I was working with pattern cutters in the middle-east and creating fabrics and going to factories and working with embroiderers on site, which is taking you away from the page where you drew the design, and in sculpture you sculpt on your own most of the time, but then there is a technical side of it that takes you to a foundry to work on the patina and the wax – I love it, it’s exciting and it’s a change in my life and I’ve found two things to do that I love.
Are you a perfectionist? Is there a ‘Eureka’ moment where you stop and know that a piece is right, or do you have to stop yourself from tweaking? I think I look at the piece non-stop and criticise myself [laughing]. I work autonomously. I build and destroy, build and destroy until something subconsciously says to you “stop”. Then you cast what is done and sometimes you look at the cast and think oh, this could have been done better, but it’s too late [laughing]! Another time you are doing something and you are not so critical about what you are doing. I don’t think you can ever be 100 percent happy with what you are doing.
Well I’ve seen your work and it’s magnificent! Thank you!
Is there a piece you are most proud of or would that be like trying to select a favourite child? I think the best-ever portrait that I did was of Eduardo, I did it when he was alive and he didn’t like it to start with... Really? Yes, it took him some time to like it because it was abstract and it was very much what I was feeling about him. I tried to show his strength, his power, he was a man from another world and I didn’t just want to do his features as they were, I wanted to express much more than that. He said, “Is this how I look? Is this how you feel about me?” He was so shocked by it and then after a few months it was shown at the Royal Academy and he loved it, he was so proud of it and for the rest of his life, because he came to my house once a week for dinner or lunch, he would bring friends to show them the portrait – he loved that portrait, and I love it too. Every time I sell one, I make another one immediately, [laughing] because I don’t want to live without it, because it’s like living with him. What a beautiful thing to say!
When you saw people wearing your designs, that must have given you a beautiful sense of accomplishment and pride, is that feeling the same with your sculptures? Yes, still today I love it when people say, “Oh, my favourite coat is a piece of yours; oh I’m so glad I’ve kept some of your clothes, I love wearing them”. Obviously it makes me very happy and if someone loves my sculpture, suddenly we have a link, I have a link with this person and we have a dialogue open. I think it’s so important to show what you’re doing. I could have carried on sculpting in my studio and never shown anyone my work, but I do need that confirmation, I need to know people like or not like what I’m doing, I need that feedback. Yes, I think every artist does, it keeps you inspired and driven and similarly it was inspiring to talk to you.
Katie you are most welcome to my studio.
LIVE24-SEVEN.COM
CE L EBRI T Y INTERVI EW NICOL E FARHI
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