In the run up to Photo London, we caught up with Maisie Cousins to talk about her selected works on show during the fair.
Photoworks: Hi Maisie, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. Can you tell us about the work that you’re showing at Photo London?
Maisie Cousins: It’s a small selection from what I am showing in the exhibition at T J Boulting. It’s work I have been making over the course of several years, exploring similar themes of sex and indulgence and nature.
PW: You’re showing a selection of images in the recently published Girl on Girl by Charlotte Jansen, which features women artists using photography and the Internet to explore identity and self image. What influence do social media and the Internet have on your creative process and work?
MC: I don’t think anybody would see my work if it wasn’t for the Internet. What I think is so great about social media is that you broaden your audience – the public, the art world, the commercial world, other artists, they all get to see it. It makes art less exclusive which I think is so important and needed for art to progress. I also think it’s extremely important right now with the current government in the UK making huge cuts to the arts.
PW: Would you describe your work as having a feminist aesthetic?
MC: I naturally approach making work from a perspective of a feminist but I don’t think there is such thing as a feminist aesthetic. Feminine, sure – I use a lot of classically feminine colours and lots of flowers which are mostly associated with women.
PW: Is the use of close up frames a way of heightening the themes of intimacy and voyeurism in your work?
Absolutely, it’s also what I find interesting as getting unnaturally close up to things really excites me, you get to see every detail you would miss with your naked eye.
See here for more work by Maisie and see here for more of Maisie’s work at Photo London.
