Lindsey Mendick
“I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety since I was around 13 years old so I think that feeling of being an outsider, of being leaky and disgusting, trapped and claustrophobic within my own body, has always informed the work.”
Interview by Jane Hayes Greenwood
Hi Lindsey, thanks for talking to us. Firstly, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background?
Hi! Oh I never really know what to say here… I guess I’m an installation artist working primarily in ceramics! My work is often autobiographical, a gothic exploration of the everyday abject.
Carl Freedman Gallery recently began representing you which is great news and very well deserved. You’ve had an amazing run of shows in the last few years including solo exhibitions at Cooke Latham (London), Goldmsiths CCA (London), Eastside Projects (Birmingham) and more. Your work draws on experiences from own life with your show The Ex Files at Castor Projects (a personal favourite of mine), memorably reflecting on 5 previous relationships. These relationships were presented in the context of an office environment, through intimate hand written narratives that were fragmented and written across 250 yellow ceramic post-it notes positioned across the walls of the gallery.
I found the exhibition funny, moving and very relatable, as I’m certain many women did. What kind of feedback did you receive at the time? Did you find it a somewhat healing experience to reach an audience through openly presenting work that dealt with events that can engender such shame?
Oh thank you so much for saying that! As the work is often deeply rooted in my own sense of self-doubt and shame, I’m always pretty surprised that people respond so warmly to the work. Especially as often I find them particularly difficult to sit with. The Ex-Files was a tongue in cheek play on the idea of utilising the ceremonial aspect of burning effigies as a means of cleansing and letting go. For the exhibition I created ceramic sculptures inspired by my ex-lovers: fusing together painful past memories with office paraphernalia and a 1960s sci-fi aesthetic. I harked back to Greek mythology and horror films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Alien, Mimic and The Thing, where the fatal formlessness of an alien body overpowers its victim, consuming and possessing them!
The post it works, You Used To Love That About Me, told the story of my past relationships and the equal roles that both partners ultimately played in their downfall! It was draining and brutal to make as I explored parts of myself that I didn’t particularly like and felt totally ashamed of. However, I think that by sharing my terrible and at times painfully selfish behaviour, I found a way to honestly explore the complexity of modern relationships. Also very weirdly, I ended up going home with Guy my partner that night for the first time so I honestly think that there must have been a bit of magic in that.
Your solo show, Hairy On The Inside at Cooke Latham Gallery (London) explores your experience of having Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), a painful condition that has the potential to be particularly difficult as a woman in her 30’s who is faced with the ‘ticking clock’ of fertility, of which we are all too regularly reminded. Not everyone wants children of course but I have friends who have PCOS and I know it can complicate things if it’s something that’s being considered. I continue to admire the way you deal with difficult and painful material in your work, cleverly twisting it with Gothic humour. How do you feel when ‘baring all’ to a public in the way that you have done in the exhibitions you’ve made over the last few years?
This might sound completely ludicrous but I don’t think that talking about personal subjects is baring all! I don’t think we should be made to feel that complicated issues around love, sex and our relationship with ourselves and others should be kept behind closed doors. The autobiographical can be the most political. I think often in the exhibitions, I’m more concerned with aspects of the making as I feel most vulnerable when people are judging me on the quality of my work!
But actually, in this show I’ve felt a strange sense of foreboding because it’s talking about ‘hirsutism’ as a side effect of polycystic ovary syndrome (something I’ve always struggled with). I’m making an extremely close-up video work of my mouth (I’ve grown out my moustache and chin hairs) and I discuss the constant battle I have had with my body. I talk about the decades spent plucking and waxing, the cruel comments from lovers, that aged 14 my mum left me a massive tub of Jolene bleach by the side of my bed, ‘just if I needed it’. I didn’t think growing out my facial hair would have that much of an effect on me but it’s totally knocked my self-confidence in a way I wasn’t prepared for.
The fertility part isn’t actually an issue for me as I’ve never really wanted children. But I suppose I’d like to be able to have children if I wanted them. It’s been quite difficult, because through making the film I’ve started analysing what came first, not wanting children or a diagnosis that told me it could be difficult?
The Yellow Wallpaper, East Side projects, Birmingham 2020
The Yellow Wallpaper, East Side projects, Birmingham 2020
The Ex Files, Castor Projects, London 2019
The Ex Files, Castor Projects, London 2019
Hairy On The Inside, Cooke Latham Gallery 2021
You recently moved to Margate where you and your partner, the artist Guy Oliver have set up the project space, Quench. You launched a very successful crowdfunding campaign, offering beautiful Lindsey Mendick editions such as sluggy ceramics and food-based tea towels in return for financial support. The funds generated will support your first year. Can you talk a bit about your plans?
Quench will be a new project space and gallery in Margate, Kent, with the aim of giving artists and curators an opportunity to develop new work and put on exhibitions. It was conceived during the height of the COVID period and it was always connected with our plans to move to Margate. We were living in London and wanted to move before lockdown happened because we were struggling financially to survive as artists. With the price of property being so different outside of London, it created the possibility to afford a larger studio space and even have a space to put on exhibitions as well. But this venture was also conceived because we both really love housing and supporting artists and want to help them to create amazing shows. With so many cuts and job losses this year, we want to try and add a bit of optimism to the artistic outlook and try to keep artists invigorated and in work.
Neither of us want to be gallerists because there is so much hard work in it! Our main aim is to pay artists to put on small shows. We will not make any profit from the sale of artists work and all profits from any sales will go directly to the artists that put on the exhibitions. So it’s definitely not a feasible business venture, but we want to give back what we can and engage and support fellow artists in this time.
I know that film – horror especially plays into your research. What is it about the grotesque, body-horror and transformation that are of interest for you?
I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety since I was around 13 years old so I think that feeling of being an outsider, of being leaky and disgusting, trapped and claustrophobic within my own body, has always informed the work. I often think of horror as a place where the outsider is celebrated, where the frightening inner corners of the mind aren’t suppressed, they are reveled in and relished within the safety of the make-believe. I think there was an amazing turning point when I read Kafka's Metamorphosis and through devouring his fantastical and grotesque tale of transformation, I felt soothed and seen. Underpinning these horrifying tales are often very real and complicated feelings of remorse, pain, and a sense of morality and mortality.
Have you got anything else coming up that you’re excited about and want to share?
Due to everything being so uncertain at the moment I am definitely trying to only think about what’s right in front of me! I’m never really sure if anything is opening! But excitingly I am just about to install a duo show with the artist Dominic Watson as part of a joint venture with Arts Heritage and the National Trust. It’s titled Wassa and will take place in a historic manor house in Washington, Tyne and Wear. Over two years we’ve worked with the Washington community and National Trust volunteers to bring together a cast of historical and mythical characters associated with the building and its local area – including George Washington, the first president of the United States. It should, fingers crossed, open in May!
All images are courtesy of the artist
Date of publication: 20/05/21
