Finding Belonging – Morag Myerscough’s Journey and Some Random Thoughts
Part of this week’s resources was a presentation by Morag Myerscough named Finding Belonging. In a nutshell this presentation is a showcase of who she is and the type of work she does. The presentation also included a number of projects that she undertook over the years.
It was a very colourful presentation indeed. Very enjoyable and engaging. That said, I wanted to write this post because what struck me the most was the part of her childhood, and how she said that she did not feel that she fit in with the rest of the crowd. It is a bit strange to hear it from a grown woman who is an internationally known designer with a very healthy business. Probably in cases like this is was makes us understand that we are all human in the end of the day. As creatives, we are all quite emotional. Emotional not in the sense that we burst out crying or raging whenever someone wrongs us, but emotional in the sense that we are very observant and empathise with our surroundings on a deeper level. I also liked the art club initiative she opened for her community. Art Block is a centre aimed for children and teens were they can just walk in and make artsy things. It is part of a three-year public art and education project which invites international and UK based artists to create artworks with and for the SLG’s close neighbours on Elmington, Pelican and Sceaux Gardens housing estates, along with a programme of events at the gallery. (Learn more here).
Following on the same train of thought, I have noticed that a lot of collaborations take place between artists (or designers) and writers and musicians. I am going to drift off a bit here, but is it because we are equally understood by everyone else to the point that we can understand each other, as we are coming from the same creative industry? When I thought of this at first, I laughed, but could it really be the case. We may not be the best at articulating our arguments, but given that we have a similar ‘way of thinking’ we can understand where we are coming from.
Anyway, that was just some random thinking. Back to the presentation. I have to say that Myerscough’s work is very inspiring indeed. Very reminiscent of the Memphis and Pop Art styles of the 50s and 60s they brighten up even the simplest of places. I also like the point she made about building an installation just to make something look beautiful. No need for any other purpose for the installation. Probably that’s her artistic side speaking, which reminds me of Chris Do’s presentation from last week, where he says that we should let go of our artistic persona if we are willing to work for clients and make good money out of it.
I think it all comes down to what do we really want to achieve through our work. Do we want to design for a purpose, or do we want to create our own projects and put a price tag on it? At this point, only after figuring out where to we want to get to, we can take on the journey and finding were we belong. Or else we can create a space and fit ourselves in it.
