Q&A with Morag Myerscough, headline artist at Look Again 2019

1. Where and what did you study?

I did foundation art at, what was then, Saint Martins but is now Central Saint Martins and then a degree in graphics at Central St Martins, and then I went to the Royal College of Art to study graphic art and design.

2. Can you tell me a bit about your background, after education?

I got a job when I left St Martins and then went to Italy to work for Michaela de Lucie. Then I decided to come back because I didn’t think women in Italy had as many opportunities as I felt women in London, which is where I’m born and bred, had. So I came back to London and decided I wanted to setup my own studio called Myerscough and Chipchase with a girl who was in the year below me at the Royal College. That ended because my partner wanted to spend the money on her new bathroom and I wanted to spend it on computers, so I felt we really weren’t quite going in the same direction.

Then I setup Studio Myerscough in 1993 and had that for a really long time where I would design exhibitions and all sorts of things. About 12 / 15 years ago I got a bit fed up with that and decided that people knew Studio Myerscough but nobody really knew who I was and that I wanted a different kind of work. When I was at Royal College I never really fitted in because I was designing theatre sets and they always wanted me to design posters. When I left the Royal College they told me I would never get a job so I really wanted to get a job and prove them wrong. I think it’s all about how you think, it’s not necessarily about your discipline. You can make anything if you put your mind to it and if you collaborate you can make anything happen and you shouldn’t be restricted by your education.

3. Can you tell me a little bit about your design/creative process and what it involves?

I drink a lot of tea!

When I do my big structures, because they come from a different place in my head, they have more meaning to me than if I was designing something in response to a brief. I have to spend quite a lot of time thinking about the project in my head and then, suddenly, there is this moment where I will just do it and I will draw it or sketch it or make a model and then once it’s out there I build upon that structure and it evolves. I tend not to do too many iterations.

And then, if people tell me they don’t want that or want less colour or whatever, then I tell them to go somewhere else!

4. Who inspires you and why?

When I was younger I was like a sponge and I went to see every single film, listened to loads of music, went to see every single exhibition. Now, it’s the everyday that inspires me. If I work on projects where I involve the community, then I just learn so much from those people.

I wouldn’t say now it’s about a particular person, it’s just everything around me. I’m a real urban person, I do get hives if I’m in the country. I like being surrounded by buildings and places that change.

5. What has been your favourite project to work on and why?

Fortunately I keep getting more and more exciting projects. Every year I think it’s more exciting than the year before. But the one that made a big change for me was when I made the Temple of Agape (Temple of Love) on the Southbank. I didn’t even know I wanted to do it, but when I did it, I just thought that if I never do another project then I’ve made that happen. When I went into the installation for the first time suddenly I realised there were so many references from my travels and it had all come from my subconscious. I didn’t really realise that that’s what I was making when I made it. It was mad and quite a moment in my life.

6. What’s the best piece of advice you have been given? What advice would you give to aspiring/young designers/artists?

Well, the worst piece of advice I’ve been given was the fact that I had a messy desk and that I wouldn’t ever be successful because I had a messy desk – so that’s a load of rubbish. Messy desks means creative mind.

The best piece of advice - because I was struggling when I was at Saint Martins, I needed somebody to show me that I could use my brain really widely. So when I got to 3rd year I was taught by a tutor, Geoff Fowle, and he just completely opened my mind, he said you should always think and aim as high as you possibly can and then you can always come down a bit. If you start low you’re never going to head up, you’re always going to go down. That resonated with me, you should always be as ambitious as possible - you shouldn’t be limited by what you think you can do.

I think you should learn from each other, collaborate across disciplines, don’t feel restricted or isolated and really believe that if you’re doing something that everybody hates then maybe that’s really good. I can get disappointed if everybody immediately likes what I do. You want to shock people. I think it’s much better if people either love or hate your work, I don’t think it’s great if people just say, ‘oh that’s nice’, or ‘that’s alright’.

I do like to have some people who love my work, but I am not afraid of the haters. At College I was always surrounded by people who didn’t like what I did, but I’m glad I stuck with it because in the end it’s about you, and not them. They may have other agendas and you have to work through your own and find your own path. You have to have a mission and think about where it is you want to be.

7. What is your connection to the north-east?

Coming here to Aberdeen is really strange, because my mum met my dad here and there are all these thought processes where I think, wow, that’s where they met.

My mother is Scottish and she went to Glasgow Art School and she was head of Embroidery and Weaving at Gray’s in the late 50s and was staying in a boarding house in town. My Dad, born and bred London, was here with the Royal Ballet – my Dad was a classical musician and played in the orchestra – and he was staying in the same boarding house. She saw her at the top of the stairs and it was — Love at First Sight —He asked her out to see the ballet and he didn’t try anything on, and she liked that, she thought he was a gentleman! Then he left and he kept in touch and wrote her letters and asked her to come down to London, and she went. Within literally six months, he was back up in Aberdeen where he got a special licence and he married my mum. It was in the newspaper!

8. Can you tell me a little bit about your commission for Look Again?

The commission is very exciting. It’s at Mercat Cross at the Castlegate, which is such an amazing, prominent position. I love all the colour of the buildings and the urban environment here because I can see how the work will shine in that space. It’s really bringing that essence and energy that a marketplace traditionally has, it’s about people and conversations, a meeting place.

Because my mum and dad met here, I liked this idea of it being a meeting place where things can happen, it’s not controlled by something or someone. It’s built on the tradition of an area like that, but making it very much about now, involving people and working with communities.

I think it’s really important if you’re making a piece of work then the people you are making that work for feel connected to that work and it belongs to them, because it is for them. The more people get involved, the more they have invested in your project. When they see it finalised they have a sense of joy, togetherness and community.

It’s really important to integrate the Mercat Cross into the project, not just cover it up. You might not be able to see it in exactly the same way as you are seeing it now, but that’s ok because you will look at it again. I want people to fall back in love with their own place, go out and look at it as if it’s the first time you have been there.

The project is still evolving at the moment, but hopefully you will see something that you’ve never seen before. It’s going to be an extravaganza.

9. How important are events like LA for society?

Really critical. Creativity is crucial to our lives and through these festivals we are able to show people that you can be involved in the arts, they are accessible and sociable, and they provide a platform to make connections. The legacy of these events are that people can see the value and that makes them feel that maybe they would like to do more things like that. For young people it shows that you don’t need a huge amount of things, or lots of money, you can make things with just a bit of wood and some paint. There are so many levels that these festivals bring people together on, it’s not just one style, there is performance, making, craft, and you are showing people the possibilities.

It’s that short period of time where it is condensed and there is an energy that people can become involved. To make people think there are possibilities and that they can do these things, they aren’t out of reach. It’s not like going to a museum or a gallery, it’s got a much more accessible feel.

10. At a time when arts and culture organisations are constantly fighting for funding to operate, why do you think it is important to invest in these areas?

I think it’s important to demonstrate the value and the impact these festivals have on people and if you do these festivals you can show people the difference it can make. Creativity is critical to our lives and you have to get it out there and prove to people how critical it is and how it should just be part of our lives. Why there are cuts is absolutely beyond me.

If you can affect just one person then it’s worth it.