MEETING MAGGIE SCOTT

Image: Omulolo series. Courtesy of Maggie Scott

Interview and text: Julie Parmenter 

Maggie Scott is a textile artist and activist. Her exhibition, 5 Times More, is at The Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace, London from 6-9 October, and at Harrogate Convention Centre from 17-20 November, 2022. For Selvedge, she talks to Julie Parmenter.

Julie: Maggie, we’re delighted that you’ll be joining us at The Knitting & Stitching Show this year. 5 Times More is a collection of truly stunning work that shines a spotlight on the inequalities in the UK's healthcare system. I believe it was inspired by your reaction to MBRRACE-UK's 2019 research, which reported that Black women were five times more likely to die in childbirth than their white counterparts. How important was it to you to make this body of work?

Maggie: If an artist’s job is to observe the world, reflect and respond, then the making of 5 Times More was almost a foregone conclusion. When I first heard the statistic, I couldn’t believe it. I checked, and double-checked, and downloaded the report to check again. As a Black woman, and a mother with first-hand knowledge of a difficult childbirth experience, I was astounded that four decades later, pregnant Black women were still at risk; and that institutional racism continues to perpetuate myths about Black women and our bodies. It felt very important to draw attention to these discrepancies in healthcare and postnatal outcomes, and the one tool— the platform I have as a visual artist —is to make art.

Julie: Your large-scale artworks combine techniques such as photography, printing, and stitch, but it’s nuno felting— in which you push merino wool fibres through silk chiffon —that gives your work its distinctive style. Can you tell us about the appeal of nuno felting and what it brings to your work?

Maggie: I love the process of nuno felting; the way in which I can ‘paint’ with fibre, add or enhance a colour, yet never really completely control the outcome. Also, a lot of my work is photography-based, so nuno felting a photograph or collage that has been printed onto silk allows me unlimited choice of imagery. It allows for specificity, as well as artistry. The very process of felting inevitably softens and blurs what would normally be a sharp photographic image, and I think that adds another dimension to my work— a soft image for a hard subject.

Image: Courtesy of Maggie Scott

Julie: You have said that your activism and your art are inseparable. What role do you think art, and artists, have to play in challenging inequality, injustice, and racism? 

Maggie: I think artists should be able to make whatever kind of work they want. I don't have the expectation that, for example, Black artists have a responsibility to make work that expresses or challenges inequality or racism. However, we all know and acknowledge the power of art, and that the personal is political. Therefore, we shouldn’t underestimate the impact art can have as a catalyst for change. For example, when Lebanese artist Mireille Honein showed an installation on a Beirut beachfront of wedding dresses hung by nooses, she wanted to express her feelings about a particular controversial law. Article 522 proposed that a rapist could be exonerated if he married his victim. So, women were often obliged by their parents to marry the man who raped them. Alongside the installation was a petition, demanding the law be abolished. So many people were signing that all the press and media turned up to cover what they were doing. The Minister for Women's Rights apparently came and, incredibly, as a consequence, some of the countries surrounding Lebanon removed the equivalent laws. Their governments knew that in 2005, people had taken to the streets, and this had led to the Arab Spring. They didn't want to risk having that situation again. 

Julie: You trained at Farnham School of Art, and St. Martin’s School of Art, after which you pursued a long career as a luxury knitwear designer in Italy. It was an Arts Council bursary for artists of colour, and a subsequent one-woman show, that launched your career as an artist. Were there creative role models for you along the way?

Maggie: There were so many! One of my first role models was John Ashpool. He gave me my first job, out of art school, and I worked in his team for a year, in Italy. We were making knitwear, but working with someone whose background was as a painter meant everything we did was treated like a piece of art; no compromising, no settling. We would be encouraged to make hundreds of samples, changing colour combinations until it was just right. It was such a gift.

I have always been an admirer of both Archie Brennan and Audrey Wallace, particularly their narrative figurative pieces, and for many years a lot of my design work was heavily influenced by Annie Albers and the Bauhaus school. However, the catalyst for much of the work I do today is Sonia Boyce. I first discovered her work at The Other Story exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, in 1989. In fact, I think I still have the poster of a young Black child seated at her mother’s knee. I think it was the first time I had seen Black domestic life, so beautifully illustrated, in an important institution. It was the first time I began to contemplate the possibility that my story— other people’s stories —were worthy of investigation and entitled to be seen in their own right.

 Image: Courtesy of Maggie Scott

Julie: What advice would you give aspiring young artists of colour starting out today?

Maggie: For all young artists, I would give this advice: value your thinking, and when you know what you want to say, learn all you can, so that the work can be executed well. For artists of colour, try not to be too downhearted and disappointed by the many ways the art world appears to be stacked against you and your work. Find (and follow on social media) other artists of colour; where they are showing, what they are doing, and how they are doing it. We are a very resourceful community. Many years of exclusion from the mainstream have left us courageous, inventive, and fearless!

Get support. Find and join a group of other artists of colour and create a safe space where you can get support for your ideas— a space to share strategies. And flag, or alert each other to, the museums and organisations that, in this current climate of a ‘commitment to diversity’, will often maintain institutional racism by exploiting your talents, in order to tick the boxes they need to secure their funding.

See more of Maggie's work at maggiescottonline.com/

The Knitting & Stitching Show takes place from Thursday 6 - Sunday 9 October 2022, at Alexandra Palace, London. It features galleries by leading textile artists, including: Aran Illingworth; Archana Pathak; Maggie Scott; Marcia Bennett-Male; The 62 Group at 60; Vivienne Beaumont; and Jess Blaustein, the 2022 winner of The Fine Art Textiles Award.  

SELVEDGE readers attending the London show can claim £2.00 off adult advance tickets, and £2.00 off concessions using the code SELVEDGE22. Please note that the discount code expires at 23:59 on Wednesday 5th October 2022, and is not applicable on Saturday 8^th October. 

SELVEDGE readers attending the Harrogate show can claim £3.00 off adult advance tickets, and £3.50 off concessions, using the same code: SELVEDGE22 Please note that the discount code expires at 23:59 on Wednesday 16^th November.