Ahead of Pick Me Up’s sixth edition next month, Grafik caught up with co-curator Karishma Rafferty to discuss the new Pick Me Up Platform space and the health of contemporary illustration.
How will this year’s Pick Me Up be different to previous years?Karishma Rafferty: After five successful editions of Pick Me Up, we made a special effort this year to keep the content fresh and relevant. We’ve gone back to our roots, and have focussed on exposing the interesting and creative techniques artists are using to make new work, and providing opportunities for visitors to interact with practitioners in person. Our line-up of twelve Selects (early-career designers and illustrators) and sixteen Collectives, Galleries & Studios has been completely revamped this year – almost all of them have never taken part before. We are particularly excited to have La Tigre and Studio Fludd join us from Italy, plus Moth Collective, who are the first animation collective we’ve ever had participate. On top of that, our events programme format has been completely reinvented and this year we are planning more than a hundred drop-in talks and events taking place as part of what we’re calling Pick Me Up Platform.
Can you tell me a little bit about what you want to achieve with Pick Me Up Platform?
KR: We want Pick Me Up Platform to be a space where both the general public and industry professionals can learn and be inspired, complementing the work which is being showcased – and made – onsite at the festival. The events programme allows us to introduce even more variety into the festival and also engage with visitors about current trends and issues. As part of this overall talks programme for example, we’re holding a large-scale sit-in for arts education with Bob and Roberta Smith who is standing in the General Election against Michael Gove, a debate with educator Lawrence Zeegen about the relationship between very commercial illustration and more socio-political work, and a late night event with Crowd Talks about the influence of emojis, memes and Tumblr on our visual culture.
What sort of trends or concerns are you seeing in contemporary illustration at the moment, especially by looking at the Pick Me Up Selects artists?
KR: There are so many. The purpose of Pick Me Up has always been to expose the processes harnessed by the graphics and illustration communities, and showcase the personalities behind incredible work to much bigger audiences. We picked up on that in terms of this year’s Selects. I love Thomas Lamadieu’s use of photography in his Sky Art, Luke Evan’s printing with electricity and Rop van Mierlo’s experimental drawing. Each of the Selects will give a short talk about their differing processes, every day throughout the festival in the Pick Me Up Platform space.
How do you think the public perception of illustration has changed since PMU’s inception?
KR: I think the broader public are far more aware and engaged with illustration and design than they were a few years ago. Back in 2010, when Pick Me Up first started, there wasn’t the same level of public engagement with the industry or the blog culture that exists now. On that note, we’ll be showing the UK premiere of a great documentary focussed on how the graphic arts climate has changed in the past few years called Made You Look on 1 May 2015. It looks at the tension between analogue and digital, and Pick Me Up’s place within that broader narrative. For anyone who misses out on the premiere, we’ll also be screening Made You Look Daily Editions in the form of short films throughout the festival in the Pick Me Up Platform space.
Pick Me Up
23 April – 4 May 2015
Embankment Galleries, South Wing, Somerset House, London somersethouse.org.uk