A nice interview by Jack Sunnocks for LOVE Magazine around the subject of knickers and desire and how it has been a preoccupation in my work for many years.
Lisa Z. Morgan is the artist behind Strumpet &
Pink, a collaboration with Melanie Probert to make the most fabulous
pair of knickers. What this means are extravantly ruffled, knitted and
laced numbers which whilst not ideal for everday wear (obviously), would
be ideal for an elaborate seduction in a Fellini film. We got Lisa to
talk about her obsession with desire, the best songs about it and what
makes the perfect pair of pants.
Your work is quite multi faceted to say the least – if you had to describe yourself in one phrase, what would it be?
An artist.
Why is desire such a preoccupation for you? When did that start? What was the journey to where you are now?
I believe that desire is a powerful and fundamental force, which
propels us in a myriad of ways. It pushes us to move forward, to search,
reach, develop and grow. If we fall down we must have the desire to get
up again, to strive for a goal, explore a concept or fulfil a dream. It
is our hearts desire and also, naturally, the foundation of our sexual
selves. Desire in so many ways is the defining energy, which drives us
as sentient beings.
In terms of a journey, I have always been drawn to and driven by
desire. I have been filled with all sorts of desires and these desires
appear to have grown incrementally as I have developed both as a woman
and a Mother. But the beauty of this ripening is that it has grown in
tandem with my work. However, there have always been key moments,
people, conversations, books and experiences, which have awakened
something other inside.
From being small I was obsessed by flowers, collecting them, pressing
them, making posies however, the strongest desire was to immerse myself
into the flower, take in the colours and then take in the scent. At 16 I
remember reading Joe Orton’s Prick Up Your Ears and my imagination was
ignited at the thought of Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell carrying out
such irreverent and subversive creative acts with library books.
Another defining moment was when I first saw Meret Oppenheim’s
Luncheon in Fur and then the discovery of Victorian bloomers. Laughter
is also highly desirable and then there is also my Love. So in terms of a
journey my preoccupation with desire or rather articulating desire and
the internal impulses of the feeling of ‘feeling’ has been innately
connected to and with my life.
How did the idea for Design Behind Desire come around? Where did you seek out your content?
In 2009 I was giving a Salon at Kiki de Montpanasse in NYC and was
speaking about ‘Pink-ness No.6’, which was a perfume I created as an art
piece in an attempt to explore the colour as an internal sensation.
Patrice Farameh was in the process of researching a book about the
world’s most inspired lingerie designers and she wished to speak to me
about an interview for the book. After my talk Patrice was supposedly
taken by my ‘intellectual approach with a wink of an eye.’ A series of
conversations developed from our meeting and she invited me to curate
and author a book about desire. Design Behind Desire was the concept I
developed.
The moment that desire was handed to me as a subject it was
surprising how seamless it was to develop the book. All of the ideas and
thoughts had already been brewing inside for a very long time and they
all revolved around desire inhabiting the imagination combined with an
acute connection to materiality. I knew immediately who I wanted to
interview, people with a very particular approach toward desire and/or
who were motivated by desire, such as Sam Roddick, Betony Vernon, Fleet
Ilya, Mark Brazier-Jones. I was also inspired by The Cabinet of Love, an
18th Century book of sex poems which was a book hidden inside a book of
everyday verse.
Friends of mine were creating remarkable works connected to eros and I
explored fashion, design and art bloggs along with magazines and the
books on my shelves. I also have friends with varied and specific
fascinations so many suggestions and leads developed very fluidly
through conversations. Quite simply, Design Behind Desire flourished in
every direction and began to develop a momentum of its own.
Alessandra Ambrosio wearing Strumpet & Pink's 'Willow' design in
LOVE 11, photographer David Armstrong, fashion editor Panos Yiapanis.
Can you explain the book’s chapters Generating, Contemplating and Fulfilling – sounds a bit like an orgasm.
There was certainly an element of play involved in the division of
the book into these three distinct stages/phases. Predominantly because I
believe that the journey to the orgasm is one of the most glorious and
desirable experiences. You are absolutely in the moment, fully present
and yet entirely lost, open and surrendered. You journey to a place,
full and complete, and within that moment there is utter abandon
combined with a still-ness. To my mind that seemed to be the moment one
would wish to reach when desires are fulfilled. But on the way to this
‘destination’ there are ebbs and flows, variations and undulations and
differences in heat. I wanted the book to have a visual tempo, which
embodied these fluctuations and grew incrementally as one travelled
through the ideas and images. My hope was that this would encourage
people to slow down and savour the book page by page. In other words
to…. take…. time…. i.e if you flick through the book you really miss the
essence of it and like the orgasm the rewards are so very much more
when you slow down and explore with purpose.
Knickers! What sort of knickers do you wear? Or would you classify them more as pants.
They are definitely knickers, as I would define knickers. But that is all that you need to know.
Tell me about what your design mission is at Strumpet & Pink.
Strumpet & Pink now exists as a living and breathing art piece
i.e only the bespoke or special commission pieces are now being made.
However, the pieces continue to be exhibited and photographed and so
even though many of the designs are no longer being made, they are still
‘alive’.
At the height of ‘production’ Strumpet & Pink was rarely, if
ever, approached as a design mission. It was more of an emotional
mission fuelled by stories and feeling. The motivation being the
exploration of the contradictions and complexities that one can have, as
a woman, with regard to one’s body and sensibility; laughter and
eroticism, innocence and seduction, the hidden and the overt. There was
always an inter-play between different emotional experiences. The
question that we always asked ourselves, as an idea developed, would
always begin with ‘how does/would it feel if…….?’ For example ‘How would
it feel if your lover wanted to bite your cheeks but you wished to
remain covered? How would it feel to be entirely buttoned up and held by
hundreds of silk peony petals, and then for the petals to
spill out as you are unbuttoned?’ How would it feel to wear warm
knickers that are fashioned as an eiderdown and yet would be as charged
as the most barely there slip?’ The pieces were sexual in a slow burning
way i.e the closer one becomes the more one will discover. The designs
were never just a visual exercise. There was always purpose behind the
aesthetics.
What components make up a really fabulous pair of pants?
Emotion, narrative, materiality and cut.
Who are your lingerie heroines?
I think my lingerie or rather undergarment heroines are those whose
minds I would like to inhabit, Anaïs Nin, Annie Oakley, Marguerite
Gautier from Camille and Vivienne Westwood. And if I am allowed a
hero/ines it would have to be Mr Pearl and Jean Paul Gaultier.
Is there someone, either real or fictional that you’d love to see in your creations?
This can probably be answered in the previous question although I would like to add PJ Harvey and Queen Elizabeth I.
What are your three favourite songs about desire?
Love to Love You by Donna Summer, The Ship Song by Nick Cave, Superstar by Sonic Youth.
Thanks Lisa!
Words Jack Sunnucks
