HOT MESS ON SCREEN
MEET THE INNOVATORS BEHIND HOT MESS ON SCREEN.
In an age of photoshop and iPhone cameras, performing artist Gabrielle Miller and First Nations artist Sophie Taylor; co-founders of Hot Mess On Screen; are determined to make their own rules when it comes to expression. With the two launching their interactive virtual course series, they promote a brazen creativity and messiness as healing forces, taking inspiration from their multi-disciplinary art practices and their reality as mothers.
We chat with the pair about the design behind their unique services, soon to be offered through our upcoming digital practitioner provider, Service Desk.
WHAT INSPIRED THE GENESIS OF HOT MESS ON SCREEN?
The idea was created during the Northern New South Wales floods. Hot Mess opened its soggy studio for a series of free classes for flood victims as healthy escapism from the hardship, exhaustion and grief we were all experiencing. As much as it was for the community, it was also our way of processing it all, along with navigating all that comes with both becoming new mums.
WHAT KIND OF SKILLS DO YOUR SESSIONS HELP CLIENTS DEVELOP OR DEEPEN?
We believe that in moments of complete self-expression, we are truly free from anything weighing us down. To suspend in that moment of creativity, fully engulfed in the marks you are making, we are weightless. The let go, however, is a learned skill, and we are here to help you build your creative muscles.
YOUR BUSINESS EMPHASISES THE IMPORTANCE OF EXPERIMENTATION. CAN YOU SPEAK A LITTLE MORE ON WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT FOR OUR IMAGINATIONS?
Our intention for this course is to offer you a space of creative freedom, inspiration [by providing an] outlet. Through immersive, playful and obscure performative exercises in a life drawing structure, we strive to offer you a space to develop the skill of letting go, so that you can use visual arts as a form of healthy escapism and purging whenever you may need it.
WHAT KIND OF EXPERIENCE SHOULD PEOPLE WHO TAKE ONE OF YOUR COURSES EXPECT TO HAVE?
As well as it being an interactive class, dedicated to guiding you creative freedom, it’s also a curated visual feast – with soundtrack, lighting, costumes and props, all carefully blended to create obscure and wonderful worlds that you’ve never seen before.
DO YOU NEED ANY PRIOR EXPERIENCE OR SPECIFIC ART SUPPLIES TO TAKE ONE OF YOUR CLASSES?
Whether you’ve never touched a paintbrush or you’re a high flying artist, this class is here to offer you new inspiration and a space to be playful and free. Use whatever you have available to you, as long as you have a surface to draw on, and something to make marks.
THROUGH IMMERSIVE, PLAYFUL AND OBSCURE PERFORMATIVE EXERCISES, WE STRIVE TO OFFER A SPACE [FOR CLIENTS] TO DEVELOP THE SKILL OF LETTING GO.
ART FAMOUSLY HAS HEALING PROPERTIES. IN YOUR PERSONAL LIFE, WHEN DID YOU FIRST FALL IN LOVE WITH DRAWING?
SOPHIE TAYLOR: I’ve loved drawing for as long as I can remember, and famously have been covered in paint and pen ink since I was old enough to crawl into mum’s art supply stash. But the times I’ve been more involved with drawing and painting, have coincided with the bigger transitions in my life: moving out of home, traveling solo, shitty breakups, falling in love and becoming a mother… All times when I rediscovered drawing. It seems to help me process whatever is going on at the time.
GABRIELLE MILLER: I don’t remember drawing much as a kid. My creative journey started in adulthood when I started experimenting with many mediums and fell in love with performance and making costumes.
NOW, WE HAVE SOMETHING WE LIKE TO CALL THE CH-V QUESTIONNAIRE; BASICALLY JUST A PRESET OF QUESTIONS WE ASK ALL OUR COLLABORATORS. WHAT’S THE LAST THING THAT MADE YOU LAUGH? CRY?
SOPHIE TAYLOR: Recording voice overs for this course made me both laugh and cry.
GABRIELLE MILLER: In Bosnia, over the summer, I took mushies and climbed a mountain and had countless hysterical laughing fits along the way. Then driving down the mountain I welled up and shed some tears listening to “Baby” by DakhaBrakha.
FAVOURITE CURSE WORD?
SOPHIE TAYLOR: Fuck.
GABRIELLE MILLER: Fuck.
If you could have any other name, what would it be?
SOPHIE TALYOR: I used to have a thing for the name Nova, until someone pointed out it was a radio station.
GABRIELLE MILLER: I’ve always liked the name Moonrider.
IT’S LAST CALL AT THE BAR, WHAT ARE YOU ORDERING?
SOPHIE TAYLOR: Margarita or a lager.
GABRIELLE MILLER: Tequila shot!
