ART DIRECTION AND SET DESIGN

Carlota, thank you for being with us today, we are so inspired by your work and creativity, please tell us a bit about yourself.

Born and raised in the Canary Islands, I left my hometown to study performance design in the UK where after finishing my degree I began my career in Set Design. Having moved to London after finishing my degree I started finding my way into this industry, once I realised that my passion lies working with large scale objects and spatial design I began focusing and learning about all the different aspects of set design and all the alternative avenues it can be used in. I am currently still living in London however over the past year I have began spending more time working in Spain and I am quite enjoying jumping between these two.

Greatest inspirations or influences?

My influences change a lot throughout the years, I find myself being fascinated by a lot of different and juxtaposing things at the same time so I always find it hard to pinpoint them. However, a forever source of inspiration for me is the surrealist movement, I find that their work inspires me greatly and has always aided me to try and think not only of the contextual meaning and sense of objects  but always trying to push them into becoming something else. I love the way that Dali´s, Magrittes & Ernst´s work challenges the notions of sense and the way they play with colour is also a huge source of inspiration for my work. Recently I have discovered the work of Honoré Sharrer and I am really inspired by her choice of colours and composition.

In all honesty, I can be inspired by almost anything even the most random of objects and finds can spark a thought for me. Looking back at it now, I think this past year where everything slowed down I've had time to really look at things, and therefore  have found myself having a bit more of an awareness to everything around me, probably side effects of having been locked up for a long time this year, hence why lately I can be inspired by anything from a piece of fruit from the local market or by something completely random that catches my eye on my way to work… it truly has been a revelation!

Tell us about your creative process and things you are looking forward to?

My creative process is always somewhat shambolic and erratic. It normally starts off with an image of something that I see either in a book, magazine or online which sparks something in my brain. Once inspired its usually a process of having the idea in my head and then sitting on it for a little while, trying to deconstruct it and at the same time obsessively picking up on things I come across over the next few days/weeks which also contribute to it. After that period of thinking and once I want to get the project moving I normally sit down and research the idea, either on the internet or in books and end up pulling together a set of mood boards and some scribbles which help me narrow down my ideas as well as give them a sense of narrative from which to work from. Mood boards are an incredibly important part of my process as they are a curated vision of the elements which I have in my head, it helps massively with curating my vision as well as gathering a colour palette and a general look & feel for the concept. Once that process is done in some cases I start drawing up the elements and making them into a sketch or a 3D model from which to work from. From that point forth is when I have to start thinking about how to actually make all these things a reality.

The making process is also extremely important for me, over the years I have realised that as much as I love designing and coming up with concepts & ideas I also equally love working with my hands, be it painting, sculpting, sewing and or building. For me, it is extremely hard when due to time restraints I have to send off some elements to be made by someone else as I feel that I lose touch with certain elements of the set as well as creative control. The process of making is incredibly special to me as I feel like I can truly leave a part of myself in those objects that have been made for a specific purpose and which to me give a special sense to the set that no other bought and or hired objects do.

How has this year changed your creativity and how do you see the world moving forward?

2020 was a creative rollercoaster of a year for me. It started off with the prospect of some very exciting large scale projects and jobs planned throughout the year and seeing them flop one by one was very painful. Having been working on some large scale art installations over the past two years which were going to be fabricated during the summer period and having them disappear was terribly sad for me. I had in my head that 2020 was going to be an incredibly important year for me on a professional level as I had some very exciting things in the pipeline but as for most people it all changed.

The initial lockdown was tough for me creatively as all of a sudden the sense that I gave to work had disappeared and I felt a sudden block of creativity. Looking back at it now I  realise that it was probably the fact that I just had no clue what to do with so much spare time, having spent the past 6 years of my life feeling like I was always rushing and never having enough time to accomplish my own projects between jobs it all felt very alien to be to all of a sudden have 3 months to myself. 

After a few months of barely any creative outlets it completely  flipped and for the rest of the year I haven’t stopped thinking, creating, making and being inspired and thrilled to be having an outlet again. It has been wonderful to feel that spark again and I am truly grateful for the creative juices that give a lot of sense to my life! This year has also been great for making me question my own practise as well as finally making decisions on what aspects of my work I want to focus on in the future.

I hope this period of time will make people (myself included) realise that we need to be grateful for all that we have. For me it has been a massive lesson as I realised that I spend most of my life looking forwards and living for the future and barely ever being present and grateful for all the wonderful things in my life that I take for granted. I do believe that having had time out from the usual way of life has allowed a lot of people to really question their lives and having the space for those reflections has been immensely important for a lot of people. 

Icons in your opinion?

I am not a fan of icons however I do believe in inspiring people. 

It is obvious that the world is full of creative and inspiring individuals however I am personally inspired by artists who manage to use their work to campaign for positive activism and social change. In my eyes artists such Nadia Lee Cohen, Tim Walker, Judy Chicago and Vivienne Westwood always resonate with me because I see how they push against social/political boundaries through their work and I am in awe of anyone who can do both - creating beautiful art whilst making it radical and meaningful.

www.carlota-cabrera.com