Interview: Elizabeth Corrall

Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your background?

I’m a self-taught artist from Kent, UK specialising in collage and self-portraiture. The collages are made of anything I can find, such as photographs of myself, bits of paper cut into shapes and public domain archives.

Can you tell us about the process of creating your work? What is your artistic routine when working?

My ideas often come to me in quite a sporadic way. As soon as I think of something I must act on it and create it which can make routine a little tricky to pin down. One thing that always stays static in my creative process is music, if I’m not listening to music while creating, I almost always hate the outcome! I pride myself in creating playful and experimental art, I enjoy going into all creations in an open and almost childish mindset. The more I can play with the process, the more genuine the end result is! Music helps me process my thoughts down into a rhythm of colour and sound that I can then filter through to my collages.

What artwork have you seen recently that has resonated with you?

The Divine Anima by Dione Jones is a project that I saw through Instagram in the summer. Their photographs have a very whimsical yet gritty and emotional presence that discusses how our bodies are tied to memories. By playing with the photographs, they were able to create such an immortalisation of these memories and emotion that was poignant and has stuck with me since I saw it.

What inspires you?

Horror films, movie soundtracks, my friend PJ, my anxiety, ancient classical sculpture, and mythology inspire me so much, and colour is a big influence on what I create. I see a colour in a film or in the sky and I think ‘I need to make something with that’

How does your queerness interact with your art?

I didn’t really think about making extremely colourful art until I was aware that I am bisexual. Beforehand my art was based a lot on my anxiety and whilst it still is, I can play with it more now as I am comfortable with being playful and imaginative, my art can be in a world where it is at peace in something bright and vivid. Being out and comfortable with my sexuality has allowed my art to become more fluid and colourful.

What would you like the future of the queer art community to look like?

I would love to see a queer art community where every single person has the same opportunities. When I was diagnosed with Crohn’s, I was suddenly aware of the huge amount of disabled and chronically ill queer artists that are not represented in any media, or when they are discussing their art, there isn’t a large audience who want to hear it. In the future I would love to see this change so that every single platform is an equal one.

What is one of your goals as an artist?

I would absolutely love to have my work on lots of album covers, I mentioned earlier how I need music to create, so to be able to have my work on album covers or posters for music is a huge goal for me.

Is there anything in the pipeline you would like to talk about?

Me and a friend are currently in the process of creating a collaborative project of visual art and music. When we first met, he showed me his music, and it feels like a full-circle moment to be creating a big project with him.

Follow them on Instagram! @ahousewithabrain