Poppy Faun is a Brighton based collage artist. She is known for her artwork inspired by the 60’s and 70’s. Her work uses imagery from the past often found in old magazines and applies a modern day context to them. ‘Control 1976‘ is her latest print release with the Enter Gallery in Brighton.
Speaking to the Art Related Noise podcast Poppy Faun explains more about her work. For years mixing her interests of music, fashion and art together. It was only when she solely concentrated on the artwork that this focus allowed her to hone those energies into the style she is known for today. Her first major project, a piece for Playboy came soon afterwards. Asked to illustrate a section of the magazine called ‘A Gentlemen’s Guide to Shrooms”.
Podcast with Poppy Faun
60’s and 70’s Inspirations
Her work since then has evolved. Working with found imagery from printed material, these will often be from the 60’s and 70’s. Using digital technology she will then take and abstract certain elements. The resulting print combines both, neither working without the other. Her finished artwork imbued with meaning, forming a kind of bridge between the eras.
“I’m very much interested in how things were back then” explains Poppy. “There was a point that radically changed…. It’s been involved in all of our lives ever since but people don’t necessarily remember those times”. Music she says is a good example of this. The music released now can often draw it’s roots to something released back then. “Everyone was just trying to do something new”. Modern day fashion, the arts, pop culture can all too take their genesis back to the key booster period of the 60’s and 70’s.
Poppy Faun Collage Artist
It was an initial fascination with old postcards that led Poppy down the collage route. From an artistic family there was a period before where constant experimentation was the driver. It was the colour and texture of the postcards which appealed as well as the unique depictions of life shown within them. It brought to mind a different world and the different time that they remembered. Initially playing around with collage on top of them, the digital work only expanded her ability to do more. “I realised I could create something that I’d found which was about 2cm big, enlarge it and make that the main part of the image”.
Social Media is at the front of Poppy’s mind with her latest work. ‘Control 1976’ is a nod towards how easy it is to get swallowed by it. Typically vibrant it’s no surprise to see the imprint of the sixties running through it. A long road leads into a pair of of open red lips. A TV sits with another closed pair just next to the first. Driving along the road is a car. Seemingly heading into the void, about to be swallowed whole. It’s a metaphor in part for the impact social media can have on our lives. It’s an image indicative of the links Poppy makes from the past till now.
Poppy Faun was interviewed for Art Related Noise, the podcast of Enter Gallery in Brighton. She was interviewed in Brighton on 5 December 2020. You can buy Poppy’s latest print here.
