Lucy Loader

Artist and graduate of the Royal College of Art with an MA in Contemporary Art Practice Moving Image (2018) and a BA in Fine Art from Kingston School of Art (2012). Their work specialises in moving image and installation, with a wish to create alternative ways of seeing bodies on screens, to a vision which is less binary, more multifaceted and complex.

Loader has been involved in various group shows which have been self-funded/organised projects, screenings and multi-screen installations. Loader is an artist living near and working in Southampton and in 2018 co-curated a group show called Transmission pit, a public exhibition of moving image works installed in Southampton’s under-ground vaults. While the pandemic Loader has helped with online short talks for Southampton City Art Gallery, one talk spoke of Gillian Wearing’s video from the collection, to inspire others to use the moving image as a medium.

Q: WHAT WAS YOUR ROUTE TO YOUR CURRENT ARTISTIC PRACTICE?

I began drawing from a young age and was encouraged by my dad who draws caricatures. I think this has influenced me more than I realise, these drawings which exaggerated performativity and aspects of character.

I studied painting and performing arts at college, and went onto study a BA in Fine Art where I began questioning aspects of identity. The final year of my BA was an important point in my practice as I began to question our encounters with screens and how they affect the self, gender identity and desire. I was questioning the objectification of women and gender stereotypes within film. I spent my time recording myself lip-syncing to films like Pretty Woman and I started to project these lip-syncs onto installations of remakes of film sets. This was also a time when I was questioning how I was performing with my own gender, and somehow wanting to dismantle that. I began reading up on psychology, feminism and gender. I saved up, and commuted to London to study an MA specialising in moving image. Within my moving image works I felt a need to reclaim and rework the gaze and it became clear within my practice that I wish to create alternative ways of seeing bodies on screens.

Q: CAN YOU IDENTIFY ANY ELEMENTS OF YOUR COMMUNITY OR COLLABORATORS THAT HAVE HAD A STRONG INFLUENCE?

During my time at the RCA we had a group of artists, both students and staff who were making work around the body, gender, and technology and using moving image as a tool to create new ways of seeing. I found this environment supportive and it encouraged my ideas. It was inspiring to work with other artists who specialised in moving image, from straight up filmmaking to animation or who used it to record performances. We learnt from each other and shared techniques.

Being physically apart from this community after university and during the pandemic, has been challenging but it’s highlighted the importance of moving image as a medium, which enables us to share and communicate with these works online and in new ways. This has influenced the way I’d like to continue to show and make work, and the importance to show work in ways we may have never before, to make art more accessible and to allow us to feel connected when we feel isolated.

Q: HOW IS YOUR PROJECT TIED TO THE CIRCA X DAZED CLASS OF 20:21 THEME OF ‘COMMUNION’ ?

The Motion of Our Blood in the Depths of the Universe, responds to the theme “Communion” as sharing in common the peculiarity of being in a body and of existence. The work attempts to visualise an internal expression and reveal identity as a multiplicity, to see the body as a collection of many things, cosmic and technological, interconnected with other beings and nature. Weird, fluid and ever changing, using abjection as a form of liberation, collaging bodies and voices. Has your work been recognised by any public bodies or organisations in the past? Apart from the universities I have attended, my work hasn’t been recognised by any other public bodies/organisations in the past.

Q: HOW WOULD THE CIRCA PRIZE OF £30,000 IMPACT YOUR FUTURE PRACTICE?

The CIRCA PRIZE would have a significant impact on my future practice. It would allow me to make much more ambitious artworks, and this would challenge my practice and how I use moving images as a medium. The prize would enable me to make new work in ways I have never before, expanding my knowledge and advancing my technical ability. The prize would give me recognition to help kickstart my career.

FOLLOW LUCY LOADER ON INSTAGRAM