The evolution of your practice in terms of medium, firstly from illustrations to sculpting, working with styrofoam, to jesmonite and then your mirror sculptures – later, to wood, concrete, and now both raw earth and clay, has been a gradual, and yet radical one. One consistency throughout, however, has been the use of animals as subjects. What is it about animals that has kept you bound to them creatively, for all this time?
Arran Gregory: That’s a really good question, because that’s the centre of why I create – this question of: ‘Who are we as animals?’ I find that through observing nature, I can learn about myself and the world, and thus, use animals as characters to explore the self. In the beginning, the animals like the Bear Safe illustration that I did for Slam City Skates, were simply illustrations that people could wear and express parts of themselves. In time, I realised how much people resonated with certain animals, like the bear, in a personal way. For example, there’s an interesting story, where one of the Slam City Skates owners was at Glastonbury and knew Colin Greenwood from Radiohead. When Colin saw his Bear Safe t-shirt design that I’d drawn, he asked him for one and wore it during a secret set that they were scheduled to play. Colin said that he wanted to wear it because he gets nervous on stage, and wearing it would make him feel more confident. Firstly, I was honoured that Radiohead’s bassist was wearing my t-shirt on stage, but I also liked the fact that it captured how I felt in terms of how we learn about ourselves and can identify with animals in powerful ways.
So the animals within your works, almost serve as totems?
AG: Exactly. I think the question of our relationship with nature is something that I’m forever exploring, because there are so many ways of seeing it. There’s this idea that we’re separate from nature – that we’re humans and they’re animals, and I think therein lies the confusion of why we’ve become so detached from a thing that is essentially, from a totality that we are also a part of. Within the idea of separation, I personally feel that we’re dislocating ourselves from the world, and we’re starting to believe so much more in these human narratives, be it the commercial world, capitalist societies, or the internet – our technology.
Towards the start of your career, skateboarding seemed to play a focal part in your life, through your links to both PWBC and Slam City Skates, as well as being a skateboarder in your own right. What was the scene like back then in those early days in the ’00s? Was skateboarding an active influence on you as an artist at all?
AG: Yeah, I used to go to Cantelowes skatepark quite a lot, and South Bank too every day while I was at university. Back then, the Hold Tight London edits (filmed by Hold Tight Henry a.k.a. Henry Edwards-Wood) were being filmed – he was a huge part of documenting the scene, with each edit coming out like every few months. Slam City Skates were a big part of the scene, and Palace Skateboards were just getting started. I was down at Wayward Gallery with a couple of other mates at the time, and so all of the skate-related events came through us. At that time it was just a bunch of skaters and artists living together in a warehouse, wanting to create with our friends. Things felt a lot less global than they do now. There was so much involved in skateboarding and back then – it challenged trends and championed visuality. Things felt more organic – people were doing stuff because they wanted to, as opposed to necessarily wanting to gain followers – I mean, there were still elements of social media, but nothing quite like what we have right now. That said, I’m sure that there is still so much of that organic creativity and boundary-pushing happening, especially in street skating.
I would say skateboarding had a significant effect on the way I experienced the world in terms of play and repurposing architecture. There’s this idea of looking for spots and reusing architecture in a city, in a way that it was not necessarily prescribed for, using your creativity and vision. For example, the angle of a bank that goes into some steps or a ledge and a rail, which I’m not going to skate in the way that everyone else does. Skateboarding allows this childlike creativity to continue into adulthood. I’d also say that skateboarding helped the way I perceive space, and is how a lot of geometry has come into my work. Then there’s the graphic side of skateboarding and the cultural side too, so rich in imagery, art and design, as well as music and fashion.
