"BITTING
BOOB "
HOARD:
You seem to have a fascination with manipulating the human form. What inspires
this fascination? What is it about bodies that interests you?
MARGOT: My fascination with the plasticity of the body was inspired by my parents. I used to look at the pictures of congenital deformations and skin diseases in their medical textbooks. I also visited them at work, and got to look through a window to see my Dad performing surgery on a person. There was blood and I had to leave so I wouldn't faint, but it was inspiring to see that cutting a person can be an act of creation. Before surgery the person was in pain, and afterwards they could walk. Rather than conceptualizing a separation between mind and body, I consider that I AM my body. Because all of our perceptions and expressions pass through our bodies, it takes only a small step to imagine that feelings and thoughts could manifest themselves literally in the body. I manipulate bodies to make those feelings and thoughts appear real.
"KNEAD
STOMACH"
"TWIST"
HOARD:
How long have you been working with the medium of photography? Are you solely
a photographer, or do you work with other art forms?
MARGOT: I've been working with photography since college, since about 1997. I also experimented with a few short video projects and collaborative web design projects when I was a researcher at Fabrica from 2000 to 2002. Fabrica is the communication arts research center of Benetton. In the future I would be happy to work in other mediums along with photography. Video would be the closest medium to my current work, but I would also love to design 3-d objects like fleshy flower vases with sphincters that squeeze the flower stems, or work with an architect to design a house and its interiors, or even design food items like archeological lasagna with dinosaur shapes embedded between the layers.
"SAD
DREAM"
HOARD:
Where did you grow up? What was it like there? Where are you located now?
MARGOT: I was born in Seattle and grew up nearby in suburban Bellevue. When the clouds lift you are suprised to see big dark mountains squatting at the end of the street. Since college I've lived two years in Italy and about one and a half years in San Francisco. I just moved back to the Seattle area two weeks ago, to live near my family. Yes it really does rain quite a bit there, but you know the old saying about blood being thicker than water...
"THORN
HUG"
HOARD: When you have a headache, do you pop a couple of aspirin or are you the kind of person who toughs it out?
MARGOT: Drink water and tough it out.
HOARD:
Carnivore, herbivore or omnivore?
MARGOT: Omnivore.
"MEAT
FEET"
HOARD:
Do you plant your own vegetables?
MARGOT: When I can. When I lived in Italy I didn't have a garden. I stole some dirt from a field and carried it home in a big plastic bag on the back of my bike. I grew a tomato plant and some beans, but they weren't very happy about being confined to plastic containers on my balcony.
"ROOTS"
HOARD:
Can you describe what kind of mental, emotional or psychological process you go
through before you pick up the camera and start working?
MARGOT: I do a lot of preparation before I begin shooting. Sometimes when I want to have ideas, they don't come out. I've been considering how to best prepare myself to think on command, the way athletes train themselves to perform on race day, but I'm still working on that. Usually I sit at the table with paper and a pencil and twirl my hair. Then I work on the props, which includes going on shopping treasure hunts and creating the props through whatever means necessary- sewing, laying rapid-set cement, mixing plaster, painting hot wax, baking entire chickens, making bread dough with chocolate powder to resemble human flesh, etc. Sometimes I ride around on my bike at 6am to scout for the right location with soft morning light. The actual photoshoot is a relatively small part of the whole production. After the shoot I scan the film and often manipulate the images in the computer using Photoshop to layer together pieces from multiple shots.
"EGG
ROCK"
HOARD:
Where do artistic and creative ideas come from?
MARGOT: Creativity is a giant tape worm attached to your innards. It feeds on all your experiences, your thoughts, everything that you see and read and do and feel. When the worm has grown big and fat, it sheds sections of itself. These leave your body in the form of ideas. They go out into the world to infect other people.
"HIGH
HEELS"
HOARD:
Are you working on any new photo projects right now? Any upcoming shows or exhibits?
MARGOT: I am between projects right now. I recently finished a series called "Taking Care" which was inspired by the dismembered bodies in paintings by French surrealist Fernand Leger. I don' t know what is next, but it is festering. Regarding shows, I am actually writing to you from Italy because I just had a show opening on January 29 at the GAS Art Gallery in Turin. It's a 2 person show (with Louisa Raffaelli) and will be open until March 13. My next show is a group show, opening next week on February 4 in Seattle at the Atelier 31 Gallery and it will be up until February 29th.
HOARD: Thanks for your time Margot. [END]
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more MARGOT KNIGHT photography HERE
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