Joey Yu

This summer we were given the opportunity to visit the wondrously colourful artist, Joey Yu. A ray of sunshine as we enter her home, Joey's energy mirrors her exquisite mark making and vibrant colour pallets. Her dream like illustrations, animations and ceramics a reflection of the world around her: Joeys home studio is scattered with colourful illustrations and figures from an ongoing ceramics projects created in a recent stint in isolation. With the likes of The Tate, The New York Times, Hermes and Lulu Guinness as recent collaborators, we can't wait to sit down with Joey and learn more.

Can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your background?

I am a London born and based artist, though my mum and dad are from Hong Kong and Malaysia respectively- throughout my life I've visited these two places.

Could you tell us about your creative process? Could you tell us about your creative process?Could you tell us about your creative process?

The process is mainly just reaction, reacting to colours touching each other, reacting to emotions that I have, reacting to things I see.
I'm messy and sporadic: that is the creative process I'm afraid!

You've mentioned that you often get inspired by your dreams, could you tell us a little bit about that and where else your inspirations come from?

Mainly I love to sleep.. but! I think dreams allow you to escape the rigidity of waking hours. There's a lack of control, although that can be terrifying! Often I am quite intrigued by the dream laws of physics and perspective. I love strange perspective. Films like The night is short, walk on girl or Tekkonkinkreet completely get it right for me. One of my favourite animations I saw at university that was super formative was a short by Jonathan Hodgson called Nightclub. The way it moves and morphes is etched in my brain.

Which project has been the most rewarding to you so far and why?

Anything that has allowed me to meet new people and travel. I'm constantly amazed by

You have such a great sense in fashion, what or who influences your style?

Ebay! Carboot sales and charity shops, anything like that. I love rifling through and finding funny clothes, strange clothes, things with potential. I love getting dressed like drawing a picture, picking a colour pallette and collaging materials together.

In your opinion, how are illustrators going to be impacted by technology in the next decades?

I think mark making will last forever. Of course, tech is going to expand that visual language into new territories- but I don't think it discounts simple painting or drawing. The landscape just grows and accommodates. I'm wholey optimistic about the whole thing, and you can see other people are too! I hope schools and education systems don't forget how valid it is though, especially somewhere like London which is such a cultural capital.

What's next for Joey Yu?

Some nice collaborations that should be coming out this autumn/winter, and as things slowly unfurl again- the opportunity to draw more people in real life, shows.. and hopefully a chance to visit some new places!

Joey Yu

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