AN INTERVIEW WITH EDWIN ROSTRON THE 22 MAGAZINE: Can you give me a little history about where you grew up and how you first started working in art?
EDWIN ROSTRON: I grew up on the outskirts of Newcastle upon Tyne, in the North East of England. I always liked to draw. My parents taught art when I was a child. They both painted, my mum still does. My dad drew cartoons which I guess had a big effect on me. I got taken to lots of exhibitions; there were art books in the house. It’s always been part of my life.
THE 22: It was mentioned that your works reflect the “Post-Industrial England” that you grew up in.
Can you talk a little about what this means environment-wise and as an artist?
ER: The North East of England used to be famous for its coal mining and shipbuilding industries,
but these were in rapid decline by the time I was a child. I lived in a fairly pleasant suburb, but further out on the fringes there were expanses of wasteland, big grey fields, scrap yards, derelict pit depots covered in graffiti—places where strange, murky things might happen. I used a lot of photos of these places in my early work. Now I live in London. It is quite a different kind of environment, but still I find myself drawn to places which seem to exist slightly outside of the normal functional world, which there are plenty of in London.
THE 22: You attended The Royal College of Art a few years after your undergrad, correct? Why you
did you decide to go back?
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