Morag Mysercough

Living Colour

Photo: Gareth Gardner

Belonging Protest

Surrounded by a riot of vivid colour, Morag Mysercough’s distinctive style has brightened up everything from concrete structures and music festivals to hospitals and schools.

Not one to shy away from a clash of neon, her beautifully aesthetic stripes and shapes have been used to speak to and build stronger communities, help patients recover quicker and pupils gain better grades.

Working and living in a converted victorian pub in the heart of Hoxton with her partner and collaborator Luke Morgan and Westie dog, Elvis, Last year Morag produced a special installation for deTour at PMQ in Hong Kong.

Las Vegas, Photo: Luke Morgan

Who or what are your biggest influences?

The every day and the environments I experience. Embracing the unknown. Always discovering, always looking until I start seeing. Life.

Today’s design community faces a wealth of difficult issues. How do you rise to the challenge of creating a more positive future?

My mission is to make work that people connect with, that means something to them, that starts to help build stronger communities and a strong sense of belonging. My work has many layers; if it just makes people smile that is OK, but if people can spend the time, they will be able to start seeing more. Or people may connect their own narratives or stories to the work. We have a responsibility, we must be accountable for our work and we should address and discuss and try to bring people together.

I do feel more and more that we need art/design to stimulate us and transport us from the everyday. I do not believe in the phrase ‘a new normal’. I have always disliked the word ‘normal’. For a while we were all on pause. We have all experienced this together, we have had time that we have never had collectively before in the majority of our lifetimes to spend reflecting, to start understanding, rethinking about what is important to us as individuals, families, local communities and the global community. I believe it is impossible to predict the future and we are living in ‘A New Now’, we need to embrace and find ways of moving forward in the here and now, we are in the midst of seismic changes and we must aim to make a better sustainable world.

What do you believe the responsibility of an artist and designer is when it comes to the local community?

The world is in turmoil and in a time of massive change and extreme inequalities. People do not want to be told how to live, there is no ‘one way’. It is important to work with each community group individually. It is not about assuming what people want, it is about understanding the individual needs and to see if you can be useful and assist with making their vision a reality, to work together to collaborate. It is important for the communities you work with that you prove yourself and people trust you, you listen and then respond, and hopefully make a piece of work that collectively you never imagined was possible. This can also start a massive change.

I recently completed 48 bedrooms in Sheffield Children’s Hospital. I wanted to make rooms that worked for all ages of patients and families. Sometimes the young people were in the hospital for long periods so the space needed to feel warm, like home. At first, my artwork was rejected as the clinical staff thought that the proposals were too wild and would visually disturb the young patients. I listened but also thought it might be the way I presented them on a screen (it is difficult to visually jump from an image on a screen to a 3D space). So I made 4 x scale models of the bedrooms and sent them to the hospital. The arts commissioner did a survey with the patients and the clinical staff and this time 92% wanted the bedroom designs. The bedrooms were put into production and are now being used and already patients are recovering quicker and the staff, patients and families are much happier. I could not ask for a better result.

You are from a circus family. Has this been an influence on your use of colour and shape?

My English great grandfather was a clown and my German great grandmother a high diver in the French circus, and another great French grandfather was a salon painter in Paris. My grandfather was a violinist and my French grandmother a milliner. My father a viola player, my uncle a violinist and my Scottish mother a textile artist. I was brought up in a bohemian family surrounded by performance and making. I feel being introduced to so much creativity when I was a small child, and throughout my upbringing, rubbed off on me. My home was full of music, colour and laughter. I grew up in a very grey part of London (Holloway) so I was always super excited when the funfair came to town in the holidays. I have loved the magical transformation the traveling circuses and funfairs can have on a place; one minute they are there and then they have disappeared.

How do you choose which projects to take on?

Often people contact me after either meeting me, listening to me talk or seeing the work in the press. I consider very carefully the projects I take on. The project needs to connect with me or I am unable to do it. I designed a limited edition packaging for Method eco cleaning products, and when I agreed to the project, I negotiated they would give me a good sum of money to build the courtyard garden at the Sheffield Children’s Hospital which would not have been possible without their help.

You’ve collaborated on some of your projects with architects. What are the benefits of working this way?

My main collaboration has been with the architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (from 2007—2014) we worked on nine new Academy’s and Schools together. We would collaborate with everybody involved and aim to make schools that people felt they are part of and belonged to them. The schools have proven to be very successful and the student’s grades have improved yearly. Seven years later, the last school in 2015, Burntwood School, won the RIBA Stirling Award for Architecture. Our schools are often used as an exemplar.

Why did you choose this route as opposed to exhibiting in a gallery environment?

Outside is a free gallery for everybody. You do not have to decide to go in, you can just come across it. You can like it, you can hate it, but I would be sad if you were indifferent towards it. I love when my work is in brutal harsh environments, the contrast and materiality excite me. When people question how bright and colourful my work is, I respond by saying, ‘think about how wonderful colourful and joyful flowers are when suddenly they are in bloom’.

For more information about Morga’s projects see: studiomyerscough.com Instagram @moragmyerscough

MAKE HAPPY THOSE WHO ARE NEAR AND THOSE WHO ARE FAR WILL COME

For deTour 2019

Courtyard & Marketplace, PMQ, 35 Aberdeen Street, Central, Hong Kong

“In response to these worldwide times of turbulence, heightened anxiety and negativity, we need to find ways of coming together and at the same time understanding people’s differences, ‘one fits all’ does not work. It was important to make a piece of work that is full of positivity, hope and strength, and produces a genuine smile on your face, that ideally becomes contagious. Studies have shown that smiling releases endorphins, natural painkillers, and serotonin. Changing the mood for the better. Feeling ‘happy’ cannot be quantified and our structure reflects this in its wild maximalist celebration of joy to the world. Drawing you into the intimate pale pink glowing space to house the very delicate, beautiful, responsive, interactive installation by the artists Ware.”