GRAPHIC DETAIL
A Prada campaign catapulted Australian artist Stellar Leuna’s feminist characters into the spotlight. Here she talks to Sophie Tedmanson about finding beauty in the dark side.
A Prada campaign catapulted artist Stellar Leuna’s feminist characters into the spotlight.
VOGUE: YOU HAVE A FASCINATION WITH THE OCCULT AND MAGIC AND WE READ THAT THIS STEMS FROM A CHILDHOOD FASCINATION WITH THE WIZARDOFOZ. IS THIS TRUE AND, IF SO, WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE DARK SIDE THAT INTRIGUES YOU?
SL: “I love the imagery and the mystery within witchcraft. It’s something people have practiced in almost every culture for as long as humans have existed. I think it has a lot to do with people wanting to find meaning in our existence, a lot like religion or philosophy, but there isn’t really a need to prove that it’s real.
“Guillermo del Toro once described perfectly why he loves horror so much and it was because he felt that in a world that worships beauty and perfection, horror is a way for him to explore the ugliness and the imperfections of people, which I thought was so true. Maybe in a similar way I am drawn to things that look or sound ‘ugly’ because it feels most honest to me. This is why I love punk and metal and comics, because they challenge what is considered good or beautiful and actively try to destroy them.” VOGUE: WHEN DID YOU FIRST REALISE ILLUSTRATION AND GRAPHIC ART WAS THE ART FORM YOU WANTED TO WORK IN? SL: “What I do for a living is exactly the same thing as what I’ve done my whole life: drawing pictures in my room by myself. I know I get my best ideas when I am alone without distractions. My studio is in my apartment; I don’t have a separate studio outside of that, because I just enjoy the comfort of being at home. This career just fits my lifestyle and personality and I can’t really see myself doing anything else.” VOGUE: WHAT INSPIRES YOU? SL: “Film, music and the people I have met throughout my life.” VOGUE: DESCRIBE YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS: WHERE DOES YOUR NARRATIVE COME FROM AND ARE YOUR CHARACTERS/EVENTS INSPIRED BY ANYONE IN PARTICULAR? HOW OFTEN AND WHERE DO YOU DRAW? SL: “When I was a teenager I was really infatuated with the stereotype of being a ‘messy artist’ who used a million different types of paint, but I later on realised that doesn’t work for everyone. I only use one medium right now and that’s black ink and brushes.
“I really like to think about my own experiences and combine that with fiction, and I guess visual inspiration comes from a still from a movie I just watched or a song I was listening to. I try to draw every day or think about ideas whenever I am doing other things. I can become weirdly obsessive over a single idea and will try to think of as many different ways to draw it.” VOGUE: THERE IS A LOT OF STRENGTH IN YOUR CHARACTERS. HAVE YOU ALWAYS BEEN STRONG-MINDED, OR DO YOU FIND STRENGTH THROUGH ART? SL: “I don’t think I can draw what I draw without it feeling like it’s
coming from an honest place. If I am not feeling confident then usually what I draw doesn’t turn out good. I really need to be in a positive state of mind in order to get anything done. I know the subject matter is usually fictional, but the emotions that I try to convey through my drawings are real.” VOGUE: YOU ARE DESCRIBED AS A FEMINIST ARTIST – DO YOU AGREE? HOW DOES IT FEEL BEING IN THE MIDST OF THIS CURRENT WAVE OF INTERSECTIONAL FEMINISM?
SL: “I am proud of it and I do not take any of it for granted. But I’ve never felt like race or gender should determine the opportunities that you get or don’t get in life, so why would I expect it now? As long as we keep fighting for equality, I hope gender and race will eventually not be an issue we have to debate within any industry.
“I have thought about my place in the Western art world a lot. Being Chinese and living in Australia, I have spent my whole life thinking about my race and like I don’t belong here even though I’ve lived here for 25 years. Before minorities were acknowledged and encouraged to have a voice, we just had to put up with discrimination and brush it off. I don’t like being given opportunities in art simply because of my race or gender even now, because then it becomes something I get out of sympathy or charity, like a participation award. While it is important to be inclusive within certain contexts, it’s very patronising when someone asks to put me in a show because they ‘need more people of colour’. It can sometimes feel like they’re doing it more for their benefit than that of the artist.
“The one thing that matters most to me is that other people who are like me, regardless of race or gender, can look at my art and feel like they can do anything they want.” VOGUE: YOU’VE MOVED INTO COMMERCIAL WORK THROUGH VANS AND THE GALERIES VICTORIA, AND YOUR WORK FEATURED IN THE PRADA SPRING/ SUMMER ’18 COLLECTION. HOW DID THE PRADA COLLABORATION COME ABOUT? TELL US ABOUT THE CHARACTERS IN THE PRADA COLLABORATION. SL: “They just emailed me! There wasn’t a lead-up to it or anything; I just woke up one morning and read my emails just like any other day. A lot of people hear this and think it must be crazy to work for Prada, but they operate just like any other company and we discuss everything the same way I would with any other client. It’s very normal and unglamorous. I didn’t even get to go to Milan fashion week, because it was such a short time frame between conceptualising the collection and the show, and I was working on a huge illustration project at the same time. I wish I could have gone to see it though.” VOGUE: YOU ARE AN IDENTICAL TWIN! WHAT IS THIS LIKE? IS SHE ARTISTIC? SL: “Being a twin is very weird, even though I don’t really know any other way of being. Whenever one of us does something remotely significant we have to tell each other right away. There were also many points in our life where we felt like we had to actively be different to one another, because we were constantly fighting over silly things due to our personalities being almost identical.
“She is actually a jewellery designer and has her own label called Lyleu. Her work is very much inspired by a lot of the same things. We always drew together as kids and both always knew we’d be artists when we grew up, but ultimately we took different paths. She’s always been way more into jewellery than I am, and her style of drawing was always very different.” VOGUE: WHAT DO YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT BEING AN ARTIST? SL: “The freedom.”