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Mali Koopman, the model who made a new creative start as an LA-based artist and ceramicist, shares her inspirations.
We ask pre-eminent creatives to mine their inspirations. Mali Koopman, the model who made a new creative start as an LA-based artist and ceramicist with an artisan’s eye, shares hers.
“Chanel Khoury is a painter and sculptor I admire. Her works are fluid scenes with skinlike objects that drift over horizons. I’m always impressed when I visit her studio.”
“In the beginning, making coil pots felt very difficult structurally to me, but it’s such a slow process that you learn a lot from building just one pot. Scale came naturally to me once I figured structure – it felt like the right transition to just keep [my designs] growing in size.”
“[While modelling] I found Sander Lak of Sies Marjan to be inspiring. The campaign that featured himself, Isabella Rossellini and her son is the perfect portrayal of what it’s like to work with him. Aside from having so much adoration for his designs and creative direction, he was always the most welcoming person. In terms of personal style, I admire designer Maryam Nassir Zadeh.”
“[A film I love is] Lars Von Trier’s Breaking the Waves, specifically the chaptered intervals of Scottish landscapes and seascapes. Each interval almost looks like a painting and then mist starts to roll in or water starts to surge.”
“I think about Chris O’Doherty (Reg Mombassa)’s work all the time. My dad had the Mambo Loud shirts, which I’ve always loved … it’s a strangely comforting source of art for me.”
“Reading Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World this year felt particularly relevant. He connects the cultural rise of pseudoscience and irrationality – very poignant – but goes on to explain how historically cyclical this can be. It serves as a warning, although written in 1995.”
“Mum and I have been wearing the same perfume for years, Carnal by Ayu. It’s another comfort that I associate with home and her.”
“I have an old gardening playlist that changes all the time, but the one song that seems to always stay there is My Sister by Tindersticks. It starts to play and I get caught up in the ‘teacher’s pet’ story every time.”