FLYING THE FLAG II

As a serial devotee to maximalist tastes, Laura Callaghan’s multi-layered illustrations – replete with every shade under the sun, and then some – have enraptured me since the moment I first spied them. The Dundalk-born, London-based artist subverts the traditional tropes of fashion illustration – stick-thin, stylised bodies cloaked in an air of unattainability - by designing naturally diverse women in a colour-soaked, satire-laced world. Having courted attention from Tatty Devine, Tictail and Stella McCartney, to cite but a few commissioning clients, an undercurrent of (excuse the buzzword) realness courses through Callaghan’s oeuvre: her first solo show at Hoxton’s KK Outlet, the ironically titled ‘Aspirational’, toyed with the fauxinspirational quotes spamming social media and hilariously turned them on their head. Her ‘blink-and-you’ll-miss-em’ parodies of wellness brands can be spotted across these works, Where’s Wally style – perhaps my favourite illustration of the bunch involves a woman doing yoga in her pattern-clad apartment, a cardboard box of ‘Doll Prudes’ (WholeFoods) greens discarded behind her, closely reading a copy of ‘Cheat, Flay, Shove’ (I think you’ll catch that ref). In short, these illustrations are sweet nectar for cynics obsessed with punchy prints, but their appeal transcends aesthetics alone. The pressures we face to embody so-called perfection, be this in our bodies or bank accounts, is carefully and compellingly unpacked within Callaghan’s central themes, spawning the kind of comforting, and even galvanising, thoughts that ‘Dream it! Wish it! Do it!’ doesn’t tend to trigger, personally speaking. Alongside a smattering of inventive speakers, Callaghan will retrace her creative output at next month’s Offset, for which tickets are still (if speedily) selling. If you score a weekend pass, make sure to stick around for Wade and Leta’s talk; likewise Leslie David’s. See Design (page 16)

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