Designing a Prospect cover can be a difficult process. Aside from all the meetings hashing out what story to feature as the main splash—what matters most? Will it still matter a month from now?—the team must also decide on a way to represent that story which is eye-catching and original.
It was this that led creative director Mike Turner to approach a new type of artist to “illustrate” June’s How to save the planet issue: Lizzie Campbell, better known as Clay Disarray.
A clay artist based in Warwickshire, Campbell has previously created miniature clay sculptures of Lennon and Yoko Ono, Frida Kahlo and the Mona Lisa, and worked on campaigns for Sony and size?. Speaking to Prospect, she explained that the medium was one she took to at university.
“While working in a communications role for a national charity, I decided to go back to university to complete a visual communication degree,” Campbell said. “It was during a clay workshop that I discovered clay as a creative medium, and I was immediately drawn to the material.”
“My first love has always been illustration, but I struggled though the years with trying to find a style that felt completely my own, so I was really keen to explore illustration through clay and mixed media. Thus Clay Disarray was born!”
For her Prospect commission, a lot of creative freedom was involved. “In starting off a project, I’ll always work with rough sketches or photographic mock-ups with models I have hanging around the studio to work out placement and scale,” she explained. “This is an essential part of the process, as I need to have a clear idea of what I’m working on before I begin any sculpting.”
“Also, final work can look very different to 2D sketches, and even what I visualised in my mind, so there always needs to be creative freedom to be able to alter elements, or even change them completely, which happens pretty often.”
“Therefore, it can be a very time-consuming process, but I love it nonetheless.”
Of course, part of what makes Campbell’s work so arresting is that a medium most people think of as a light, fun one—perhaps thinking back to school days—is used to create art rooted in contemporary politics and culture.
“I think once you get to your forties, it’s pretty hard not to be in some way influenced by politics and the world around you,” Campbell says when Prospect raises this point.
“I’ve always been interested in pop culture and I find lots of inspiration from the news, entertainment world, art galleries, chats with friends, and well, everywhere really.”
“I think my best project work will always involve more adult themes, as it creates an interesting, slightly absurd blend with my overly child-friendly aesthetic, so these are definitely the kind of projects I try to seek out.”
