South African supermodel-turned-photographer Josie Borain debuted her first ever mixed media exhibition at Joburg’s Hazard Gallery last month. Here she tells Grazia about meeting Jean-Michel Basquiat and life in NYC in the 80s.
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You spent many years in New York – has this affected the style of your work?
Absolutely. It was my home for 13 years and that gritty aesthetic of graffiti and posters plastered onto walls over one another has definitely filtered into the work, giving it a layered effect. And while it’s very much a reference to that time and that city, this collage of surfaces is also not unlike life – that idea that we’re made up of layers, mistakes, experiences – that we can never really fully remove the residue of the past, even if you peel off layers there’s always something left behind.
How would you describe your style?
I’ve got no formal training – so my style is very much one of winging it, being experimental. But in some way or another, I’ve been ‘making art’ forever – through various channels. My home, Instagram, photography… I consider these all extensions of my art. As far as this collection of work goes, I’ve use mixed media, and it’s really just a physical manifestation of my life and what goes on in my head – it’s messy and disorganised. I’m also a huge hoarder and the work documents or uses things I’ve picked up and kept over the years, so in that way, it’s also a bit autobiographical.
What does the process of art making entail for you?
It’s a slow one. Using glue and paint means leaving it to dry in between layers. This has an interesting side-effect as well, in that sometimes I come back after having had a break and don’t like something I’ve done and change it entirely – at the end you like some of the works and really don’t like others.
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Would you agree that there are elements of Jean-Michel Basquiat in the mark-making?
I knew Jean briefly while I lived in New York, and was a big fan of his work. There are definitely parallels between the styles. He could draw of course, and I can’t, but his more abstract work definitely. I’ve also been reading about him and his methods recently and was inspired to go and get an oil stick to try – which might also be a reason there’s a likeness. It’s funny, at the time I had no idea what direction my career would take or I’d probably have made a point of watching him much more closely.
A lot of the images used in the works are photographs of you… is this in reference to your modeling days?
I found a whole bunch of Polaroids my first husband Pierre had taken many years ago when I was much younger, and I liked them, so they found their way into the works. And although they document my days in fashion, they’re more about my life than my career as a model – with that being a part of my life. I’m 53, I have a lot of history behind me…