“And while they were angry at the world at least they were angry together”
This quote from Beth Webb’s article “How Vicious Schoolgirl Gangs Sparked a Media Frenzy in Japan” for VICE really put into words what I was trying to achieve with this work.
“I took this residency as an opportunity to expand and work on my previous work – looking at representing all types of women, girl gangs and friends fighting injustices together. At the beginning I created a digital folder full of ideas, references and inspirations along with a playlist, which was the jumping off point for the initial ideas and sketches. It was extremely self indulgent – and I looked at it as a chance to draw the coolest characters I could think of. I also wanted to challenge myself to incorporate backgrounds and ground my characters in a location, which I’ve avoided in the past. Considering the composition of the designs and the layouts for the clothing was very important to me as well and I did this by creating digital mockups and experimenting.
Once final designs were chosen I redrew these in Photoshop, which were then printed onto the Gocco screens and used to “screenprint” the designs onto the tshirts, sweaters and fabric for the patches. Packaging and labels were then finalised digitally, Risograph printed and put together by the wonderful team at Out of the Blueprint. It was a truly awesome experience, and I feel endlessly grateful for the opportunity.”
Alice has lived in Scotland her whole life and she has been drawing for as long as she can remember, making up stories and dream outfits for her dolls as a kid. She studied illustration at both Telford College (now Edinburgh College) and Duncan of Jordanstone Art College in Dundee.
Alice loves pop culture, women, teenage nostalgia, gifs and all things tacky or sparkly and is an avid consumer of all types of media – specifically cinema, music and fashion. Her work is bold and colourful, inspired by all the media she consumes, as well as iconic dolls of the 90s, such as Betty Spaghetty, Bratz and Barbie.
Through her work Alice channels her anger with the world, love of women and the importance of friendships – hoping to create images of women rarely seen in the media. Expanding on her previous “Girl Gang” work she hopes to continue to represent all types of people, their interests and what makes them unique.
