by David Pratt
Feminism, gender, sexuality and capitalism are just some of the topics ‘One Slut Riot’ covers in her thought-provoking artwork.
From Picasso’s surrealism to Andy Warhol’s visual pop art, one of the most important aspects of art is its ability to subvert expectations and help people question their perspectives and challenge perceived norms. Weaving political messages throughout her art, Sierra, who creates under the moniker ‘One Slut Riot’, is all about producing work that subverts, challenges, and celebrates gender, sexuality, animal rights, and anti-capitalism.
How long have you been creating art, and what made you want to start creating?
For about 5-7 years. It’s probably cheesy to say, but I have been creative since childhood, so there wasn’t exactly a breaking point where it landed from the sky. It was more about finding what do you want to do with your creativity, what are your goals, and what do you want to achieve.
What inspires your art and why?
The world around me. I used to channel negativity through paint and just leave it out on canvas, extract it from my mind and body and dump it into a visual mashup. But now I see it differently: art equals inspiring change and raising consciousness. As Picasso said – art is not for decorating apartments, art is a weapon of war.
My artwork is mostly social or political commentary on various daily injustices such as abuse of animals, the planet, capitalism, self-obsession, mass ignorance, anti-state, climate change, political, social and eco issues, repression, stereotyping, homelessness and so on.
A lot of your art seems to have a political message, how important is that and why?
I think creativity is what makes us different from one another, and art is one of the strongest forms of resistance. That is why it is being taken out from schools and not treated seriously. The state wants us to have same thinking patterns. That is why I am calling everyone who finds themselves being creative to rise up and not just to make empty meaningless decorative crap aimed for the walls of the rich, like they teach you in art school, but to (at least once in a while) let your frustrations out and reflect on what you really see around you. Who can keep on painting flowers when there are wars going on and homeless people freezing to death on your doorsteps?
I saw some of the mural work at the most recent Lads Collective event, can you tell me more about that piece and why you chose to do the specific design on the walls of the squat?
Lads is a self-identifying women/non-binary collective orientated mostly around publishing zines and putting on events, exhibitions and gigs. Our last event was all night out blast in celebrating the last issue – Bedrooms, which you can still order from the Lads Collective Website.
The whole building was themed as freak show/circus/weird shit/ girl’s bedroom. I painted a girl’s bedroom for the back of the stage where the bands and performers were, how it looks on Monday mornings (in my opinion). Sex, filth, BDSM, and all sorts of bodily fluids, who disagrees?
Apart from murals, what other kinds of art do you and what is your favourite way of creating your art?
When it comes to studio practice, I am 5 different split personalities. First off, I am an oil painter and I draw, but I am also a tattoo artist and I am getting in to poster, illustration and street art. However, I am trying to narrow my creative outputs down because there is not enough time to be good at everything.
What have the reactions to your art been like?
Oh, that is one of my favourite questions. My ultimate utopia as an artist would be to get booted out of the country or to get banned because of creative methodology used. I think once you start to be recognised as the enemy of the state – there is no higher artistic step to go up to.
With that – I have been censored while exhibiting in University of Derby. I had my 3 paintings called ‘Everyday Catwalk I, II and III’ on display as part of UK young artists Derby show. Because of its ‘explicit’ content my paintings got shoved to the top floor, where there wasn’t even enough distance to stand back and see them. They were approximately 3-4 meters by 2 meters big, so it is an absolute necessity a stand back space to see the whole.
I believe someone complained about it, and the university had to ‘hide them away’ a bit. Even though I find it absolutely ridiculous, as it did not even have any actual nudity in it. All people depicted where wearing something. Would they also sensor Eagon Shiele, Picasso or any of those Bacchanalian paintings?
My stuff has been hidden away in different exhibitions and events, I have been refused participation, my murals have been painted over, paint bombed or barricaded with furniture. All this proves one point – real art should make your nervous. When it causes strong emotions, it satisfies my ego I guess, because it means it works. Fuck the ‘Oh this is so beautiful’ eye pleasing culture – make it real!
With your work being very subversive and different to as you said ‘painting flowers’, how do you make money and a living from your art?
It is a huge struggle to be able to create and not to adjust to art markets. My daily needs are minimal, I am really not a consumer, I don’t buy things I don’t need and I am not really an excellent example of a ‘paying for everything’ citizen. I am also tattoo artist, which is my main income, of which 90% I spend on art materials, art studio rent etc. Even being tattooist, I know if I was really good at stamping flowers, I could make so much more, like lots of people are doing, or if I would be posting pictures of my tits and fake hot selfies after every tattoo on my instagram, my following would be much bigger too. So yes, it is always a struggle not to give up on to those rules on how the system works, even when you think it is fundamentally wrong.
What piece of your work that we’ve seen would you say is the most subversive and why?
I think largely my work is about consumerism and consumerist culture. Just recently I stepped in the whole new world of subverting – replacing public advertising spaces with your own art or fake advertisements. In this I find the distinction between your work being just theoretically ‘subversive’ due to its content, and actually banging it out in public spaces. Replacing a piece of consumerist propaganda with your own fake ads or art is just a very powerful move which also has been really growing in popularity in recent years. I always wanted to have my exhibitions in the street, so random people not generally interested in art would be exposed to it, places like Peckham market for example – the ones that would never go to art gallery, but you can’t really do that with oil paintings, or paper drawings. Subverting posters and adverts is a great bridge on how to bring subversive art in to public spaces without risking losing that painting you have been working on for last 6 months.
On your artist statement on your website you say, ‘For her, commercially conscious art is fake and worthless – another accessory for the privileged’ . What do you mean by this and how is One Slut Riot the opposite of this?
Because most of us creatives are struggling to survive, I see other artists adjusting their practice to make it more commercial so it sells. That’s really sad, because gifted people with the most amazing skills end up painting flowers instead of trying to make this word a better place in some sense. I know if you are full time artist you need to sell something in order to create more, but in this capitalist regime it’s easy to forget why are you creating in the first place, and what truly makes you feel fulfilled!
You can check out more of One Slut Riot‘s amazing work on her website and on her Instagram and Facebook profiles. Here you can check out a short video documenting The Nave collective setting up their exhibition ‘Shame’, which features a clip of Oneslutriot finishing her oil painting, Serena.
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