[MAGAZINE] RACHEL NOBLE
LONDON BASED DIGITAL ARTIST, RACHEL NOBLE, SPEAKS TO VIPER ABOUT HER MODERN METHODS OF CREATING ART.
What’s your process when creating an artwork and how does it differ when making a video or flyer?
I think it has to exist as a thing in itself more – for me it just needs to have more weight, its own atmosphere or language. It needs to pull you in more. I tend to spend more time with it until it feels ‘complete’. More subtle alterations, pushing things back and forth more, getting the spatial elements feeling right or weird, focusing more on the details. It needs to have multiple levels in the way you see it or look at it. It’s hard to explain how the process might differ, I work quite intuitively most of the time. A flyer is something that has the function of sharing information and promoting an event. It has a shelf life, the text often does half the work for you and most people opt for the simpler edits you do for clarity, so I tend to spend less time on them and just have more fun with it. A video in the same way has a function and has to exist alongside the music and work that is already contained within it. On the other hand, I also think you can make artwork out of anything you make, whether it’s just a flyer or visuals for music.
You’ve worked with a lot of stars in the UK grime and rap scene, are you often fans of the artists you work with?
Totally, it’s a scene I totally love and get a lot of energy from. It makes sense to me, it feels like family. People I work with are often friends first or become friends after. I have a real interest in supporting all the people I work with and it’s often a two-way thing, valuing each other’s creativity and moving forward together.
Is there someone who you dream of creating imagery for?
It would also be amazing to work with Björk – I grew up listening to my mum playing her albums. She’s always way ahead of her time and no one ever comes close to what she does creatively.
Where do you get inspiration from?
I think a lot of my inspiration arises from emotion and intuition. Working out ways to visualise and express sensual, spiritual, emotional, mental states, experiences. Painful, beautiful, ecstatic, nihilistic, maybe they are like extreme states of being that need a way to get out that isn’t too destructive. Hence why I also get a lot of inspiration from music and people who make music.
What’s the end goal for you in your career?
I just want to keep moving forward. I don’t want to stop creating and learning, even when I’m really old. I want to generate energy that continues to make more energy. I want to be able to visualise ideas more clearly and make things bigger and more ambitious. I guess I just want to fulfil my potential and enjoy it along the way. Music and the people who come together to experience and make music will always be a part of that. But I do want to start exploring my own practice as an artist again, maybe even end up with some work in a gallery again and a sunny studio space somewhere warm.
This is an extract from Issue 7, The Barely Legal Issue of Viper Magazine. Read more from the magazine here. Buy physical and digital copies here.
