Catching Up With Artist Jamie House
Let's get to it - Jamie House is one of the most fascinating artists working in the UK today. From producing live visual and lighting design for Ministry of Sound, to acting as (in all seriousness) a Rainbow Consultant for Netflix, to creative directing DIY art spaces in Northern England, Jamie engages with art on all levels and in many ways.
Hailing from Yorkshire, Jamie's work is highly entangled with light. His fascination in the luminary stems from an interest in mysticism and art forms which are ephemeral - they do not last forever and are meant to be appreciated in a single moment of existence.
Having worked with Blue Nude for the past six years, designing our logo, event graphics, collaborating on the Saturna collection, and more, we were due for a public catch-up in honour of our most recent collaboration: the Prism Sleeveless Top.
Blue Nude: Life has changed a lot since we last spoke. You've moved to the Calder Valley in Yorkshire, for example. Why are you drawn to this area of the UK?
Jamie House: The Calder Valley has a rich history of being a little bit outside of the bracket in one way or another - there's plenty of interesting bits of history from the coiners to luddite movements and whispers of Robin Hood. That vein seems to have continued today and it has an against-the-grain culture which attracts people from all over the country. There's a big DIY art and music scene there which has been really inspiring to see up close and get involved with.
BN: You also move around a lot for your art. What's life on the road like for a visual artist whose work takes them to festivals and film sets across the UK?
JH: I thoroughly enjoy moving around - I feel like it keeps the waters from getting too stagnant. Having varied and unique projects to work on really adds to this and keeps me feeling like I'm in motion and inspired - my attention span really lends itself to working on different things every couple of days. I enjoy spending time alone creating so it makes it easy to take myself off and do this in between periods of working in highly sociable environments.
BN: You value the idea of British identity reconnecting with its pagan roots. Could you explain why this is important to you?
JH: Because of the lack of written histories, we don't really know too much about the factual pagan roots of Britain, but a lot of people still relate to it ideologically - in a lot of ways it's the folklore that matters more than the facts. A lot of what we know about the druids are Roman accounts which are more than likely propaganda designed to make the citizens at home feel ok about conquering the violent primitive people on far away lands, so just as in modern times these accounts need taking with a mountain of salt. I think for me reconnecting with paganism is about asking ourselves what life and community was like before power structures, such as the church and empires, barged in and started shouting at everyone. I don't particularly follow paganism as a religion, but I often find myself in circles adjacent to it and there is a real resurgence right now with people like Zakia Sewell, Ben Edge, Stone Club and Weird Walks all doing their bit to bring these discussions into mainstream culture.
BN: You used prisms to create the rainbow lights used for the print in our latest collaborative design. Why are you drawn to light and prisms?
JH: I like to work with light and prisms in an alchemical way - they are great for reflecting on. Splitting a single light source into almost infinite hues which all contain the information of the original has a nice metaphor behind it when it comes to thinking about the way the soul is viewed in the mysticism of different cultures at different times around the world. There are few symbols with more universal meaning than light itself. Everybody loves a rainbow. Experimenting with projection through these refractive surfaces brings endless surprises and I am constantly discovering new techniques and nuances which feed back into my own work.
BN: If there were a medium of art you'd like to try, what would it be, and why?
JH: I already work across quite a lot of mediums and I'm a bit of a 'jack of all trades' so I think I would have to choose something which is novel which I know nothing about. I would love to try video game art and 3D worlds - I think we are entering a fascinating time for being able to create experiences for people. Video game and virtual world design brings forward great possibilities for artists, especially when spatial audio and VR comes into the picture. Being able to program the whole 'gallery' or 'show' experience as one holistic experience with the art itself could be a beautiful thing and will hopefully further democratise the process of being able to communicate your work to more people in more places.
BN: You've been getting (well-deserved) attention recently for your taste in music. What musical wave are you riding right now - what's stimulating your ears?
JH: Right now I am really enjoying music with live musicians and instruments in. Since moving to the Calder Valley I have been exposed to a lot of this and it has brought me back to my time playing drums and producing in bands in my early 20s. As a DJ I'm often playing the more electronic side of things, so it has been refreshing to bring things back to where they started and find more human-centric sounds. My favourite band of recent times has been Vanishing Twin - their blend of magic, music and visual art direction is unmatched for me.
BN: What's next on your creative adventure?
I am currently designing all the branding and artwork and installation pieces for a new club in Sheffield called 'The System' which is a lot of fun and might well be finished by the time this interview is published. I also have a tarot deck, a film and a secret society all due for release in the next 6 months, but they were also due for release in the last 6 months and have so far failed to materialise, so let's see what happens. They will all exist at some point, probably.
