SG: What course did you study at UAL and what is your practice?
JMK: When I was younger, I hadn’t been to university the first time around so I did a foundation year in art when I first left school at a local college (I went to East ham tech). I actually went to Kingston to do fashion but not for very long as I realised it wasn’t for me. What I loved about fashion was the visual and the photographic side of it and I thought I could get into that area, but it was much more about pattern cutting and it was all technical. I thought this is not going to suit me at all because I can’t be creative in that way. So, I left there and I went back to East ham tech and did graphics, which I really loved because it was much more visual (I was making book covers, record covers and screen printing).
After my first year, I started to play in a band, I put an all-girl band together in the late 1970s. I don’t know why I started playing the drums, but I did and I spent over 30 years playing in bands professionally. So, I moved out of London because it was for work really (and it was cheaper). We started up a small business and the only way we could do it was to get some help. Then I brought my kids up and when they moved back, they went to university and I thought, ‘everybody’s been to university and I’ve not been to university and this is the one time in my life that I could probably do this.’ So, I applied to Central Saint Martin’s because I thought I’ll start at the top and see what happens. I have been to life drawing classes, I carried on drawing and painting, so I had my life drawings and I got into the foundation there. As I was a mature student, I did part-time as I had to work as well.
From the foundation, I applied for the BA Fine Art course – which I also did part-time. I got a first, which was amazing. The last few years at CSM, I was working in the 4D department (moving image). It was funny because I went in as someone who likes to draw and paint and they kind of pulled the carpet out and said no, look at this field. I remember I was so scared, I had no idea where I was going, but it was such a good thing for me to be so unsettled by the whole concept of art and the different ways you could go and learn about different ways of artists saw things. That was the most exciting thing for me and I began to make short films. Then I moved to Brighton during that period. I applied to do a MA in filmmaking at Sussex university because I thought if I am going to base my practice on film – it’s not that I want to make like big-budget films or that kind of mainstream sort of film but I needed to know the kind of theory of filmmaking to be able to know the rules, then you know how to break them so, that’s what I did. I did the MA in a year and the film I made for my graduation won a prize in London and then a few other things I made got recognised.
SG: What inspired the piece you submitted for the Tell us about It project and why did you want to take part?.
JMK: My tutor at the time in on the Foundation Course, James Swinson, it was towards the end and he suggested that I enter it – I didn’t know anything about it. Primarily I like the idea of it because of what it represents – it represents people like myself, you know I was a mature student who had never been to university and that was important for me to give that voice and all the other kinds of voices that are part of the project were really important, so that really attracted me to it and the piece I submitted was the first film I ever made. I am very fond of that piece because I knew nothing about making films. I was always into those kinds of simple films that are like fairy tales so I wanted it in that style. I wrote the script and I got my two nephews to do the narration. It was easy making the pictures because that’s the bit I love doing and I thought if it’s going to be like a fairy tale, it’s got to be very simple and naïve. So, I made the little scenes and the little models, found the little dolls – all of my work is like that but it’s more about the sound that goes with it, the voices are important. The music and rhythms are important and I think that comes from me being a musician as well. My journey through that foundation, it just opened up a whole world to me and I wanted to show where I’d come from and where I came to. I wanted to show that journey of how it opened up a world of colour, art and all the possibilities.
SG: How has your practice developed since you graduated?
JMK: As I mentioned, I went to do a film course. What I loved about that course was I did modules that were more about film theory which I found really interesting. I am very much concentrated on women artists because I was a mature woman and I wanted to see what women of my age had made. So, I looked at Maya Deren, Chantal Akerman and Tacita Dean – all those great filmmakers that would not make films in mainstream cinema, they were making art films. Discovering all that really affected and influenced the way I was working. But the great thing is the more you do that, you find your own voice and your own style. So, I think that’s how my practice has developed and it wouldn’t have developed without that kind of theoretical side at all, which amazed me because I never thought that way when I was younger. I read a lot but to look at that work just opens up so many questions which you then start answering yourself and you use your instincts. So, since then I’ve been making lots of short films. I made a [fuller piece] 20-minute-long film with a lot more content in and I put it into competitions because I wanted people to see it. I haven’t got this urge to be famous as a filmmaker or anything like that but if you make a piece of work, you need an audience. My tutor at the time at film school said to enter competitions and I was terrified because I thought nobody wanted to see that, but they did.
I put my 20-minute film called ‘Dear Miss Bassey’ which was about the life of my mum, who was a singer [and obviously that’s where my roots are] but she was like a struggling singer because she was a mother of three children growing up in the 40s, 50s and 60s and didn’t have the opportunities that I had. It was an interesting way of looking at how women went through those periods and had those struggles and of course it’s so much easier for us now – I am not saying it’s like perfect but because now we have the confidence to say, ‘ I want to do this’ and it might be difficult to get into that, but you can do it. So, that film won a couple of prizes and I was shocked. It’s been shown at the picture house in Hackney, Brighton and Copenhagen, and it’s amazing as that gives you more encouragement. Somebody likes what I’m doing, I’m going to make more work and I’ve carried on. I also make short videos for other musicians that I know, which I really enjoy doing and I work on a lot more collaborative work with other artists. I actually worked with some of my tutors from CSM. There’s a tutor artist called Paul Simon Richards and he makes amazing films that are very technical, so I’ll make music with him for the films. Now I am developing a feature-length film at the moment, which is kind of similar to the films that I’ve been making – there’s a definite progression. I think you have to be confident enough to take your time, work how you feel comfortable but keep pushing yourself.
SG: How has UAL contributed to your professional journey?
JMK: I have talked about this above as well, but you know going to university as a drawer and a painter and getting told to look at a new field, allowed me to learn the different ways you could go and saw things. That was the most exciting thing for me and I began to make short films.
I am nervous all of the time about what I do and what I make, but if we don’t keep going and breakthrough that, we don’t learn how much we can do and it’s important to do that. That’s what the university gave me.
SG: What advice can you give to students currently studying at UAL, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds?
JMK: This is funny but when I was doing my BA Fine Art at CSM, it was a great atmosphere there and I did mix with everybody because I just love talking to anybody and I gave loads of advice to them but it wasn’t about art. I would pair people up, like let’s say if somebody went, ‘Oh I haven’t had a boyfriend for ages,’ and I would be like you know you’ve worked well with so and so, and I became this fount of all knowledge. I used all those people that I’ve met in my films as well so, that was really great as I hardly ever used actors – I like to use people that want to do it but haven’t really done it because I think they are really good to direct and they haven’t got any preconceived ideas about what you should and shouldn’t do as an actor. I really like bringing out that thing in them. So, advice to them – just say yes to everything. Just push yourself. If you’re scared of something, it means it is going to be really good.
SG: What has been your most memorable project so far?
JMK: The film I made when I graduated from Sussex ‘Dear Miss Bassey’ was my most memorable project and I think because I used all my friends, my family and my neighbours are all in it so, it’s a real piece of not only is it the story of my mum’s life, it’s the story of my life because it’s filmed in the locations where I am now. I filmed it in an empty flat and it was all just wires hanging down, bare walls and very rough but used that as a kind of studio. Whenever I had a scene, I would just dress one corner or one part and use that and it was a great way of doing it because you’re not relying on lots of money to build a set, the costumes or have lots of money to have the makeup people in. I would love to do that, but I think that’s part of my work is the kind of everyday-ness of it and like throwing it together out of instinct rather than planning it. I do plan, but what I mean is the look of it is very punk if you like, anybody could do it. When I look back at that film, I still love it now and the best thing about it is the music.
SG: How do you keep yourself motivated?
JMK: I think you can’t help. I don’t like sitting still really, I don’t like a day where I’m not doing something positive. We all want to slob out and have days like that, but even then, I am reading or researching – it’s just the way I am, I am very motivated. When I watch films, TV, it usually informs my practice. There’s a great thing on at the moment on iPlayer about the artist Gillian Wearing. She started off doing like a photographic series of people. She would just go into the street and ask somebody to tell them a secret and then they had to write it on a piece of paper which she would photograph with their secret. I thought that was a brilliant idea because that’s my kind of work – I want to connect with people, I want to get underneath them and let them have that freedom to come out of themselves. For me that’s what art is about, that freedom to come out of yourself but you’re using the past, your secrets and the things that go on inside you to make the work. So, it’s easy to motivate yourself. You just have to see a good piece of work, for example; when you see a beautiful painting and you think, ‘oh I want to paint’, ‘I want to get the camera out’, that’s how you do it.
SG: Is there a message you are trying to convey in your creative expression?
JMK: I have talked about this above as well but yeah, I think personal stories are the key to everything. Everybody’s got a story and I just want to hear them, I just want to tell mine.
SG: How do you reflect on your work?
JMK: I do watch it sometimes and talking about it really helps – that’s something I’ve learned from university more than anything. When you first go into university, we would have crits and I was terrified. I had no idea what I was doing, I had no idea where my work was going and I went home and cried. I had all these doubts: I’m not good at this, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what my work will be, how do I find out? What do I do? The answer to that is just keep making it and then as a process, you learn what your work is saying and you know where it’s going.
There have been tutors along the way that have said it’s okay. I understand the horrible feeling you can get when you sit in a crit, but if they say one thing that sends you out of that room with a little opening, that’s what counts and I’ve had that a lot.
