Mimi in the wild: Collage workshop in Margate
Written by Melanie Johnsson, Mimi Founder
On a bright, sunny Sunday morning in Margate, I found myself heading to the Turner Contemporary for a collage workshop with artist Florence Hutchings. To be completely honest with you, I hadn’t known about Florence's work ahead of booking the workshop. I discovered the event while scrolling on Instagram and seeing it on someone else's story. Very intrigued by the idea of spending some time at the Turner and in awe of Florence's work, I luckily snapped the last ticket (I know it was the last ticket because I tried to rope my best friend in to come with me but she was straight on the waitlist).
Upon arriving at the gallery, I got sent to the drawing room, the most beautiful public room in the building if you ask me. It has these huge windows with a sea view and a beautiful drawing of a whale by Lily Mixe on the wall. The venue had tables scattered around, each covered with pre-painted pieces of paper, some glue and of course, scissors. I was told to sit wherever I wanted so I found a little spot to take it all in.
Soon enough, the workshop started. Florence told us to explore collaging and avoid overthinking the result: it was about enjoying the process.
She’d installed some plants on pedestals in the middle of the room and we were to use those as subjects for our collages.
We were to start with quick-ish collage to then go on to do a 40 minute collage - the masterpiece, I suppose - and then finish with some super quick ones.
I was off and it was a lot of fun! I immediately starting drawing with paper (we weren’t allowed anything to actually draw). My illustrator brain wanted to tell a story so I cut out a snake and bits of plant. My neighbour was doing something completely different, crunching up paper to create more texture. All around the room, people were doing their own thing, interpreting the subject completely differently. This went on for a while, people cutting away at painted paper, creating little colourful scenes and Florence going around the room commenting on the shape of it all. It was genuinely lovely witnessing the creativity and play.
Towards the end of the workshop, we were prompted to put our collages on the floor for everyone to see. This gave me art school vibes which was fun and slightly daunting - especially when you focused more on the process as opposed to the result. Everyone’s work was wildly different. Some people illustrated the plants, some people created something completely different. Some people went BIG with their collage, some people stayed small and detailed.
