Confidence, Art as Healing, Language and Working with Others: CoLab 001
In which we talk with Mylo Elliott about what he thinks working with other people is all about, how his disability colours his perception of language, about art as healing, and many other things.
I’ve known Mylo Eilliott, who also goes by Enlit Theory, for a few years. Towards the end of our here chat, he reminded me of the first time we met; back when Cardiff School of Art and Design was still based at Howard Gardens. That building had this paint-dripped, ceramic-dusted, ink-stained quality to it that only happens after generation upon generation of artists walk its halls. A building now demolished, now overpriced student flats.
That first year of our higher education adventure, we had a module that I describe as “enforced collaboration”. Centered around the theme of “The City”, that two-week-long experiment had four degree courses paired up: a maker, a graphic designer, a fine artist and an illustrator. One of us dropped out, the three others went on different tangents, and the only thing that held that idea together was that we at least kept to our promise of “walking in meandering lines around Howard Gardens”.
It went nowhere. But this experiment did help establish a relationship that made it easier to engage with Mylo over the years. Someone I may have never actually talked to in other circumstances. And I can honestly say my life would be poorer for it.
“Most about what I’ve done since leaving university three years ago, most of it has been in collaboration.”
Working with Others
When I asked Mylo what he thought collaboration brings to him, personally and professionally, he opened by a line I must quote:
“A good place to start is asking what makes things unique to an artist? Everyone has these offerings, personal, it’s about things that make sense to you.”
For him, it is music and art that go together.
I’ve heard Mylo describe himself as a hip-hop and street artist. An aesthetic, or, rather, tradition, he seems to embody. He is an artist that’s lifted, taken, moved, recontextualized the visual language of graffiti, from street walls into the fine art gallery and, most recently, onto skateboards. He’s made murals in Morocco, walked snowy Berlin, and his work brightens up secret parts of Cardiff – The Andrew Buchan pub on Albany Road and nearby Cardiff MADE both house his oeuvre. Seven Oaks Park, The Boardwalk, and perhaps even this one nameless spot are open air galleries displaying his work. Mylo music-maker of great talent, and instead of doing his work a disservice by trying to describe it, I’ll instead let you go and listen to it when you have the time.
Mylo has been working with other people since leaving university three years ago. These collaborations are “about finding space for yourself working with other people”. When people come together, they bring these offerings, as Mylo says, their unique voices and ways of working. Their process becomes part of your process when you are working together. And to some, collaborating with other people is an intrinsic motivato, what gets them out of the bed in the morning. Collaboration leads to more collaboration, in Mylo’s words. And it enrichens not just an artist’s professional practice, but their lives. Brings value in many shapes and forms.
Mylo here corroborates an experience I have also encountered: the limitations on one’s perspective. We can be, individually, aware of so much. Can pay attention to just so many things. It is only be working with other people, organizations and groups that we can become “aware of possibilities” that go beyond our own interests. And in working alongside these people and organizations, we also become aware of their own “creative offerings” and can, together, help them realise it.
But the outcome – the painting, music composition, mural, skateboard – are not as important as the valuable relationships that come through the work.
“Maintaining friendship’s and people’s good health, for a lot of people would come first. But I think, the way you work the conditions that you work under, allow us to look at those other, you know, just to gain a broader understanding of how things work. I would try both. Kind of slow in coming. You kinda have to put yourself in a good position.”
But what is a “good position” to collaborate? What conditions make it easier to work with other people?
Talking to Mylo, now and before, it is obvious that to him space is key. Not just the physical space of the studio, but also the mental space to be creative, to think freely, and to “build confidence.”
Spaces to Build Confidence
Mylo once described his studio space as a “working and listening room”.
Which makes me think about the importance of having the space, mental and physical, to help people be able to communicate, develop, grow, think, and connect as people.
For a long while we’ve been hearing about an epidemic of loneliness that is tied to the fraught system of living space allocation. In an increasingly precarious state, all of us require different spaces for different things to help us reach that optimum state of wellbeing. In the case of artists, there’s a reason that we’ve historically tried to separate our working environments from our living quarters – and it is not always about the possibility of having paint thinner too close to the bed.
“Having a space allow you a little bit of creative time every day. Be listening or writing. If I didn’t have the space, I would probably be less confident in my ability to keep the practice going. Have more of a creative state in mind where you are confident in the steps you’re taking.”
Sometimes space is not just about being in a place. Sometimes it is about what state of mind you can get into. Some detractors would say “but you can draw on the floor same as everywhere”, and that, to me, is an unwillingness to engage with a point that Mylo brings up that we can all relate to. The space we live in is important in allowing us to feel, think, behave in certain ways that are conducive to our wellbeing.
For Mylo, having a studio space is about spending time working on the process of art-making and becoming confident that the steps taken towards the creation of an art piece feel right. About building confidence in the process. And this becomes a positive feedback loop. The more you create, the better you get at it, the more “naturally” it comes to you to create and the more confident you become.
“If you can work out a loose structure in a painting and go by that structure, you’re halfway there.”
And I could share my own experience about the concept of inspiration happening during the process of making. But I think something Mylo said may be a lot better in this case: “Because you are self-directed in what you are doing. The task makes sense. I’d really like to help people gain from my experience, in the way… The way we take opportunities, learn and grow. Barriers are there to be understood, I guess. And help to sign post.”
I’d like to point out to this idea of Barriers that Mylo mentions, because I actually asked him about barriers that he has encountered working as an artist in Wales. At first, I believe, we were on the same page; he mentioned “being experienced” as a barrier to engaging with the sector. But then his understanding of what Barriers mean to him started trickling into the conversation and I found myself fascinated by his take.
“They cut as you go, as you make progress. Start identifying, maybe you can work without funding. Being efficient in yourself. Creating a model other people can follow and sharing.“
Barriers: How one word can mean many things
Mylo describes barriers not in the way we would often use them. But barriers against the bad habit of doing too many things at once. “Barriers are there to break things down and make them more manageable,” he says, referring to his painting process. Using a limited colour palette, a set of graffiti writing he’s already developed, among other techniques I believe he has but didn’t go detail.
“A big world to walk into. Aware of so many things. Like notes in a piano – we don’t play all the notes at one time.”
As our conversation went on, I realised that Mylo was describing barriers in the same way I had heard spoken of composer Igor Stravinsky’s creative process, in which he would limit the amount of material he could work with, thus becoming freer to explore within the limitations. More creative in a way.
This misunderstanding in terminology ended up making me understand the world through a different perspective and made me aware of the blinders I had accidentally put on, narrowing my view of things. Barriers not as things that stop people from engaging and participating, but barriers that help you focus and stay on track. Are we all horses wearing blinders? Personally, I want to take this as a learning opportunity: we are often not talking about the same things, even if we use the same words. We strive towards finding that common ground, as we listen from other people’s way of thinking.
“There’s always notes and ideas flying around. Settle one thing that makes you content”
Art as Healing
Mylo later on goes to describe the moment people find his work. A moment of “connection between myself, my art and people who are seeing my art”. That connectivity between people, to Mylo, makes “art much more interesting – makes it a current thing”.
And I think that what he means is that it makes art alive and active. The best way I could describe this idea he sparked in me is that while a book sits in a bookcase it is but an object made from tree-pulp, taking up space and collecting dust. But when someone picks it up and starts reading through it, the words come alive and neurons spark and images are created and lives can be changed.
Mylo talks about connectivity, and space, and letting things take as much time as they need, “letting things develop”. And isn’t that all too right in the context of collaboration? Relationships are the basis for collaboration, and those take time and successes and failures.
These words of his lead us in a meandering yet connected way to thoughts about art as a healing instrument. And that is something I love about listening to Mylo speak and write, there’s a fugue state cadence to his thoughts and the words that he uses that may be a little hard to fully tune in at times – like trying to find a radio station through static – but that just makes you want to pay more attention and listen more intently. He makes me think about how healing from trauma can sometime only happen through communities, through art scenes even. Connecting with other people and engaging in non-verbal, yet all too-human ways, ways of communication.
Just developing identity and using what I’ve got, my personal skills. Letting things develop, like this relationship between art and the exchange with other artists.”
And as our conversation closed and we meandered into things I left out for want of time, I am left feeling like Mylo fulfilled this quote I am going to leave you with.
“Being an artist has always been a form that can be like a guide. Like an accompaniment to life.”