Rock Star

AFTER turning heads with his first solo show at the age of 22, Moses Quiquine’s artistic career is progressing by leaps and bounds, making history in 2019 as the youngest and first black person to be given a residency at the V&A and counting Soul ll Soul musician Jazzy B among his fans.

The former Holloway School boy specialises in “textile sculptures”, works created on goatskin out of seemingly disparate items, from strips of a blue plastic shopping bag to fragments of a Kermit Oliver silk scarf, to form mesmerising images replete with symbolic motifs that express his spiritual take on the world and interpretation of culture and politics.

One of his most recent, Garçon, features himself as a contemplative child set against the backdrop of the rainforests of Basse-Terre in Guadeloupe, the French Caribbean isle his mother hails from.

“That’s me as a young boy grappling with what it means to be black and wishing for a dog, a faithful companion, to help me navigate the world with,” he explains as we stand gazing at it during a recent open studio event at his home in Camden Town.

The hoped-for dog is also in the picture, in fact his own, currently wagging his tail beside us, as well as a depiction of Sudanese refugee-turned-model Adele and a tiny but striking central figure bearing angel wings – his cousin Anton, a professional footballer in the US who tragically died in an accident last year.

“Basse-Terre is one of my favourite parts of the island. I always have a baptism in one of the rivers, after which I feel physically and spiritually cleansed. The piece is about clearing away one’s blockages, about survival – Adele is using her beauty to survive – and also about remembrance.”

An adherent of Nichiren Buddhism, he adds solemnly: “My work is about connecting with a deeper part of oneself. If I didn’t have this faith, I wouldn’t be making this sort of art.”

But the natural mystic also has a lighter side. Rock Star shows the US rapper and Rhianna paramour, ASAP Rocky, jauntily brushing his teeth with fluoride-free toothpaste next to a splendidly attired Malcolm X and Martin Luther King shaking hands.

“Rocky was very popular while I was at sixth form college. I wanted to displace him from the gold chain, Nike brand image of hip hop and rap and catch him in a more candid pose, when he is being himself. Malcolm and MLK are rock stars in their own world.”

Moses Quiquine

Remarkably, Quiquine has never been to art school. In fact, his biggest qualification in the subject is a ‘C’ at A-level. “Art was my main focus at sixth form college but I always wanted to experiment and I didn’t really fit in,” he says with a laugh. “In the end I was asked to leave and at my next college I only did average. It was then that I decided to skip university and just do my own thing.”

Mum Chantal runs a vintage couture business, so the world in which fashion and art meet beckoned.

After working as an assistant on the Return of the Rudeboy exhibition at Somerset House in 2014, he was introduced to the veteran West End show costume designer Dennis Bruno, who agreed to take him on informally as an apprentice tailor at his studio opposite St Pancras station.

“This is when I really began to create and I ended up designing a gown made of peacock feathers for a 21st birthday party. This went down well and I started to get other commissions.

“At the same time, I continued experimenting with my art but I did not have a particular medium, style or language. Thanks to Mr Bruno, I gained the skills and confidence I never had before. One day I played with the idea of taking a piece of leather and creating a whole art work.”

Serendipity stepped in with a chance encounter with James Putnam of the London College of Fashion, who, hailing him as a “fresh and dramatic” young talent, curated Voodoo Child: Identity, Spirituality and Fashion at the Africa Centre in 2019 around his uniquely crafted textile sculptures and clothing, including a gown made from 150 year-old Worth fabric.

The show created quite a buzz and a lot of things started to quickly happen, first of all the year-long residency at the V&A, followed by his inclusion in group exhibitions at the Galleria Mimmo Scognamiglio Artecontemporanea in Milan and Crafts Council Gallery in London, the latter acquiring one of his works, The Sacrifice, for its collection.

Next, he was holding court with Christine Checinska, curator of African and African Diaspora Fashion at the V&A, as part of the Yale Center for British Art’s At Home: Artists in Conversation platform.

Then two years ago, Jazzie B bought one of his works and gave it a shout-out on his Instagram page.

It was one DIY success story saluting another and it didn’t go unnoticed. No wonder Quiquine is walking with a spring in his step and declining offers of gallery representation.

“I have my own team and I see myself as my own brand rather than being an artist who is on the roster of a gallery and has to be packaged. I have decided to package myself,” he declares.

But as a self-acknowledged child of the universe, there’s humility, too.

“Every piece of work I do is me going beyond my limitations,” he adds. “Every time I make a new piece, I realise there is a lot more to do and a lot more to learn.”