Isobel Godden and Ross Galt protest the recent CSM scandel, involving students wearing hi-vis jackets adorned with racial slurs and hate, by customising some streetwear themselves. SIMI DAVIES
ISSUE 2
CURRENT Editor: Simi Davies
THE CURRENT ETHOS
Features: POPPY STAMP’S JAPAN LIVING IN MOTION Simi Davies WHITE TSHIRT CAMPAIGN Gracie Sodhi FUZZY LONDON Simi Davies, Claire Graham EMILY BEAUCHAMP Illustrationist CURRENT MUSIC: Charlotte Lloyd-Butler by Em Marcovecchio
Interviews: CLAIRE GRAHAM Fuzzy London Owner CHARLOTTE LLOYD-BUTLER Up and coming Musician
Contact: SUBMIT@CURRENTMAG.COM FB: FACEBOOK.COM/CURRENTMAG IG: @CURRENTMAG
The
CURRENT Ethos
CURRENT is a collaborative platform where creatives are encouraged to express their passion of storytelling and documentation within their own aesthetic constructs.
This issue focuses on work of females in the field and celebrates empowering them and their endeavours.
Follow @current.zine on instagram for regular updates on ongoing projects and up and coming work from our featured artists. Contact SUBMIT@CURRENTMAG.COM to submit
Poppy Stamp’s
Poppy Stamp is an experienced contemporary photographer having produced a multitude of diverse projects over the past few years and worked for Getty Images. Here is a small feature of her most recent work exploring Japan’s obsession with technology,artificial intelligence and virtual reality.
She uses specific styling, composition and location choices tocreate her own impression of a ‘virtual reality’. Her work is also influenced by the the fact that the urban environment increases social isolation within society due to the lack of spaces which encourage natural interaction. She tried to portray this through her use of framing and composition, specifically using scale to show the small subject in the vast urban landscape.
You can find more of her work at: insta: @ poppystampphotography facebook: Poppy Stamp Photography web: www.poppystampphotography.co.uk/
Living Through Images
Mohinder at her second stage of chemotherapy at the Lymphoma Specialist Unit at Derreford Hospital, Plymouth.
Youth WRITTEN BY SIMI DAVIES
Mohinder sits in her bed at 6am to pray each morning.
At the beginning of March this year Mohinder Kaur Banga was diagnosed with high grade lymphoma, cancer of the lymphnodes. Lymphoma is not an individual disease but rather a group of diseases involving the lymph glands. When the nodes grow tumourous, these malignancies are called Lymphomas. Mohinder suffers from Hodgkinsons lymphoma which is a less common cancer. In comparison to other subgroup cancers known as non-Hodgkinson diseases which affect
approximately 8/10 cancer patients. For the majority of Mohinder’s life, she has been perfectly healthy apart from her arthiritis which she attained much later on in her life. Therefore being diagnosed with cancer at the age of 69 was not only a shock but something she physically couldn’t comprehend the impact of upon her life. Doctors decided that local radiation was not an option as the disease was not very limited and therefore cannot be treated or cured as easily. At this point, as her granddaughter, I felt struck by an overwhelming urge to document her experience
After 2 months of protesting, Mohinder decided to accept the affects of her cancer and allow her daughter to cut the remaining hairs she had left.
“The more I come to terms with the fact that I’m terminally ill, the easier it is (for me) to live a simpler life.” in the hopes that she would one day be able to recover and look back on my series of images as a documentation of a significant success in her life. However, she felt it was more important for me to do so as some sort of legacy if she were to pass. A final show of strength and versatility of faith towards the end of an already fruitful life. Before she decided to start chemotherapy introvenesly, she wished to go to Israel (a personal dream of hers) before she began to deteriorate with the chemotherapy. This was her first courageous step before embarking on her journey. After a 10 day trek across Israel, travelling from as south as Bethlehem to the top of the Golan Heights, she started her chemotherapy. She experienced an adverse reaction to the first stage and was consequently hospitalised twice. Although her situation is one that is incredibly
hard for her to personally grasp, the way in which research improved over the past 35 years suggests that the cancer is one that is generally curable in most circumstances. New drugs have revolutionised the treatment of these diseases and significantly improved the outlook of Hodgkinsons disease in the last 25 years. The rate of improvement and availability of new treatments is higher in the Lymphomas than any other malignancies and for that, doctors and patients are optimistic.
This attribute has been one close to Mohinder’s heart even though she still hasn’t grasped how the cancer is affecting her body and whether she will be able to overcome it. However, she is positive to carry on with her treatment with her third stage coming up at the end of May and continues to be photographed by me to remind herself of the hurdles she has already been able to overcome.
‘Vulnerabilit
ty Is Power’:
Shot by Amrita Jade Kalsey
Gracie Sodhi, a student from Falmouth University, has set up The White T-shirt Campaign to encourage students and young people to start talking about their well-being.
The mental health campaign involves women sharing their stories about their own mental health in an attempt to empower them. Through pictures and blog posts the campaign aims to create a space on social media where people feel free to be open and honest – a rarity in the largely ‘edited’ world we currently live in. The white t-shirts show controversial slogans that aim to spark conversations, the first being ‘Vulnerability Is Power’. This explores the challenges and benefits of opening up about what you’re feeling. All profits from the t-shirts are going towards Cornwall-based charity CRASAC – helping the vulnerable to regain their power.
The social entrepreneur behind the idea, Gracie Sodzi, set this up after longing for a campaign that was fashionable and stylish but that also made a difference. Having set up her social enterprise aged 18 and having run mental health workshops, now 21, she felt the need to run an online campaign to reach as many people as possible. The campaign is running their first ‘campaign briefing’ on 15th May. This workshop will involve people sharing their stories, creating online content and having a good laugh. It is in essence, a mental health workshop, but with a difference.
If you’re interested in finding out more about the workshop and the campaign, stay locked on insta: @thewhitetshirtcampaign web: www.thewhitetshirtcampaign.com/
Shot by Amrita Jade Kalsey
Gracie’s Story: The Beginning hi there, i’m gracie. i set up the white t-shirt campaign after many years of suffering with mental health issues. i decided that i refuse to be defined by my mental health and that it was time to make a stand. after seeing friends also suffer not only with mental health illnesses, but also the stresses growing up as a woman in today’s world, i found a passion in empowering them to be and do whatever they want. the saying on my t-shirt is ‘vulnerability is power.’ in my many years as a sufferer of mental health issues i have found my openness and honesty to be the thing that has helped people most. letting our guards down and letting people in can be one of the most powerful and empowering things we can do as humans. if you’re interested in becoming a campaigner and being given a voice to tell your story whilst enrolling on our mentoring scheme, contact us using our contact page. if you would like to support the cause and own my limited edition t-shirt head to the shop. all profits go towards helping others. i’ll leave you with a few powerful sentences i wrote a while ago, which gave me the boost i needed to set this campaign up – perhaps it’ll speak to you too. ‘there comes a time when you have to leave what you know and discover the other. ponder the things you dare not indulge. experiment your soul and jump. the cushion of your fall may just be the exact furnishing you need.’
Shot by Simi Davies
Claire Graham, the owner of Fuzzy London paid us a visit last week and enlightened us to new collaborations and items shes releasing soon. What is Fuzzy London? “Fuzzy London is my small business that I started in Summer of 2017, but originally under Claire Graham Art. I started Fuzzy London because I really enjoy the making process and the design elements, Its a nice way to spend my free time along since university. But it started when I painted some watercolour animals for my sister for Christmas 2016. I love playing with the colours and the paints, even though I been taught how to paint before. In Summer 2017 I founded Claire Graham Art to sell watercolour and acrylic paintings and greetings cards. I sold these at country fairs and received a lot of positive feedback. Though I loved the painting I realised I needed to be a bit more unique to stand out and I started drafting things I could also sell at the fairs along side the artworks. I made plaques which sold well. I realised the money was in small things and I started to make Pom Pom keyrings - something I saw on Pinterest. Eventually this grew and I realised I could put pom poms on anything and everything! I started with the keyrings and moved on to earrings, as I particularly like earrings. This grew into headbands and other hair accessorises. I’ve experimented with colour, design and style and have really expanded on what I original-
ly made. Now I exclusively do pom pom accessorises but I still dabble in the watercolours and acrylics. I rebranded as Fuzzy London in Spring 2018 as I believe Fuzzy London is a better representation of what I do.” Have you had positive feedback so far? “Feedback has been mainly positive but I also get some negative feedback. My mum is my biggest and best critic. She’s always guiding and helping me see how I can improve colour/design and where to go design wise. She’s incredibly artistic herself and she’s been my biggest supporter. My boyfriend is also super supportive and sees this as a great way to explore running my own little business - which has proved to be invaluable. The negative feedback can be disheartening but it’s important to stay focused and not let it get you. It’s difficult to time prioritise and balance the work I put into Fuzzy London and Uni but I think it’s important to have other pursuits. And as I mentioned earlier” Is competition/people stealing your intellectual property or ideas a prevalent issue? “There is definitely competition out there. I follow a lot of accounts on Instagram that do very similar things to me. The key is to be a bit different and stand out - again this sounds cliche but it’s completely true. I did this by doing a fruit pom pom range - it’s a bit different to what’s out there but it’s fun, colourful, quirky and seems to work. It’s a really interesting question about
Shot by Simi Davies
intellectual property and other people stealing ideas. I believe there’s no such thing as an original idea and we’re all influenced but the things we see and others around us. I haven’t had anyone steal my ideas or anything of the sort but I have had some false Instagram followers which is always disappointing. But regarding intellectual property, I believe it’s really important to support small businesses, and to encourage them. I follow a few
people who have had issues with people stealing ideas but it doesn’t seem to effect them so much. It is a prevalent issue that needs to be addressed but I also think that when you put your images out on to the web unfortunately there will always be someone out there who’s happy to use that image, so though social media is a brilliant platform it also has its risks.” What do u see for the future of Fuzzy? “There are so many exciting things to come! I’m working on a summer collection
as well as an animal collection - these will be on my Website soon! I’m not partially good at planning and it’s hard to see where Fuzzy London will be in ten years but for now it’s doing really well and it’s cert-ainly a lot of fun.” What would you say to young woman looking to start up their own small business?
“Do it! Just go for it! Doesn’t matter what others think or how crazy your idea might sound - do it! It’s so fulfilling watching a little business grow and it’s loyal customer base engage with your products. I’ve also learnt life long skills about business which has been bet -ter than any internship. Regardless of who you are or what you do, there is never a reason to not give it a go.”
insta: @fuzzy.london web:
www.fuzzylondon.com Shot by Simi Davies
Emily Beauchamp Emily Beauchamp is a soon to be graduate from Falmouth university, specialising in Illustration. From the beginning of the course Emily began to focus her work towards a younger audience, revolving around the subject of Nature. With influences from animated series such as Adventure Time and Over the Garden Wall, her characters often take on
a silly persona, enveloped in their own little worlds. Her recent commissions include works for Okido children’s magazine. You can find more of her fantastic work at: insta: f_o_l_k_l_o_r_e web: www.emilybeauchampillustration.com
Shot by Simi Davies
CURRENT MUSIC:
Llo Charlotte Lloy
oyd-Butler yd-Butler
Charlotte Lloyd- Butler is a Singer Song-Writer based in Falmouth creating music that reflects on personal experiences.
‘I
n the Morning’ is a beautifully crafted EP which incorporates aspects of Modern Rock as well as an Atmospheric Indie sound. The EP features four tracks; Aching, Grey, In the Morning and Shoreline all of which have a very nostalgic sound as a result of the atmospheric tonality.
The use of a full band in this EP is a powerful yet delightful decision as the use of both guitar; played by James Scarle, and drums; played by Zachariah O’Loughlin, creates The title track ‘In the Morning’ is a a diverse range of tones which promulti-layered musical creation which pels the tracks from Indie to Modern builds as the track continues, merely Rock in an instant. Seeing Charlotte hinting at the wonderful sounds that perform is always a treat, she gives it lay ahead. The echoing guitar sound her absolute all and you can tell that in the track ‘Shoreline’ complements every band member loves her music Charlotte’s unique voice to bring out just as much as she does. The band, a very metallic sound. comprising of fellow musicians studying at Falmouth University, are not “In the Morning EP is four songs only her band members; when you written over the past three years that watch them play together you can I wanted to put into a collection. I tell the pure warmth that surrounds didn’t ever decide to sit down and them as a family. When I found mywrite an EP at any point, songwriting self photographing band practice it for me is very cathartic so I find mybecame obvious that there is such a self writing if I have been through a strong bond between all of them. particular emotion or have a change occur in my life. It’s definitely a way Charlotte Lloyd-Butler’s EP is now to express how I’m feeling or the available to stream on Spotify and I circumstance I’m in if I can’t get it out would strongly recommend having a any other way. These four songs are little listen. just expressions of how I felt at particular points in my life over the past Written by Em Marcovecchio three years” – Charlotte Lloyd-Butler Shot by Simi Davies
Shot by Simi Davies
“‘Graceful, atmospheric indie’ singer-songwriter Charlotte Lloyd-Butler graces the AMATA Showcase. Crafting songs ‘reminiscent of folk artists such as Big Thief and Daughter’, Charlotte and her band work to create a ‘grand soundscape to accompany the delicate lyrics’ whilst preserving the intimacy of her ‘haunting’ voice and acoustic folk roots.” - Falmouth University, AMATA SHOWCASE
Exclusive interview with
Rachel Anstis of LIPS next edition
Shot by James Gould