EMMA TSILELE CREATOR OF JUNK!
Emma Tsilele is an award winning illustrator with a BA in Fashion Design, who has had her graduate collection showcased on runways across the UK. She has studied Fashion and Arts in the U.S and Europe at several prestigious universities. Her final graduate collection, JUNK, drew inspiration from American pop culture iconography and how in our modern age, the imagery of Americana is tainted and ruined. She has created couture up-cycled pieces for this collection, which spawned a very energetic and fresh fashion perspective that was critically acclaimed at Graduate Fashion Week (where she was selected to showcase her collection). JUNK magazine was modeled in an early 2000s magazine format, as she drew lots of inspiration from magazines as an artistic medium. She is versatile as she has skills spanning several artistic disciplines, and she has a unique artistic style that mixes elements of digital and physical design that produces fresh, thought provoking imagery. She is a very strong illustrator, graphic designer, and inventor who is highly skilled at Adobe Suite and Procreate.
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JUNK! NOT TRASH
JUNK is not trash, JUNK is not to be thrown away, JUNK is here to stay. JUNK is a response to my childhood growing up in the United States. Where the hustle for the american dream- working to consume, to get by- replaced family life. It shaped my understanding of this world, one that feels overwhelmed by unthinking overconsumption and excessive waste. JUNK, as a word, was commonly used in my household growing up, as my grandpa consistently referred to food as 'junk', unless it was undisputedly healthy. This initiated my awareness of America’s failure in offering quality, accessible food to consumers. JUNK is inspired by my childhood, depicted through children's games like I-SPY and dress-up recognizing that they had introduced me to the world of excess and consumerism at an early age. JUNK found its inspiration in my habit of collecting my own and other peoples’ trash and ephemera. Especially receipts- receipts are everywhere, a useless record of purchase. This trash became dynamic collages. JUNK took shape from these collages.
JUNK is satirical in nature and is hyper-aware of its own hypocrisy of being exactly what it is criticizing. Fashion is after all one of the main drivers of a consumerist throwaway mindset. JUNK is not the nihilism of postmodernism- or the empty critique of Pop Art. JUNK takes its irony seriously. JUNK makes us look at trash, to reconsider and to see, to think, to begin to repair. JUNK demands big silhouettes and bright colors. It is a response to the overindulgence demanded by consumer culture. The bloated spectra of the fast food industrial complex- where junk replaces food in an 'over the top’ carnival of color and packaging. JUNK refuses the new, its fabric choice is determined by its turn to the unused, the forgotten, the unworn. JUNK demands collage and patchwork in its pattern cutting and construction- we don’t need any more waste. The American dream has been trashed, swamped in the detritus of greed and garbage. JUNK is an homage to tarnished americana. it challenges the wasteful nature of excessive consumption that’s been instilled in all of us. It makes the process circular- desire becomes detoxified and the discarded regains its shine.