Whilst I was down in Falmouth I spoke to many other students about my uni, the course I was studying and what it involved. Many of the people immediately mentioned the Two Kings vintage shop opened by some mutual friends, and the DIY screenprinting studio setup in the attic above it which had been completely made from scratch by James Morgan of Mind Garden Apparel, a grassroots startup apparel business looking to expand and create a community of creatives for pop up shops, expositions, festivals and other creative enterprises.
I met the man himself on a night out and we got talking at length about my work, my use of printmaking in a street setting, and also my concerns with the natural world and environment. He also talked to me about some of his theories around connectivity and community, citing how many people feel disconnected culturally and creatively, not just from each other but from the grander scheme of the world on the whole. I identified with his considerations quite strongly, as he talked about stripping life back to simpler interests and desires, ensuring a focus on tangible real life experience as opposited to digital connections. He was really interested in my work and asked if I would consider creating some designs for him to print onto shirts. We discussed potential concepts briefly also, focussing on concepts of mankinds relation to nature as a key interest, which drew perfect parallels with the current direction of my own creative interests, and he told me to come down to the shop to have a look at his setup.
When I arrived, I truly saw the nature of the grassroots setup. Almost all of the elements I had witnessed in the professional workshops of NUA were recreated in a DIY format here, from a very haphazard and slightly questionable hanging exposure unit (see left of above photo) and a washing area cordoned off by a roughly attached shower curtain on the right hand side. Surrounded by rails and rails of stock from the vintage shop underneath, the little space was uniquely decorated and took a joint role as functional creative zone, studio, storeroom and relaxation area. The rough-hewn, DIY nature of the entire setup, including the partnership with his good friends at Two Kings downstairs,was exactly my kind of creative enterprize. There was not a single sniff of the corporate here, as the kickstarter funded initiative had been entirely crowd sourced.
Some of it was undoubtedly not the most efficient way of running things, but there was a legitimacy to the enterprise as it was entirely carved out by personal endeavour. The means of production were laid bare and then reconstructed in a way which was obviously transparent and non commercial, with a great deal of care and handmade attention applied to every design, every garment and every step of the process. His printing was not perfect, and lacked the practiced touch of a professional or industry printmaker, but this in itself gave his garments additional character, and the authenticity of knowing that had been hand pulled in the raw creative environment of the Falmouth space.
I was excited to start working with him on a few designs, and felt like this was the exact sort of startup business which should be encouraged, to destabilise the late stage Capitalist culture of high professionalism and corporate interests which can crush many new enterprises such as this. I was also interested in the outreach opportunities a collaboration like this could intiate, as it opens new artist links some 400 miles away down in Falmouth, and could grow my creative network into new and unexpected avenues.
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