Eloise Dörr | Interview

London-based artist, skater and all-round cool girl, Eloise Dörr, is making a name for herself in the UK skate scene and art scenes alike. Influenced largely by skate culture and all that surrounds it, it’s not unusual for a deck to become her canvas. As any new skater knows, you spend a lot of time stacking it and to put it simply ‘eating shit’. Eloise’s work relishes and celebrates these rudimentary aspects of the sport, her signature silhouette characters personifying the lack of boundaries and exuding a sense of innocence.

Working from her studio in South London Eloise dabbles in a variety of mediums from lino printing, to acrylic paints to plain old pen and paper. Her latest exhibition with photographer and friend Tracy Gray (aka. The Girl of Stuff) featured analogue photographs of urban landscapes and Brutalist architecture, the harsh geometry of the buildings providing the perfect skate spots for Elouise’s playful silhouettes.

We caught up for Eloise (but not over a cuppa tea – because she’d had too many) to talk to her about her work.

Can you tell me a little about yourself?

My name is Eloise Dörr, I live in London at the moment working currently as a full-time freelance artist, I moved here nearly 2 years ago now. I’ve been drawing ever since I can remember, really. It was always the subject in school that I excelled in most and what I put most of my time into, but I didn’t see a career in it happening which is definitely still a surprise to me haha.

Take us through a day in the life of Eloise Dörr

Everyday is different for me, especially in recent weeks. It’s winter at the moment so that means most days are spent inside my studio working on whatever projects I have on at the moment with the heating on full blast. But in summer usually it’s skating then studio or studio then skating. I’m looking forward to that routine again soon.

If you had to describe your style in 3 words what would they be?

“product” “of” “boredom”

How long have you been skating and how would you say it has it influenced your work?

I’ve lost track of how long but somewhere between 3-4 years. It’s definitely influenced my work a lot, it’s definitely what opened up my mind creatively.

Who inspires / influences you?

My friends who make art and skate, and or either. People who keep things original, keep me excited.

Polar’s recent artist collaboration board series was so sick and it inspired me a lot. Weird skate spots influence me a lot, I like that. So many things inspire me it’s hard to list them. The weather inspires me. Seeing people fall over inspires me. So much weird shit inspires me.

Your signature silhouette character is pretty central to your work – How did you come up with it / How did it develop?

That character has been a long development. They’re still developing. I’m sure they’ll be completely different in a years time. I hope so too. It just started as me drawing something alternative to humans in my work, so that I wasn’t just drawing from life. So I started drawing stick men instead; and then they became fatter, then thinner and taller, then fatter again, then shorter. They change shape depending on my mood. And they change depending on what I want to put across with the image. If I want them to look lost or curious I make them really tall – to make them more able to search for anything. Or if I want it to be funny I make them more blob like. It all just depends on what I feel like that day.

It just started as me drawing something alternative to humans in my work, so that I wasn’t just drawing from life. So I started drawing stick men instead; and then they became fatter, then thinner and taller, then fatter again, then shorter. They change shape depending on my mood. And they change depending on what I want to put across with the image. If I want them to look lost or curious I make them really tall – to make them more able to search for anything. Or if I want it to be funny I make them more blob like. It all just depends on what I feel like that day.

They change shape depending on my mood. And they change depending on what I want to put across with the image. If I want them to look lost or curious I make them really tall – to make them more able to search for anything. Or if I want it to be funny I make them more blob like. It all just depends on what I feel like that day.

What techniques do you use?

I use every kind of technique, again, depending on what I want to put across with each individual piece. If I want it to be fun and light hearted I’ll use bright coloured acrylic paint or watercolour. If I want it to be more eery I’ll use scratchy black ink pens. But yeh I dabble in all mediums. I’m too indecisive for one medium.

For your exhibition Leftovers, you used broken boards as your canvas – why did you choose them?

I just thought they would look cool altogether on a wall. I didn’t want to do just squares and rectangles, I wanted to use a different shape. I’d painted a handful of broken boards in the past and I just thought it would be the perfect medium for what I wanted to show at the exhibition (and obviously those objects are a big part of my life and related to my work). I also liked the idea of giving them a second life, all about recycling, me! I enjoyed putting it together and I’m content with how it looked in the end but I’m definitely bored of painting broken boards. I’ve painted 2 since then (4 months ago) but they were both commissioned. Haven’t painted any for fun haha.

I also liked the idea of giving them a second life, all about recycling, me! I enjoyed putting it together and I’m content with how it looked in the end but I’m definitely bored of painting broken boards. I’ve painted 2 since then (4 months ago) but they were both commissioned. Haven’t painted any for fun.

Who have you collaborated with? Who would be your dream collaboration?

I’ve collaborated with lots of amazing people. Magazines, skate companies, t-shirt companies, skate shops, galleries, workshops with art collectives, and other stuff.

My favourite collaboration has probably been with Parlour Skate Store. That’s my local about 4 minutes walk from my house, they’re my homies and I always love collab-ing with them. We’ve done a t-shirt and stickers, an exhibition and I recently did a Christmas animation for their website. I like working with friends a lot and that’s a perfect example. I wouldn’t say I have a ‘dream’ collaboration. I have a few companies in mind that I’d want to work with, but I’m always reluctant to name names incase they don’t happen haha. So we’ll just wait and see.

What are you working on at the moment, do you have any exhibitions coming up?

I’ve just got back from Berlin after putting on an exhibition with photographer and good friend Tracy Gray. It was my first international exhibition so I was really really excited. It was just the 2 of us and it was so much fun and super exciting. I have a few more things I’m working on after the show but nothing to announce yet!

www.eloisedorr.com

@eloweeese

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