Initially, Mik thought it’d be nice to live out her days deciding which artworks would be hung in galleries. However, the dream of art curation gave way to her real joy – generating her own works. “I started painting, which I then animated using Microsoft Powerpoint (lol). This is what got me into projections and making installations and the ball just rolled from there.”
Before the god awful virus took hold, Mik was already earning her keep by designing installations for festivals, raves and club nights. When I ask about why her work seems to gel so well in this environment she is quick to answer, “spaces like this require a feeling of immersion, my installations are typically large scale and light-based. I’ve always been interested in public art and exhibiting my work outside traditional gallery contexts”.
When COVID struck, artists everywhere had to adapt. For Mik, the logical next step was the digital world, “I sat down at my computer every day and watched YouTube tutorials on Cinema 4D software. Computer interface doesn’t come to me intuitively at all and at the time I only had rudimentary Photoshop and video editing skills. I literally started from the bottom”. This journey of discovery proved to be limitless for Mik, “There’s always a way to make what you imagine in my software because you’re not restricted by usual obstacles like gravity or the physical limitations of materials. The universe that you build is essentially infinite both spatially and creatively.” This is seemingly both a blessing and a challenge for her, given she is a “self-proclaimed maximalist”.
Perhaps this is why with Mik’s work, I’m always asking myself, “How?!” The formations, colours and evolutions are so farfetched, you can’t help wonder how they came to be. Funnily enough, the process shares parallels with that of a film set or photoshoot.
