May Student of the Month: Sophy Hollington

Camberwell Illustration third year, Sophy Hollington has our May Student of the Month accolade with her series of images for Will Self’s book, How The Dead Live. She created the images by scanning in all the colour layers of an aborted risograph print (broken machine) and then she got into the perfect registration and how much control she could have over the image in Photoshop so didn’t stop. That is except to translate it into a brilliantly tangible lino-cut comic – “a kind of bastardised re-told hashed-down version of the original book.”

“The book is about a miserable ex-pat American Jew called Lily who discovers that there is an afterlife and that it’s in the London Suburbs; the London boroughs of Dulburb and Dulston. She is accompanied in death by a calcified foetus, her dead, foul-mouthed son, three creatures made out of her own unwanted fat and her own Death Guide (Secular individuals struggle in the afterlife). She must find ways of passing time; going to ‘personally dead’ meetings, smoking (everyone smokes when they’re dead) and spying on her junky daughter. It’s a pretty weird book, not easy to read, but it’s got a wicked sense of humour.”

At the time of making/creating this project, who or what was your biggest influence?

I’ve been reading a lot of comic books. The Hate comics by Peter Bagge are hilarious and I went a bit crazy on Amazon and bought a whole bunch of McSweeneys stuff (it blows my mind how cheap it is) which I’ve been glued to.

What is the most valuable thing you have learnt at university to date?

Probably that there’s nothing wrong with stating the obvious.

What would you be doing now if you weren’t at Art School?

I’m in to music and play a bit so maybe that would take up all of my time. That and trips to the job-centre.

Where are you making/creating most of your work?

It’s a split between home and university. I live in Stoke Newington which is pretty ridiculously far away from Camberwell and it costs a bomb to get there and back. I still go in quite a lot though.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’ve got about a week until my final deadline so I’m getting everything printed and framed and doing all the admin and evaluating that you have to do in these situations. It’s pretty dry. I’m working on some designs for teeshirts for my band when I can though. I was thinking of doing some socks too, I’ve never seen band socks.