Quentin Jones wants to put you in her collage: Listen to a podcast on her new show at The Vinyl Factory

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The Fractured And The Feline opens at The Vinyl Factory Space at Brewer Street Car Park on 19th November.

With her first major solo exhibition opening this week, Quentin Jones sat down with spatial designer Robert Storey to discuss the ins and outs of staging the show, why the space was so important to the overall conception and just how they plan to re-integrate the viewer into a collage of collages.

To accompany the opening of the exhibition we also asked Quentin a series of questions both about the show itself and how she works with music to induce different moods, whether its classical music for increased focus, or something more electronic for a burst of energy. As an illustrator whose work has come to include painting, animation and filmmaking, we wanted to find out just how music fits in.

A collection of the Quentin Jones prints on display are now available to buy from The Vinyl Factory online shop in hand signed and numbered editions of 100. These include four prints from her Adult Series as well as three limited edition prints made exclusively for the show, The Robot’s Cloak, Lucky Strike and Minnie The Masked.


First things first, do you listen to music when you work? If so, what kind do you prefer and how does it affect your mood?

Yes, most of the time. It depends if I am working alone or with other people. If I am working alone I will get into one album and be able to listen to it several times a day, with a few others that are also getting overplayed in rotation. This past month there has been a lot of Jamie T, Kindness, FKA Twigs, SBTRKT.

On Sundays or weekends when I am working alone I like to listen to classical music. I love most Philip Glass and also Chopin. Classical music can focus my mind, while electronic music can be energising. When I have people in the studio with me I often go for the radio so I am not to blame if they don’t like what is coming on.

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Historically, there have been several moments where the worlds of fashion, art and music have collided with great vibrancy. Is there an era that has been particularly influential in your work, especially in terms of this crossover?

Oh, tricky once you involve music – I love painting from the early and mid half of last century, but am not sure how that relates to music I am interested in. I think in my work music plays such an integral part – I work with Peter Duffy on most projects and he is an incredibly talented musician and producer. He shapes a lot of how people understand my videos and we know each other so well we don’t have to talk too much about what we think is right. It always just seems to work.

This time you’re working with Robert Storey. What can we expect from this collaboration and what is it you enjoy about working with him?

I think this collaboration is different to how we usually work in that we have both really done our thing – and not had to worry about it coming across in one unified way like we would for a brand. Robert got to try out things he was into for the show – working with mirrors, long lines and interlocking sculptural pieces, and I got to use his structures as the basis for laying out my work.

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In a few places our work meets in the middle and interacts with each other, but on the whole we love working together because we both get to do our thing. We are both very chilled about our process and don’t mind changing up ideas on the spot. Over planning can kill creativity.

Talking of brands, this is your first major solo show, independent of working for clients. How does presenting it in a gallery context change the way people perceive the work?

I think choosing which pieces of my work felt relevant for the Archive Room was an interesting task for the exhibition – we have a large room of old works in the show, anything from frames from films to paintings I did fresh out of my MA. But deciding what pieces of my work is appropriate for a gallery wall made me start to be able to understand what I value in my work and what I don’t. I feel like a lot of what I do commercially sits well with what I consider to be the more fine art side of my work- and visually is just as strong. It is also fun seeing what Editorial pages feel like blown up larger and put up next to a painted piece. I think that as soon as you pin something to the wall you have as much right to call that thing art as you do something that was made to go in a frame.

Quentin Jones & Robert Storey’s The Fractured And The Feline opens on Wednesday 19th November at The Vinyl Factory’s Brewer Street Car Park Space. Click here for more details about the show and see below for visitor information.

Visitor information:

Address: The Vinyl Factory Space at Brewer Street Car Park
Brewer Street
London, W1F 0LA
Dates: 19th November – 13th December 2014
Opening Hours: Wednesday – Saturday 12pm – 5.00pm
Admission: Free

Main image courtesy of Quentin Jones. Adult Series #2.