THIS IS ART,
HUN
Meg McWilliam
In a world increasingly rife with inequality and injustice, North East artist Meg McWilliam uses bold, unapologetic art to confront the most thorny of issues facing us all. With her stunning and provocative collages, she forces audiences to face societal challenges head-on, taking a fresh unfiltered look at power, class and feminism.
Interview by Jane Imrie
Photographs by Christopher Owens
Collage by Meg McWilliams
The world definitely feels like it’s on fire right now.
It’s no secret that the wealth disparity between the rich and the poor is as wide and cavernous as it’s ever been, and misogyny is at a terrifying fever pitch around the world. War, violence and inequality are ravaging populations and literally tearing people apart.
Compounded by the reinstatement of an (alleged) rapist billionaire into the world’s highest seats of power earlier this month, many feel that there is much to be angry and scared about at the moment.
Against this backdrop of such sociopolitical extremes, working class artist Meg McWilliam uses her visually arresting collages to force viewers into confronting the injustice and collective pain that humanity is currently feeling through a very specific raw cultural lens.
“People think that glamorous women deserve to be treated like shit because they put themselves out there as sex symbols.”
Having had her artwork recently exhibited at the Baltic in Gateshead, as well as featuring in a campaign with brand heavyweight Adidas, North East native Meg is not someone who can be easily overlooked.
Bearing an uncanny resemblance to a young Pamela Anderson at the height of her 90s fame and with an unflinchingly flamboyant aesthetic, Meg truly exudes Don’t Call Me Babe energy in its purest form.
An advantage Meg has over the iconic Pam, who was famously the subject of much objectification and derision in her youth, is perhaps that she is part of a new and decidedly less apologetic generation of women - one that is done with making themselves small, agreeable and palatable for society’s sake.
The impressive thing about Meg, alongside her phenomenal ability to convey bold social commentary and unfiltered emotions in her art, is her refusal to bow to any societal pressure to play down her femininity and sexuality in a world where, in her own words, “people think that glamorous women deserve to be treated like shit because they put themselves out there as sex symbols.”
“If [men] can't relate them to their mother or their daughter, then they're just gonna treat you like shit,” she explains, encapsulating the classic Madonna-whore complex that arguably keeps many cisgender heterosexual men in its vice-like grip.
“I feel like a lot of men pretend to be interested in my art to try and just shag me… I have so many of them messaging me, and I ignore them,” she says matter-of-factly, in a tone that tells me there are no residual feelings of flattery here, only weariness and disdain.
For Meg, any assumptions made about her character or intelligence based on her appearance are categorically not her problem. “People think I'm really stupid, but I'm actually not, I'm quite clever,” she explains earnestly, with no trace of arrogance in her voice. I know from the insights she shares during our chat that she’s absolutely right.
Meg’s journey with art began while she was studying for her A Levels, when she discovered her love of collage and a fascination with the Dadaist movement alongside a frustration with traditional art forms.
“I've always been an artsy person…but I just hated drawings,” she explains. “In my head, when I'm doing my art, I can visualise it - but I was visualising stuff that I couldn't draw. So I started doing collage.
“Then I had a lesson in my Graphic Design A Level about Dada art. I was like, ‘actually, I really like that, I'm gonna keep doing it.’”
“I just want
to do my art full time
and just be well known for what I do.
That's all
I want to do.”
The pandemic was an unexpected catalyst for Meg’s artistic passion and skill, when the time spent in lockdown gave her a serendipitous opportunity to comment creatively on the chaotic state of the world in a way that makes sense to everyone.
Fast-forward nearly five years and Meg has amassed an abundant and impressive portfolio of astonishing artwork, as well as thousands of followers across Instagram and TikTok.
Her work touches on a huge variety of subjects and issues, ranging from violence against women, LGBTQ rights, Palestine, class inequality and Donald Trump, right through to more playful pieces about parmo pride (which as a Boro-born lass I am naturally just as passionate about) and Brat Summer.
For Meg, her art serves two different but equally important purposes: “As a working class person, politics is so gatekept.
“Reading all these long-text articles can be so hard to understand. But why should working class people not be able to understand politics when it directly affects them?
“I like to make my art to help people understand what's going on, kind of make things easier. But I also use it as a form of protest - to take the piss.”
Studying fashion communications at Northumbria University alongside working as a freelance artist, Meg has found that her working class background sets her apart from her peers in both the academic and art world.
“As a working class person, you don't have the connections, your parents don't have the connections,” she explains. “You don't have any money to spend on gallery fees or even the necessities of having a laptop, or paying for Adobe.
“I feel like a lot of people, especially at my uni, are from a more well-off background, and can message their dad and just get what they need. It's so frustrating.”
A great deal of Meg’s artwork is seemingly inspired by very specific aspects of British culture, ones that would usually be shunned by more esoteric art circles: “I grew up with X Factor and reality TV, I think you can tell that in my art,” she says.
“One of my fondest memories is going to the sunbeds with my mam when I was a kid. She was pushing my brother in the pram, she had a full Juicy Couture tracksuit on, she was orange, and I was like ‘that is my icon’. She's my Virgin Mary.”
When I ask her who she considers to be British icons, her unpretentious enthusiasm for in-your-face hun culture shines through. “Cheryl Cole, because she's from Newcastle… she's kind of iconic,” she tells me.
“Pete Burns, definitely - I've just finished his autobiography, I just think he was someone that's just so maximalist and he didn't care, he didn't get plastic surgery because he's insecure. He wanted to look like a blow-up doll, like he was just so queer and out there. Maybe he should have been Prime Minister.”
“Princess Diana is an icon, obviously. Also, I know everyone hates Katie Price, but I don't know… there's something about her.”
It’s unsurprising that Meg is a staunch feminist, having been brought up by her mum, a nurse, in a North East council estate alongside her four younger brothers.
“I look back on my childhood and I'm like, I want to go back. I miss it so much. It was just so character-building.”
“[My mam] is my inspiration. One of my fondest memories is going to the sunbeds with my mam when I was a kid,” she recalls. “She was pushing my brother in the pram, she had a full Juicy Couture tracksuit on, she was orange, and I was like ‘that is my icon’. She's my Virgin Mary.”
Meg feels that her early experiences have significantly shaped her view of the world: “I think growing up as a working class woman, you're always more aware of stuff. I'm not saying upper-class women don't have the same issues, but it seems like more problems are highlighted here.
“I was so cynical as a kid that I feel like I've just grown up so left-wing, because I'm just always questioning everything.”
“At the minute there's such a femicide problem, and it feels like no one's listening to women. Men just love to think that they're protecting you, but don't want to listen.”
As she progresses through her art career, there seems to be no danger of Meg compromising on those views or allowing the messaging of her work to be diluted.
One of the main issues playing on Meg’s mind is one that is close to my own heart, and is very much an urgent global emergency. “At the minute there's such a femicide problem, and it feels like no one's listening to women,” she says. “Men just love to think that they're protecting you, but don't want to listen.
“I've even stopped watching true crime, because every single true crime video was a woman being murdered.”
While I absolutely share her despair at the growing problem of violence against women and girls, I have huge admiration and hope for the way Meg harnesses her creativity to articulate a rage that so many of us feel right down to our bones.
For her upcoming work, Meg promises a totally new cornucopia of concepts. “I'm putting everything into it, I want it to be nothing that's been on Instagram before - literally a whole new body of work,” she explains. “I just want to do my art full time and just be well known for what I do. That's all I want to do.”
Just like her incredible art, the future looks bright and brilliantly brazen for Meg. With insidious hatred seeping into every corner of societal discourse in the current climate, it seems there will be no shortage of things that reasonable people everywhere should be outraged about - and Meg’s work is the perfect protest to an increasingly unhinged world.
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