Miranda Donovan

Miranda Donovan’s three-dimensional panels, some almost a metre and a half tall, are unique in the field of graffiti art.

“I work around the five centimetre depth of the panels too, blurring the boundaries between object, sculpture and painting,” she explains further. The pieces are, as you can see, visually striking besides their three-dimensional, free-standing, physical presence. Miranda’s work combines one of art’s most traditional and supposedly soothing formats - the landscape – with rudimentary but vivid forms of graffiti; her own tag, ‘Tear’, appears regularly. However, the work is far less cosy than it may seem, posing inquisitive and quietly confrontational questions about this generation’s relationships with our upbringings, idealism, and civil responsibility. What makes an idyll and what contributes towards a dystopia? Whilst Donovan’s consideration of middle class values is clear - “I’m presently making copies of Dutch 17th century landscape painters, which for me evoke a lost world of innocence,” she says – the artist also puts the definitions of ‘social conscience’ and ‘beauty’ up to debate. One is reminded of infamous Soho-ite, commentator, and drunk Jeffrey Bernard who allegedly claimed that despite feasting his eyes upon the architectural wonders of the ancient world, he had “never seen anything quite so beautiful as the rotting fruits and vegetables of Berwick Street market.”

“I aim to bring the urban and rural into stark contrast; and I like the idea of adding colour to our world,” says Donovan. Like director Shane Meadows in Dead Man’s Shoes, she jabs at our assumptions of both town and country life.

“Corbusier’s vision, in 1950s Paris, was to create a ‘Ville Lumiere’ through better housing conditions. This failed. Conditions were cramped, people lived on top of one another and there was no variety. In this bleak and repetitive environment graffiti gives life and energy,” she states. Donovan has taken this point to its conclusion by painting landscapes of South African townships, Langa and Khayelitsha in Cape Town, where she once sabbaticalled. However, it’s not the ‘edgy urban environment’ that she specifically celebrates, more the human vitality inherent to wall-scrawling. “Graffiti is universally recognised and has existed since ancient times, from a scratch mark to an elaborate wall painting. The idea of leaving one’s mark in society – an ‘I was here’ while remaining anonymous – appeals to me.” She is half-Dutch, half-English, and lives in London.

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