Seleena Laverne Daye is an artist working primarily in textiles, collaborative multimedia and a zinester. Loverboy’s Fallon Gold spoke with Seleena for the latest in our queer artists series.

What inspires you to create a work of art?
Usually someone else art. Or if I get angry by something I feel like I want to create something to retaliate to that. Or sometimes I just want to make stuff!

Who or what are your influences?
I’m heavily inspired by popular culture so a lot of my work features a bunch of my favourite songs, books, film and TV, but also I’m really interested in the representation of POC and women and working class people within popular culture, so a lot of it comments on that.

Do you identify as a queer artist?
This is a tricky one for me and something I’m figuring out! It’s taking me years to even identify as an artist! The constant working class guilt and forever thinking about my lack of education and the ability to own my artistic self. Even now I sometimes feel uneasy saying it. I’m currently working on the identifying as queer thing. I’m constantly worried about taking up space meant for someone else or appropriating queerness, while at the same time wanting to have more visibility for people on the ACE spectrum, especially POC. In short, I’m on the road to calling myself a queer artist.

What is queer art to you?
I guess anything that is made by somebody who is queer. The flipside to that is that why should somebody who is queer’s work just be referred to as queer art? Like the whole thing that women in bands are ‘girl bands’ not just bands. But it’s important to exist and take up space in the art world. Work that just questions society’s norm.

Who are some of your favourite artists?
So many! Alison Erika Forde, Yayoi Kusama, Kara Walker, Ellen Gallagher, Jack Fallows, Jessicka Addams, SBTL CLNG, Fawn Gehweiler, Saffa Khan, Lori Nelson and a million more!

Are there any mediums you haven’t worked in yet that you’d like to try?
I’ve been trying to have a go at needle felting since the start of the year but things keep cropping up and getting in the way. I really want to get into more printing fabrics and using those within my work, especially lino printing.

What’s are you working on right now?
I’m embroidering some pieces for a show called Queer Revoke at The Penthouse NQ in Manchester. And, if I have time, doing a felt portrait for that. But it’s been workshop season for me so I’m not sure if that will happen!

What’s next for you?
I have a new solo exhibition ‘Brown Girl in the Pit’ about being a punk of colour and other punks of colour. That’s showing at Nexus art café in Manchester from 5^th September through til October. Hopefully make a couple of new zines, and work on a Poor Lass zine Podcast with my friend Em!

 

See more of Seleena’s work on her Website