GAUCHOWORLD MEETS MULTI-DISCIPLINARY CREATIVE JERMINE CHUA
For many young creatives, now is an exciting yet frightening time to be entering the industry. In the current climate where creatives and people in the arts sector have been encouraged by the UK government to ‘retrain’ professionally, and when formal education has been pushed online - some moments seem like an endurance test.
One young creative who caught our attention was Jermine Chua, a multi-disciplinary creative working primarily with still and moving imagery, who recently endured a distressing experience after learning a US-based fashion brand was using her images on their clothing without her consent. Despite the circumstances, Jermine very poignantly reminds me “Fashion is about people and it should start and end with a community.” Jermine remains composed when discussing the situation and suggests that more education and accountability is needed in the creative industries. “As a collective, everyone whether as a consumer or creator has a responsibility in acknowledging and rejecting this behaviour in the industry,” she tells me. “I think it is even more important on an educational level for the generations to come to unlearn this behaviour to prevent things like that from happening again.” At Gauchoworld we aim to give creatives a space for individual self-expression, so it seemed only right that we celebrated Jermine’s work through a positive conversation.
Jermine, who is a second year Fashion Communication and Promotion student at Central Saint Martins, tells me how she strives to “create contemporary imagery that tells stories and elicit emotional responses from the audience.” Indeed, upon first glance at Jermine’s work, I am met with many futuristic and illusionary forms of digital expression - images, photographs and films.
From browsing Jermine’s variety of work, such as the ‘Digital Stadium’ for Chelsea FC and Three UK, it’s clear that Jermine finds her inspiration from multiple sources but always with a similar goal. “I find myself creating abstract imagery that leaves people interpreting the nature of the subject. I grew up following artists that are not specifically fashion-focused like Masao Yamamoto, Lang JingShan and specifically many modernist movements like Expressionism or Cubism. I just use contemporary methods to express how I interpret emotions in imagery.”
Intrigued (and mezmerised) by her work, I asked Jermine to talk me through the creative process behind the Chelsea FC ‘Digital Stadium’. “It was a collaboration between a team of us. We art directed the whole concept together and produced the video campaign using 3D softwares which we were all quite new to at the time. It was a long process of almost a year. We picked up many skills from scratch with countless nights of caffeine. And because it was a commercial project, we had to consider the clients’ and audience’s needs and present it with our artistry. We created an experience that was exciting and sophisticated, that also represented Chelsea FC, Three UK and the voice of our generation.” Jermine aims to tell a similar story through every piece of work she produces - one which provokes emotion and truth - but in a different light each time.
Whilst Jermine’s career in the creative industry is off to a flying start, it’s no secret that the exploitation of young or upcoming creatives is an age-old drawback of the fashion industry (and across the creative industries). But with a young generation holding a multiplicity of online platforms at their fingertips, young creatives have recently taken to Instagram to speak their truth about the misuse of their work. With the likes of @diet_prada paving the way for ‘calling out’ larger brands on social media, it seems only appropriate that these issues are taken public for fellow creatives and online users to make their own decisions.
Through an Instagram post last month, Jermine made a statement explaining how she had come to learn that a US based fashion brand was using her work on her clothing without her consent. Explaining the situation, Jermine shares; “It is quite distressing that some of my peers have encountered similar situations before and it is almost as if I was just waiting for my turn to come. I am unable to control what other people choose to take responsibility for, I can only say my truth and I know like-minded people will support me in my journey.” This is a problem historically endemic to the industry as a whole, it is something almost all creatives experience - and it is nothing new. As Jermine suggests, however, a shared accountability and awareness amongst creatives can change the direction of the wind. “As a collective, everyone whether as a consumer or creator has a responsibility in acknowledging and rejecting this behaviour in the industry. Diet Prada is a bigger platform with a wider reach that “calls out” situations that have already taken place. But I think it is even more important on an educational level for the generations to come to unlearn this behaviour to prevent things like that from happening again.”
Another imperfection sitting within the creative world is arguably the way Instagram is utilised; such a useful hub for creatives to share their work and get recognition, but at the same time, it is also a space where their work can be stolen or copied. Asking Jermine about her views on Instagram and the culture it inhabits in the creative industries, she shares her thoughts: “It’s a great platform to present your work as it allows your work to reach people and places you’d never expect. It is definitely useful in terms of discovering young talent and creatives. The platform can be worked on to be improved like having watermarks when saving the image etc. But the root of the problem — it still comes down to ethics and education to prevent work from getting stolen.”
“I do not necessarily support the viral culture born from Instagram where everything seems to have to look flashy in order to gain traction and virtual traffic, which I think shaped a part of today’s digital creative landscape. Everything just seems to fleet by so fast. I personally think we will move back to where we were like a circle, rejecting speed and maybe instagram won’t exist at that point and something new might take over.”
It’s definitely an exciting thought to imagine a digital world where we resist the fast-faced content being continuously pushed at us. Perhaps creatives like Jermine - striving to create more organic and personal documentation - will come to be at the forefront of communications, branding and the digital landscape.
Although Jermine is extremely self-assured in her creative identity, she tells me how she’s open to developing her creative process in the future. “I am on a constant journey of learning and evolving. I do not think there is a single creative that ever stops learning. I revolve around the same narrative because that is my truth and my identity anchor, I just string it in a different way every time. I do hope to refine a lot more of my technical skills and explore more methods to express myself as there are just too many things to say with just photographs.”
Young creatives like Jermine already seem to have the blueprint for moving the creative industries forward. I asked Jermine what the more experienced creatives can do to uplift younger creatives within the industry? “There are a lot more mentorship programmes popping up recently, especially post-covid. As a young creative, it’s scary navigating one’s way into the industry as we work quite differently from many others. Fashion is about people and it should start and end with a community. It is great to see many experienced creatives working alongside younger ones, giving guidance and support along the way.”
Jermine’s outlook strikes such a hopeful tone that shows how the industry is changing - definitely for the better - and will continue to in the future.