“Having slight discomfort when you look at my work is good,” says Makiko Harris, the Japanese/American multidisciplinary artist who we’re claiming as a Londoner since she’s now based here and trained at the Royal College of Art. Plus, her work has a subcultural mix — pop art, kink, DIY punk — that feels very London. Think Vivienne Westwood meets Richard Hamilton meets heavy industry.
“A common theme is transforming something intimate with an industrial process,” she says. “Fragments of the body or symbols of a traditionally feminine perspective are transformed through industry and scale. At the Dulwich Picture Gallery I have this gigantic red fingernail in their sculpture garden that’s like a f*** you. I also do paintings of stockings where the fishnet is laser-cut stainless steel.”
