Meet the artist / Isobel Milton
Kent-based Isobel Milton gives new life to discarded sex cards in her series “Something for Nothing”. I asked her all about how she came to pick up these cards, her commitment to elevating women in the arts and give props to underpaid and disregarded sex workers.
How do you describe your style of art?
Folk, meaning crafts, past and present, is a framework for my ideas. I use reclaimed materials and utilitarian objects previously owned by a community. I use textiles and drawing; the objects determine my making. I work with the original object to resolve new work. I always create a series, a story or a collective history, using embroidery techniques that mend items or make them last longer. However, decoration is essential in composing my work, it's part of the story.
In Oscar Wilde's novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, the quote, "My dear boy, no woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex," has always made me smile because decoration in this context means less than a man. For example, a painting is a work of art, an embroidery is a decorative art. The word decoration is also associated with a woman's appearance.
This is an interesting point that you make. I've spoken to other artists about the fact that women in the arts, and especially the erotic arts, have never really been taken seriously; we're either saying too little or saying too much. What's been your experience with this?
I have not personally experienced being dismissed for the subjects I work with, but I have been told to stick to “safe subjects”. I think the reason why female erotic artists have not been taken seriously is because along with life and death, sex is considered a subject for the great male artists of the 20th Century.
Women's general progression in art has vastly improved in my lifetime. However, if you look at who is exhibiting in galleries, a study by the Public Library of Science, USA, of 18 prominent art museums found that 87% of artists represented were male and 85% were white. I am mindful because the narratives I work with vary; they will sometimes conflict yet the foundation is always based on craft and how art is assessed; sex is a part of it, too.
I have worked in prisons, refugee camps, and hospitals for the last twenty years. I’ve seen how people are treated and dehumanised. Some were sex workers demonised for their work no matter how that came to be, and shamed. I use media and artistry to question how crafts are valued in arts and culture. Drawing is engrained in every step of my practice; I draw the characters and compose stories in my head.
Can you tell me about the idea behind your "Something for Nothing" series?
I started collecting rubbish and embroidering it into plastic cups and crisp packets. I've always been fascinated by how art is valued and by whom. I started picking up sex cards because I noticed the model was wearing the same bra I was wearing at the time. Whoever made it had copied it from a lingerie brand and used the picture on the card; the next card was of a woman wearing a sports bra and having a cup of tea. The cards themselves varied, but always on the street, trampled on, looking up at me.
I wanted to make them valuable, as if someone cared for them, treasured them even, like a relic. 'Something for Nothing ' refers to a culture in art and beyond of people not getting paid for the work they do. Usually, women who work in the sex industry are not respected or valued in society in the broader sense. Yet the sex industry exists for a reason: demand. The name is playful but does refer to the narrative of expectation. I chose to use playing cards; it's a game but sometimes at a significant cost, and usually unequal.
The use of embroidery itself is often associated with domestic art; a blanket stitch is a form of craft to protect the item from wear and tear. I'm creating a collection and using my hair owing to the Victorian art of Hairwork.
Can you tell us more about this Victorian art form?
That's an interesting question. Hairwork became popular in the 17th and 18th Centuries due to high mortality rates; holding onto a lock of hair for use in jewellery or a commemorative craft (such as wreaths) was common. Yet, in Victorian Britain and the US, it became part of the 'mania' of how people grieved for the dead in Victorian society, poignant yet unsettling. Queen Victoria influenced how people mourned death in the 19th Century, owing to her husband, Prince Albert, dying in 1861.
Weaving intricate pieces in flowers, exquisite recreations of bouquets or woven earrings made by a loved one. Sometimes, hair was used to illustrate a family tree or a loved one; Emily Snedden Yates, special projects manager and co-curator of the exhibition "Woven Strands: The Art of Human Hair Work at the Mütter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia describes it poetically, " It was an ode to the person's essence." I use my hair and my friends' hair to embroider flowers into the cards; the word protection arises when making these pieces, 'memento moris.'
Can you take me through the process of creating each card?
I collect the sex cards, clean them, select which part of the card I shall use and start drawing out the shapes in my head; I will create a character for each card. I use book-binding paper to reinforce areas because the needle will rip through the playing cards.
I crave a shape in the playing card to embroider and embellish while creating a window for the sex card to reveal itself. I use Blanket stitch, French knots, Algerian eye, Goldwork, Beadwork, and Bullion Picot stitches. I use other stitches, but those are the ones I use the most. Materials vary, including conservation glue, Swarovski crystals, faux pearls, hair, and nails. I create them in batches because it takes hours to create them.
You've created other collections that don't focus on sex. Do you find you speak as openly/freely about your 'Something for Nothing' series as much as your other work that isn't related to sex?
It depends, but I don't discuss 'Something for Nothing' less than the other work; as I mentioned, the collections vary, but some threads link them. The Lipzzaner series references how women’s bodies become commodities in art and popular culture; whether it is a portrait by Hans Holbein, the Younger, of Christina of Demark, the Duchess of Milan or Marilyn Monore in the Red Velvet sessions, both are examples of ethereal beauty and desire translating into a product for the viewer.
When Marilyn Monroe was exposed in Hollywood for posing nude, she took ownership of her body and notably said, 'I am not ashamed'. Hugh Hefner used the same images to start Playboy Magazine without acknowledging her financially; she did not own the photos, and Monroe was paid $50 for the shoot.
I’m hellbent on elevating sexual expression. What does freedom of sexual expression and pleasure look like to you?
Freedom of sexual expression is complex. It relates to gender, race, and religion, but owning your pleasure is essential—sexual expression is wrapped in shame, the shame of asking to feel human, to feel alive. Pleasure is rooted in the freedom to express and understand yourself to acknowledge your desires.
I feel a duty and a desire to help other women have a voice and a place to feel safe and to share their art and design freely because of the stigma surrounding women in the arts, especially erotic arts. Correct me if I'm wrong but I get the sense you feel that, too, given what you've seen in your work and how women are still demonised for sex work. Is my assumption correct, and if so, what do you ultimately wish to convey?
Yes, that is true. It's how badly sex workers are treated in society and perceived. The irony is that sex work provides a service that polite society prefers to ignore and not discuss. The care in creating these pieces relates to how these original cards are valued, left on the pavement as rubbish. I want to embroider them and apply gold leaf and beadwork; part of me wants to protect them and give them respect, prevent them from harm. When Hallie Rubenhold wrote The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, the backlash she received in presenting the story of these women's lives was telling, for once, these women were people who had hopes, dreams and children. Rubenhold gave the reader another story, a history that should have been revisited years ago.
As a woman, do you feel comfortable expressing your sexual desires and asking for what you want?
I do now. I'm 45 now and entirely different from my 20-year-old self; respect and kindness are essential to yourself and others.
If you could invite any five people to dinner living or past), who would they be, what meal would you serve, and where would you sit to eat?
I would invite Marilyn Monroe (actress), Grace O'Malley (female pirate), Forough Farrokhzad (poet, filmmaker, activist), Elif Shafak (writer), Ana Mendieta (artist and activist), and please, one more– Nina Simone (musician, artist and activist).
I would serve cocktails, rose/elderflower cordial, water, wine and beer. (I think that covers everyone)
I would ask AI to choose their perfect dish and deliver it. We all would like different foods; I don't eat meat, Monroe loved steak, and Grace O'Malley enjoys pies. I would sit in the middle of the group and listen to what they all had to say.
See more of Isobel’s work on her website.