Ibiye Camp’s denim artwork series “Such a Fan” is inspired by 90s nostalgia, music videos, and spreading positive vibes — but mainly by Rihanna. The London-based painter and illustrator is a card-carrying Navy member who once thought that she could paint nothing but Rihanna for the rest of her life. It makes sense considering Badgal encompasses most of the other things that motivate Camp to create work, while Rihanna is a noted fan of baggy denim and bucket hats — the two articles of clothing that Camp most frequently turns into canvases for her celebrity face portraits. Other famous mugs that repeatedly pop up in her work include Lil’ Kim, Kanye West, Beyoncé, Aaliyah, and Ol’ Dirty Bastard of Wu Tang — plus more historical figures who remain dominant in black culture. Camp’s recent collection of handbags featured civil rights activist Rosa Parks, radical activist/academic Angela Davis, and Jazz Age superstarlet Josephine Baker.
Camp’s work is not only a comment on fan culture but also on selfie culture. Recently she started to take commissions from friends and followers for clothing covered in people’s own painted selfies. Interestingly, this project was not just inspired by randoms sliding into her Instagram DMs but also by the artist’s personal self-confidence struggles. Camp sees wearing your face on your sleeves as a show of self-love. We talked to the artist about selfies, superfandom, and her vampire comic book starring a badgal celebrity called (of course) Riina.
Why did you first start painting your favorite famous faces?
I take a lot of inspiration from music videos and I think I started painting famous faces to create a type of character costume. You know the feeling when you’re getting ready for your day, maybe listening to classic Aaliyah or Timbaland tunes — it can inspire you and make you feel like, “I wanna wear leather and have my hair dead straight.” Or if you’re listening to Rihanna and you feel you wanna show off your bad gal side and wear a see-through top or something. The original painted clothing I made was a bucket hat of Rihanna and Ja Rule. I painted portraits of Rihanna on to the hat. In the paintings she had a really cute little pink pixie cut, that day I felt like having a pink pixie cut too but I wasn’t feeling that experimental with my own hair so I painted Rihanna onto my hat. The Ja Rule hat was purely because bucket hats reminds me of the 90s and early 00s — particularly Ja Rule and Ashanti in their sepia-colored music videos. My work definitely has an element of nostalgia.
Why do you find selfie culture so intriguing?
People’s creativity, confidence, and captions with selfies are an art in itself. With a selfie you are the photographer, model, art director, stylist, and publisher. It’s a pretty crazy selfie time at the moment so I like to exaggerate it by people wearing their painted selfies too. When I made my first pair of selfie jeans I didn’t have a lot of self-confidence. I guess painting my portrait was my way of getting to grips with myself and trying to feel beautiful. I felt like wearing my face all over my jeans was the best way to achieve that, and to have a bit of self-appreciation. When I wore the selfie jeans some people saw it as a joke at first. But I wanted to reflect that I was feeling good about myself, similar to why someone might post a selfie on Instagram.
What are the main reasons people want selfie clothing?
I like to take commissions for selfie outfits, it’s like a collaboration between myself and that person. I get a lot of requests for boyfriends and girlfriends to be painted onto jackets. I figure a lot of people want to show off their other half, which is cute. One of my favorite jackets was for my friend who loves Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I painted the classic photograph of her from the cover of Time magazine. When my friend wears the jacket she gets a lot of attention from people who also love Notorious R.B.G.. I love the fact that your outfit can be a talking point with strangers to create positive conversation.
The subjects you paint in the “Such a Fan” series are mostly creative women of color. Would you say this is a theme of your work?
I don’t feel as though it was a conscious decision to paint women of color. I just paint people I follow in culture and that inspire me. My celeb paintings are of Aaliyah, Rihanna, Lil’ Kim, Beyoncé, etc. But I also paint my friends and family. They are all people who I am interested in, and they are key references in my work. I do like the idea of representing women who are not as mainstream in pop culture but are dominant figures in black lives. I painted Josephine Baker, Rosa Parks, Angela Davis, and Viola Davis on to denim handbags. Similar to what I mentioned about my friend’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg jacket, I wanted to create painted clothing which spreads a positive vibe and conversation when worn.
Can you tell me more about your vampire comic book Oloko Ama?
Oloko Ama means “strange stories” in Kalabari, a Nigerian language. This comic book is a continuation of my crazy Rihanna obsession combined with a vampire obsession which I’ve had since Buffy the Vampire Slayer. My sister and I used to write stories together and Oloko Ama is a result of that. I wanted to create a comic book that had a main girl who wasn’t like the regular vampire chick flick ones, something for me and my sister to relate to. The comic is a little crazy and exaggerated — the story follows a reckless celebrity called Riina. When her boyfriend is turned into a vampire her whole life changes and she goes on the hunt to save him but comes across a lot of evil demon celebrities along way. The comic is really fun to create. It includes loads of recognizable celebrities like Rihanna, Cara Delevingne, the Vampire Diaries boys, Buffy, Kanye, and A$AP Rocky. These celebrities are just the inspiration for my characters — they all have different names.
Credits
Text Hannah Ongley
Photography Kate Berry