BASEMENT CELL
KATIE DOWNING / MIXED MEDIA ARTIST & ILLUSTRATOR
NEW STUFF COMING HERE SOON!
Stranger גֵּר
2022-23
Exhibited at the Promethean exhibition (March 2023) at gallery@OXO, OXO Tower
This is a collection of etchings in response to my own hidden family history. Some time ago, I discovered I have Sephardic Jewish ancestors from Portugal. It is likely they fled during the times of the Inquisition, as records indicate. Generations of them lived in East London for hundreds of years. Eventually, names were anglicised and the connection to Jewish heritage gradually faded away. A few older relatives knew of this history, but it is scarcely talked about.
This book is a point along my journey of beginning to explore and understand Jewish culture, and what it means to reclaim a historical part of my identity that was lost. The etchings are printed in a blue hue, a colour significant to Judaism, known as tekhelet in Hebrew.
Reef: Affordable Therapy Service Concept
2022
Experimental first experience with an industry-focused brief (Handsome Frank illustration agency). We were tasked with inventing a product and designing a branding campaign for it, alongside creating mockups of our advertising in the real world.
Life is a Circus Zine
2022
A short watercolour and ink zine about the woes of a clown in modern London society. Do you question the expected and so-called 'normal' routines found in urban, fast-paced environments? Do you feel like an outsider having to pretend it's all okay?
Permanence Zine
2021-2022
A short mixed media poetry zine about my local area (SE16) and ongoing gentrification. Who gets to decide what is permanent, and why are working-class communities and history treated as if they are expendable?
Sorry, We Won't Be Long: Learning From Nature (Short Film)
2021-2022
An animated mini documentary about the positive impact green spaces and nature reserves in cities have on mental health.
Hand and Eye: Graphic Novel Page
2021
A mixed media graphic panel restricted to 3 colours, based on a randomly-assigned line from Ted Chiang's The Great Silence. Featured in a book as part of a collaborative graphic narrative.
Through a Lens: Augmented Reality Animation
2021
An experimental mixed media AR piece that works with the Artivive app - if the still image is scanned in the app, the animation pictured above will trigger and loop. This piece depicts a shellshocked British WW1 soldier experiencing a euphoric hallucination through his gas mask goggles, a stark contrast to the hellish landscape that envelops him.
New Consciousness: Video Games Don't Cause Violence (Short Film)
2020-2021
A documentary that I created as part of a social campaign.
Engagement/Passivity: Pages for a Collaborative Zine
2020
Despair, youth, corrupted files and Windows XP aesthetics.