It’s all peace and love at Enter Gallery as we get ready to launch a beautiful new piece by Brighton artist, Poppy Faun. Faun is a collage artist and graphic designer who uses found imagery from the 60s and 70s to create her unique aesthetic of contemporary escapism. Futuristic and otherworldly, Faun’s art exudes rock and roll.

Flower Child, 1972 is now exclusively available at Enter Gallery.

We sat down with Poppy to hear more about her new piece, and to discover the inspirations behind it.

The Feeling of Freedom

Flower Child is the latest in a series of artworks created by Faun to reflect the sense of being swept up in a feeling or experience. In First Play, we saw Faun capture the euphoria of listening to a record for the first time. In Lust, Faun represents the magnetism of attraction, and in The Feeling, the wonder of touch and true connection.

Faun’s intention with Flower Child, the fourth piece in the series, is to exemplify the feeling of freedom. Faun explains: ‘She’s completely at peace, full of love and light and energy. She radiates positivity. That’s her thing. She’s free and owning it.’

When we asked about the inspiration behind the piece, Faun reveals:

‘I was brought up a hippy child. I was one of the first water babies and was never taught about the news. Some of my earliest memories are of just being in nature, enjoying myself, creating, with not a care in the world. Flowerchild represents how some people can live free and within their own sense of emotion, rather than submitting to all the people and all the things that constantly try to influence how we feel nowadays.’

Representing female beauty

If you’re a fan of Faun’s art, you’ll know that women tend to take the starring role in her work. When asked about this she tells us:

‘My work is a celebration of the female form, free of connotations.’

Take the woman in Flowerchild for example – the photograph that Faun uses was sourced from a German porn magazine. She explains: ‘I’ve found a lot of the women I use in my work in porn magazines from the 60s and 70s, back when women were only ever represented for men’s pleasure. I find that a shame. These are real women - curvy, beautiful, natural women – their beauty shouldn’t just be for men. I like to rip them out of these magazines and put them into artworks that show their beauty, where they’re not sexualised, and where their beauty can be admired by everyone.’

In a world where heavy editing is the norm, Faun’s art is a wonderful reminder of a time when we didn’t need filters to be considered beautiful. ‘I love the rawness of 50 years ago. Nothing was edited back then. Photos were one shot, unedited, this is life and how it’s happening now. It’s so far from what life is like now.’

Losing control

As an artist whose work is infused with themes of control, perhaps it’s no surprise that Faun has gravitated towards creating a representation of pure freedom. Across her oeuvre, Faun has consistently produced representations of how times have changed since the golden era of the 60s and 70s. She tells us:

‘Nowadays, we’re surrounded by controlling forces – our phones, devices, we’re so absorbed, we can’t look away. My work contains material items, specifically vintage TVs – I collect them and use them in my work. I’m interested in how back in the 60s and 70s, the magazines were all advertising these really cool televisions – and people were excited, thinking what is this, and wanting a piece of the whole new world of digital. To me, these TVs represent the start of the digital world we live in now, and as much as I love the advantages of being able to connect to people – it’s definitely dampened society’s capacity for connecting as humans.’

Flower Child, 1972 is now exclusively available at Enter Gallery.