EMOTIONAL INDULGENCES

In the latest collection by Moon Boot, the brand’s fluency with contemporary styling is exemplified, featuring three new models with sophisticated silhouettes. Reimagined through a feminine lens, the MB Soft Slipper, Icon Slide, and Moonlight are captured by photographer Joe Lokko for LN-CC and reinterpreted by NYC-based artist Pippi Nola. Crafted from premium materials, the Moon Boot collection is perfectly tailored for effortless combinations, here styled with a selection of pieces from Acne Studios, Miu Miu, Cecilie Bahnsen and more.

Featured amongst pink decor and animal print, the visual world in the imagery became creative material for Nola, forming collages that combine the shoot with found materials. With her work spanning a variety of media, most notably intimate paintings that evoke memories and a reflection on feminist thematics, Nola’s viewpoint on the world is best seen through her art. Being a bold display of self-referential storytelling, she has exhibited everywhere from her country of origin New Zealand, to New York, where currently resides. Here, Nola lends her artistic vision to collaging the Moon Boot shoot, situating the minimalist MB models within a fantastical sensibility. During the creation of the collages, Pippi spoke with LN-CC, detailing her process and the thoughts behind work.

You were presented with these images by Joe Lokko. Where did you start when it came to collaging them?

For each collage, I wanted there to be a strong thematic sense so I started by looking at the product, the way it had been styled and the type of world I could see around each character presented to me. From there it was fun, playing with colors and vibes to build a visual language around the looks.

This shoot was all about the latest Moon Boot collection. How did you plan on incorporating them within the final imagery?

I wanted the imagery to feel like a mood board, to spark a conversation around each shoe, but I didn’t want it to feel overly like an ad or campaign, more that each shoe and its styling/energy conjured a feeling and spoke to the imagery I connected it with.

The looks on this shoot offers a contemporary view of feminine styling, which compliments a prevalent theme in your work – girlhood. What aspects of girlhood do you often consider in your creative process?

I love playing with recognizable tropes, pinks and sparkles and fluffiness and mixing them with the darker more twisted sides to girliness - I guess the more human and honest aspects of ourselves that aren’t usually as fun to highlight. Romanticizing things like being bored, being overwhelmed or scared, hating the parts of yourself you’ve overly projected and played into. I like to think of it as the dirt and grime and hair that gets stuck in a fluffy rug.

Your work is often very POV-focused and intimate. What draws you in to such a perspective?

Playing with angles can make an image really confronting, immediately the viewer is either looking up or down at the subject and I think that really helps in conveying the feelings I’m often trying to touch on. Feeling in between overlooked and overly observed. Also, religious work often plays with this kind of scale and perspective, and I find giving an everyday and pretty mundane scene a divine treatment interesting.

There’s a playfulness present in your work but also often a kind of nostalgic sadness. What can you say about the emotive landscape within your work?

There is value in both, I think communicating through humor often helps a message land and then the sadness or darkness has something to sit against too. I find work that is too saturated in emotion a little bit self-indulgent, and my work is definitely self-indulgent enough. Viewing ideas or objects or people through a camp lens often gets to the heart of it all, I always hope my work can connect with people in a true way and then also wink at the end.

Is it safe to say pink’s your favourite colour?

Yes. I always say pink is my favorite but red is my soul. But pink is like reds daughter or something.

You’re from New Zealand originally but now live in New York. How have these locations affected your work?

I don’t actually know if they have, they probably have but I don’t think about it too much. For me, making art is a way to be in my head and not be wherever my body actually is. Being from New Zealand though has given me quite a good POV to look at the rest of the world. I always feel like kiwis are observers and we absorb a lot of media etc from everywhere else but kind of mix it together so it comes out with a different flavor.

As a multidisciplinary artist, you’re still able to create a clear throughline across your creative practice. If you had a manifesto, what would it be?

Like words to live by? Choose the fun option and think deeply about everything at the same time.