Pattern Portraits with Lauren Godfrey

Welcome to this bonus episode of Pattern Portraits celebrating 150 Years of LIBERTY with author and historian Kassia St Clair. Geek out with us about Liberty as Lauren Godfrey chats with Kassia St Clair about 'Liberty' as an adjective, getting lost in summer garden florals and Oscar Wilde’s hot take on the icon that is Liberty. Kassia St Clair is the UK’s best selling historian under 40, selling h...

Welcome to this BONUS episode of Pattern Portraits on the occasion of Bethan Laura Wood ’s solo exhibition at The Design Museum in London! Step into the wiggle world of designer Bethan Laura Wood as she chats with Lauren Godfrey about hidden versus mirrored repeats, the similarities between kaleidoscopes and iPhones and pattern in three dimensions. Known for her joyful and maximalist approach to d...

Welcome to Episode 17 of Pattern Portraits! Lauren Godfrey chats with artist David Batchelor , about the legacy of the Bauhaus, gilding tortoises and pattern as a cardinal sin. David Batchelor is an artist well known for his sculptural and light based work that explores his experience of colour within a modern urban environment, and historical conceptions of colour within Western culture. David ha...

Welcome to Episode 16 of Pattern Portraits! Lauren Godfrey chats with artist Zadie Xa , about alchemy and conjuring through pattern, oddness over evenness and Korean Folklore. Zadie Xa is an artist working across painting, sculpture and performance with recent presentations at Thaddeus Ropac in Paris, Hauser and Wirth in LA and The Whitechapel Gallery in London. Originally from Vancouver, Canada,...

Welcome to Episode 15 of Pattern Portraits! Lauren Godfrey chats with artist Navine G Dossos , about wearing painting, pattern as lexicon and the connections between geometry and philosophy. This episode was recorded on the occasion of her solo exhibition ‘Riviera’ at Devonshire Collective’s VOLT gallery in Eastbourne. Navine is an artist living between London and Aegina in Greece working predomin...

Welcome to Episode 14 of Pattern Portraits! Lauren Godfrey chats with Romy St Clair, one half of the coolest florists in London, SAGE flowers , about collaboration, the similarities between flowers and clubbing and being a recovering minimalist. Together with Iona Mathieson, Romy has grown a phenomenal creative business, making playful bouquets and incredible floral installations. Storming onto th...

Welcome to Episode 13 of Pattern Portraits! Lauren Godfrey chats with artist Madeleine Pledge about stripes as borders, patterns as graphs and Virginia Woolf’s concept of frock consciousness. Madeleine Pledge is an artist working sculpturally, employing a myriad of processes including knitting, sewing, casting, ceramics and printmaking. Her work stretches and contorts, leaves a physical impression...

Lauren Godfrey chats with art historian and curator Dr Zoé Whitley about pattern as rebellion, making clothes with her grandmother and channelling her favourite musicians through patterns. Zoé is director of the well loved Chisenhale Gallery , a gem in the London gallery scene as a space that champions creativity and helps facilitate artists making new work on a grand scale. Before joining Chisenh...

Welcome to Episode 11 of Pattern Portraits! Lauren Godfrey chats with artist and filmmaker Michelle Williams Gamaker about costume as a nonverbal communicator in film, pattern stopping her in her tracks and the double echo of intergenerational clothes swapping. Michelle is an artist known for her ambitious films that enact fictional revenge, placing marginalised voices at the centre of the narrati...

Welcome to Season 2 of PATTERN PORTRAITS! In this first episode of the new season, Lauren Godfrey chats with curator, writer and broadcaster, Amber Butchart about the power of souvenirs, the compulsory nature of leopard print and the joys of London Transport seating fabric! You’ll probably know Amber from her very special TV series A Stitch In Time in which Amber explores the lives of historical f...

Season 2 of Pattern Portraits is coming soon! I’m Lauren Godfrey and each week I chat with fellow pattern lovers about a few of the patterns special to them. Each guest picks a handful of their favourite patterns and these open up conversation about the their wider world of work and life and lead us down avenues of tartan and passageways of paisley with a little diversion in a floral forest! Becau...

Welcome to this Bonus Episode of PATTERN PORTRAITS in collaboration with MIMA ! Lauren Godfrey chats with artist Jacqueline Poncelet on the occasion of her exhibition ‘In The Making’ at MIMA , Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art. We chat about intelligent risk taking, the importance of travel for Jacqui and the visual beefy soup of the world around us! Artist Jacqueline Poncelet graduated from a...

Welcome to Episode Eight of PATTERN PORTRAITS! Lauren Godfrey chats with broadcaster and presenter Gemma Cairney about the eroticism of everyday life, pattern as code and living instinctively. Gemma is best known for her work with BBC radio, and a myriad of TV appearances from hosting Glastonbury for the BBC to presenting the public art competition show, Landmark for Sky Arts. Gemma is a published...

Welcome to Episode Seven of PATTERN PORTRAITS! Lauren Godfrey chats with artist and designer Hannah Sabapathy about patterns as a key to other histories, the jewel-like colours of her Grandma’s saris and collaging as a process of creating conversations. Hannah Sabapathy is based in Dundee in Scotland and leads Studio Plica , a studio that explores colour, materials and the politics of pattern. She...

Welcome to Episode Six of PATTERN PORTRAITS! Lauren Godfrey chats with designer and business owner Karen Mabon about delving into the Barbie archive, the aesthetics of Grease 2 and the complexities of owning an eponymous brand. Karen makes pyjamas, scarves, swimwear and more in the most joyful, playful patterns of your dreams! Think tamagotchis, cats in pumpkin costumes and ski bunnies, foxes scav...

Welcome to Episode Five of PATTERN PORTRAITS! Lauren Godfrey chats with stylist Dr Manrutt Wongkaew about the power of education, dressing as therapy and turning up the dimmer switch on your own light. Manrutt is a stylist, art director and choreographer as well as a senior lecturer at London College of Fashion. His approach to colour and pattern is truly admirable, you think you’ve seen pattern o...

Welcome to Episode Four of PATTERN PORTRAITS! Lauren Godfrey chats with author Bethany Rutter about dressing fictional characters, the unavoidable influence of Trinny and Susannah and memorising Agatha Christie novels. A podcaster herself, Bethany co-hosts the literary podcast What Page Are You On? with fellow writer Alice Slater. She has published 3 novels with a 4th and 5th coming out in 2024 an...

Welcome to Episode Three of PATTERN PORTRAITS! Lauren Godfrey chats with illustrator, accessory and prop maker Rosy Nicholas about Garfield roller skates, dressing up as Madonna and the power clothes have to transport you. Rosy has extensive experience of making patterns herself having done brand collaborations with Jigsaw, Estée Lauder, Vans and Lazy Oaf as well as making an epic Grace Jones...

Welcome to Episode Two of PATTERN PORTRAITS! Lauren Godfrey chats with artist and illustrator Mark Hearld about rhythms in patterns, the lack of shocking pink at Kettles Yard and ways of engineering randomness. Mark has an infectious enthusiasm for objects and ephemera, art and artefacts. He has a self-confessed Magpie Eye, honing in on the details and the fleeting moments and running with them in...

Welcome to Episode One of PATTERN PORTRAITS! Lauren Godfrey chats with artist and illustrator Julie Verhoeven about patterns special to her, her time with John Galliano, striking a pose in a velvet trouser suit aged 5 and tending to the Frieze art fair toilets dressed in a tabard. Once met, never forgotten, Julie Verhoeven is a unique force in the art and fashion world, having inspired countless s...

Welcome to PATTERN PORTRAITS, an artwork and podcast by Lauren Godfrey! Each episode I speak with a fellow pattern lover in the creative industries about their relationship to pattern and colour and how surrounding themselves with pattern serves as a kind of armour. Each guest has selected some textiles special to them which we will discuss, using the patterns to delve into their stories. I have a...