Meet Bugdumb, the Brisbane label bringing fairies to fashion
Image via @bugdumb/instagram
Words by Lucy Andrews
“It makes me feel less insane and that I have a purpose. I think everyone who makes things is trying to get that feeling – it’s kind of self-actualising.”
When it comes to artists I’m currently obsessing over, Brisbane/Meanjin local ‘Bugdumb’ springs to mind. Olivia Chapman has the innate ability to create devious, whimsical creatures that speak to my inner child – like if Coraline met entomology. Olivia’s work is fun, playful, otherworldly and a little strange.
Since beginning her brand, Olivia has developed a little bit of a cult following in the Brisbane community. It’s safe to say when you wear Bugdumb, there’s a known coolness about you – like you’re part of a secret society (and their leader is a bleached insect).
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Bugdumb’s creations include drawings, jewellery, sculptures, tattoo commissions, tote bags, clothing and prints. Below, Olivia speaks on finding her niche, and her journey in curating an online presence.
Tell us about you. What’s your creative background?
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My name is Olivia and I live in Brisbane, Queensland. I like being in nature, animals, insects, reading books on philosophy and looking after children. I have always liked making things since I was a girl. I have my mum and a lot of the creative and thrifty women of my family to thank. I have been to Queensland College of Art and Design and refined a lot of my printmaking skills through uni and my own experimentation and play.
How did you get started? Talk us through the process and the challenges.
I made an Instagram for these brooches I made my friends in COVID. I started posting more of my prints and when Celine reached out to work with me, I quit my job in childcare and started taking it a bit more seriously. I found the process of having my work reach people online a bit random but exciting and motivating.
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That being said, it has been challenging in a lot of ways too. I find social media a bit evil and it’s taken some time for me to identify that it’s really important to be selective with what you share regarding your face and personal details online. I think it’s better to let my artwork be under a different name than my own. I want the things I make to speak for themselves separately from my personal life… without it becoming a place where I over-identify or develop parasocial relationships.
I’d say that’s been a big challenge in my experience of trying to connect to others and get my art out there while not making it a social focus or way of thinking about who I am. Sharing so much of yourself that way in this portal where anyone on earth at any time, anywhere can perceive you and tell you what they think is crazy… we live in a crazy time. I feel scared, exhilarated, dystopic, grateful and remorseful all at once.
What were you trying to achieve when you started? Do you feel like this has evolved?
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I started with the intention to share with my friends [the] playful imaginings and characters I made up. Over time, even though it still kinda is that it has slowly grown vertebrae and gone more and more terrestrial, I suppose.
How would you describe your work to someone who’s never seen it before?
Someone said to me once it looks like the “quiet private world of fairies you met as a child in your backyard imaginings”, and I loved that! I hope that’s what it feels like for other people, too.
What are you most proud of in your work?
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I am proud of my work when people tell me it helped them feel better or good in some way. I feel like I’m speaking to a human experience and have accomplished my goal in those moments.
I can’t say exactly how I feel or show another person something that I deem aesthetically valuable in words a lot of the time. So I feel proud when something I have made delivers the emotions/ideas/opinions I have felt to another person successfully.
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It feels like the integral impetus behind what I do is attaining that very feeling – that I am being understood and that my expression is felt by others, too. It makes me feel less insane and that I have a purpose. I think everyone who makes things is trying to get that feeling – it’s kind of self-actualising.
What do you wish you knew when you started?
To not say yes to every commission.
Who do you think is most exciting in Australian fashion/art right now?
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I love Wendy Sharpe at the moment! And my friends Thomas King and Rose Alexander, who inspire me all the time illustratively and imaginatively. There are so many artists but if I start listing I’ll never stop, so I’ll leave it there for now.
What about the Australian creative industries needs to change?
I’m not sure. The beauty of what I do is that I do most of it at home alone and don’t need a middleman. I guess sometimes people make art for the wrong reasons… especially when money is involved. I think people know integrity when they see it though, and that there is a lot of good stuff being made by good people at the moment.
Dream Australian collaborators?
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I wouldn’t say no to Stewart Macfarlane if he said to me come over and paint – I love his paintings so much. I had a big poster of his in my room when I lived in east Brisbane that felt so quintessential.
Go-to dinner party playlist?
Something ambient and binaural while we eat then some Ke$ha for dessert and we all jump up and down on the couch until we feel sick.
Who is in your wardrobe right now?
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A skeleton… and some beautiful things made by friends like Kiara and Bianca (Bulley Bulley), and my friend Joe (Joseph Botica). Outside of that I mainly wear Salvos and messy clothes to play in.
How can we buy one of your pieces?
On my Bigcartel.
You can explore Bugdumb’s full range here.
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