The London based artist ,who is Influenced by religion and the supernatural, Cambo ,creates work which questions the materialistic nature of the world we live in today. His work is nuanced, colourful and filled with motifs such as hearts and ankhs. Recently, having exhibited in a group show in London, the artist explored sculpture alongside his other works.

What was your first memory of wanting to create art?
My first painting I remember doing was recreating henri rousseaus ‘suprised! Or ‘tiger in a tropical storm’ which is still one of my favourite paintings. I saw that paintjng in real life for the first time recently actually. The other is drawing houses, often accompanied by a rainbow and ALWAYS some sort of toadstool. I wonder why this particular type of drawing seems to be so archetypal for young kids. I was no more creative or expressive than anyone else was as a child, some people leave their creativity and artistic expression behind with their childhoods. It’s never unrecoverable.

Congrats on your recent group show! Tell us a bit more about the work you exhibited.
Thanks! it was good fun to put on and great to be able to show with my friend Lenfant who is a visionary!! Since moving to london I have been painting quite a lot so I was eager to show what I had been doing these past 6 months or so. New themes are reflected which I can perhaps talk about later but what was most exciting for me was showing some sculptures. I had never explored sculpture before and I had lots of fun with it. For someone as expressive as I am I really don’t have much to say about what I make because I guess I don’t have the language to talk about the work itself.

What experiences have challenged and moulded your creative work?
Haha ! I like this question because I love to talk about this particular experience I had last year and u can ask anyone who’s met me in the past year chances are I forced them to listen to me do so. *pls cut whatever u please cos I’m about to go off for a bit* I’m still confused and baffled by it and to the despair and dismay of anyone within earshot of me I have gone on and on about this experience ad nauseum and it’s subsequent impact on my life but I have probably not talked about it’s impact on my art. Most of my life I have been fascinated by religion and the supernatural. Up until recently my interest was Mostly in them aesthetically and sociologically. They fit and were squashed into my analysis of the world on a materialist basis in that I have always believed that when I die I’ll die and turn to dust and that’s it. I began to wonder why many of the smartest people around me rejected this thesis !! And maybe I was starting to ‘hmmmmm 🤔🤔’ about this but remained skeptical! A seance at my friends house with a ouija board, and the dream I had that night completely transformed my worldview and my conception of the world and cosmos etc. Look let’s just say that only my hand was on the planchette for periods and I sure as heck wasn’t moving it!!! It started going back and forth between the letters Z and A until we thought they had lost interest and gone. Later that night I was having the most vivid and intense dream I’ve ever had where I saw a being?? with bright white eyes and was awoken by someone sort of prodding me awake. I was home alone ffs!!!!! I found out recently that you should always stop a seance if the planchette starts going back and forth repeatedly between 0-9 or a-z because it means the spirit is trying to break through into our Realm. Wish I’d known that then !! Since that spooky night my work has reflected more spiritual themes but this hasn’t been a conscious or contrived thing i guess my aesthetic tastes have been reoriented as my thoughts became more dominated by questions of a metaphysical and mystical nature. Houses and toadstools have been replaced with sacred hearts and ankhs.

What medium do you feel expresses your work in the best way?
Painting has so far been my preferred medium as I love to explore colour and I love the gestural processes of painting. It’s fun and it is easy, u pick up the brush and u squeeze paint from the tube and that’s all u need to do and it allows me to express language and image in the most straightforward way but I’m open to more stuff and I want to further explore texture !!!!!

Has living in London influenced your work?
Living in london certainly has influenced and inspired me but this has less to do with the walls or the energy of the city and more to do with those who walked it’s streets before us. Particularly the likes of William Blake, William Morris and John Ruskin. I’m fascinated by these guys. Their art and poetry but also their politics and their spirituality. The mysticism and the radicalism of William Blake, the romanticism and socialism of Ruskin and Morris has impacted me drastically In the way I think and what I think about shows in my work. When I first moved I would sit in Peckham rye wondering which exactly was the spot where William Blake saw angels. Inspired and comforted by the fact his contemporaries thought of him as deluded and mad! I’m no WB but those around me certainly think I’m deluded and mad ! The spiritualist themes and the almost psychedelia of his paintings and drawings engrossed me as I wrestled with and at times became consumed by spiritual questions. His work was being exhibited at the Tate when I first arrived and I’ve never been so impacted by images before, I left the exhibition a quivering sweaty mess. The romanticism that ties these three guys together resonates with me like a gong !!! This I feel will continue to shape my work for as long as I make any.

In what way has Instagram influenced your creative practice?
Instagram, I can’t say it has impacted my practice but it has provided me with opportunity. still I resent it’s presence and I curse it !!! This isn’t how we’re supposed to look at art !!! But this is how we look at art !!!!!!!... but good luck to the brave one who chooses to be an artist in 2020 without instagram you’re noble and I have respect cos I’m too much of a coward to delete the app and all its data.

What are you working on at the moment?
For now I’m taking a brief break actually ! I need to sit back and mediate and focus on the personal for a bit. I have ideas that need to gestate but they usually don’t let me keep them unexpressed for long. Whatever it is that comes next I hope everyone likes it !!!!!! They better!!