Faiza Butt takes us around her favourite spots in her hometown.
Asma (Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, Destinations) spent time with me at my studio in Stoke Newington and was delighted by the creative chaos that I live with. Yes, a degree of this chaos exists in my mind as well… I think, without that angst I will not make the obsessive works that I do. I decided to show her my neck of woods, so she can understand me as an artist, a migrant, a parent and a woman.
My area is where the ‘Hipster’ movement established itself in London. The whole of Church Street saw a renaissance of bearded, tattooed and well-dressed men, selling coffee and cakes. My ‘hood is popular with the young and affluent crowd – all part of the gentrification of cities like London and New York.
Lunch at a hipster cafe called The Good Egg, where the food has a wonderful middle-eastern Iraqi-Jewish focus. I come here to watch people.
Faiza’s children Zack and Layla are often featured in her work. At every turn, she has raised them to be tolerant, humane individuals. “Whenever we travel, I take them away from Europe, to places in cultural contrast, to cultivate the beauty and diversity of humanity andto reveal the bridges that connect them,” she says.
