As part of its annual Holiday campaign, MECCA collaborates with an Australian female artist to raise awareness around their craft as part of their MECCA x NGV initiative. This year, Perth born and based artist, Rebecca Baumann, was selected to collaborate with MECCA on its 2018 holiday creative.
Rebecca is fascinated by the relationship between colour, materials and the complex workings of human emotion. Her interest in colour stems from its capacity to affect us in ways beyond conscious thought; and has linked the changing colours in her artworks to the spectrum of emotions that people experience, questioning whether particular arrangements of colour might be capable of triggering specific feelings.
Rebecca Baumann, Image by Bo Wong
For her collaboration with MECCA, Baumann “painted with light” to create these joyful, ethereal and exquisite artworks which perfectly capture the spirit of the holiday season. The MECCA Cosmetica and MECCA Max Holiday packaging for 2018 embodies Baumann’s vision, which you can experience for yourself in-store and online from 8 November. We caught up with Rebecca to talk to her about what inspired this year’s Mecca holiday packaging.
Congratulations on the MECCA x NGV collaboration and commission! What has been the most exciting part of this experience?
It’s been a great honour to collaborate with MECCA on Holiday, as it is a much-loved campaign, for a special time of year… BUT it’s also been amazing to have the opportunity to create a site-specific work for the ‘intrafilament spaces’ at NGV Australia. So it’s hard to choose, as being able to work with both MECCA and NGV has been such a huge opportunity. I’ve been working on the projects since the beginning of the year, so at this stage I’m just really excited to finally see it all roll out and be in the public realm.
What does the partnership with MECCA mean to you in both a professional and personal sense?
The partnership means a lot to me both professionally and personally. At its heart, the partnership is about empowering female artists which is an amazing thing. As part of the collaboration, MECCA supports the NGV to acquire one of my works for the collection – this is a special opportunity, which doesn’t happen everyday.
You’ve collaborated on the new MECCA 2018 Holiday packaging. It’s beautiful! What inspired the creation of this design?
The inspiration for the packaging was light. Over the last few years I’ve created a series of light-based installations which use theatre spotlights to activate reflective materials. I think of these works as painting with light, where the arrangement of materials and corresponding reflections are used for mark making, to create a dynamic composition of line, form and colour on the wall.
For the packaging we applied the same logic, and used a theatre spot to activate dichroic film. Dichroic film is a dynamic material which changes colour as you move it, and transmits a different colour to what it reflects. So there was a lot of scope for a diversity of technicolour images and for chance to play a role while we were shooting in the studio.
What do you want people to think or feel when they see it?
My practice sits within the language of abstraction and I always like the idea that the audience can bring their own subjective experience to the work! So I have no specific hopes for how people will respond – that is flexible.
Over the time you’ve spent with MECCA, what have you learnt in terms of Beauty and products? Do you have a tip or favourite product?
As Perth is a very hot place, I make sure I wear a lot of sunscreen to protect my skin from sun damage. So my favourite product is Mecca Cosmetica’s To Save Face Superscreen SPF 50+– it smells really nice and comes in an SPF 50+.
Visit MECCA Cosmetica and MECCA Maxima or online at www.mecca.com.au
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