Millie Noble

Words and Photographs by Willow Shields

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Millie Noble and I am a fine artist.

What does your work focus on?

Me, a lot of the time, it’s very pink. At the moment it’s all about Sebastian Stan.

Why Sebastian Stan in particular?

The idea of fandom is very interesting to me, and it always has been. Always been involved with it and always have been. The idea that you can use fandom, it’s got lots of power in it. It’s a community thing hidden behind hot people.

What’s your favorite Sebastian Stan movie and why?

It’s like picking children! I want to say Winter Soldier, but Monday because it’s so good. It’s hard, how do you pick? Winter soldier is a classic, you get Bucky and you also get Nat: Perfect. Monday is just Sebastian Stan being himself, in Greece. I love that.

A community made up of a majority of young women, would you say?

Yeah, there’s a hype around Sebastian Stan. We’re on the train and we’re all going.

I’d love to use this opportunity to talk about how influential young women are in every single industry...
Young women are the bomb, and young women are constantly told that they can’t like things, they can’t like anything. So the power of getting all of these young women who like the same thing together, is an unstoppable force. It’s like, ‘I like what I like and I’m not going to be ashamed of it’. It’s only embarrassing if you let it be embarrassing.

Would you say that – this community of young women – hold these figures, like Sebastian Stan, up as sex symbols in the community?
Yeah... kind of, I think it kind of comes along with it, you know? You can be like ‘I love this person, they do all these amazing things’, but there will always be a bit of desire that’s hidden beneath the surface. But sex is such a big part of life, you cant deny it...it’s there.

Who are your favourite musicians at the minute?

Who have I even been listening to? Måneskin! It’s TikTok! TikTok is the new tumblr, back in the day on tumblr, everyone was listening to Arctic Monkeys, Lana Del Rey and The Neighbourhood. Now we’ve all just moved and were all listening to TikTok songs! Ashnikko, I see you, I hear you girl! And she’s singing about sex!

Your work focussing on fandom, has that always been part of your practice?

Fandom has always been a part of me. It’s something you can’t escape from. Once you’re in, you’re in. It’s like a black hole. You get sucked in and you can’t leave. But there’s nothing bad about it, and it’s not represented in academics at all and no one talks about it. But it’s so rich, there’s so much to it, so why aren’t we talking about it? When you take it into academic situations, you kind of loose what is so great about fandom. It’s so great because it’s outside of those circles, and it’s people who have so much knowledge about something so specific. I think if we started doing lectures about it we’d be loosing what is so amazing about it.

TikTok is an interesting one, it’s an interesting place to be, I think – socially, economically.
It’s the place to be! If you’re not on tiktok, where are you? It knows what you’re looking for, it’s kind of scary. TikTok’s like, ‘oh my god, you just liked a video of Sebastian Stan, your whole for you page is sebastian stan now.’ And I’m like, yeah, okay, I’ll take it. I downloaded TikTok as a joke, and now here we are. I’m making paintings of TikToks.

So would you say that a lot of your work focuses on, almost, counter-culture?

Yeah, it’s like counter culture is normal culture now. Or in my life. It’s not a counter- culture anymore, just is. It’s my home, it’s my sphere.

For me, I’d say TikTok is maybe the most authentic platform. You see people day to day...
It’s real, it’s probably the realest social media. Like with Instagram it’s all curated and people decide how they want to look. People are using TikTok as a marketing scheme, you don’t need to do that, just live your life on TikTok and people will find you.

Why do you make the art that you do?

I don’t know.. I blame CSM, going to CSM everyone was so up their own bums. I expected it, but not to that degree. So I decided to do whatever comes to my head or whatever my life is, right now. CSM culture is weird. I haven’t been on @thatssocsm yet and I really want to.

What was that like? Going to the biggest, most famous art school in the UK?

Scary, I don’t think I knew what I was getting myself in for going to CSM. And you go and you realise that everyones a model, and everyone has loads of money. I don’t have that, that’s not me, but you find your place I suppose. I think as long as you go in knowing you’re making the stuff that you want to make and you want to put out in the world, and not listen to your tutors when they tell you it’s bad, then you’re good. You just have to be set in stone, this is what I’m doing, this is what I want to do.

What can we expect to see from you in the future?

More Sebastian Stan, I don’t think I’m quite over it yet. I don’t think I will be! The focus hasn’t changed.