Cosima Ross

Words and Photographs by Willow Shields

I met with Cosima Ross at her debut exhibition (co-exhibiting with good friend of Groupie, Lily Montague) on the second and seemingly busiest day thus far of the show. She takes time to carefully, delicately and passionately explain her work to everyone who walks through the door and asks. In the past year Cosima has been subject to medical negligence. To the point where a cyst in her ovary grew to the size of a large grapefruit and had to have it surgically removed. This has informed most of her work over the past few months, it truly illuminates how artists can take terrible pain and suffering and transform it into something beautiful, related to by many.

Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Cosima Ross and I am a painter and a fine artist

What does your work focus on mostly?

I focus on my female experience, at the moment medical negligence and misogyny in the healthcare system. Yes, big fun stuff. I look at it through my experience as a woman because I wouldn’t want to speak for anyone else. But I do hope that there’s lots of other women who can relate to what I paint about and my own experiences because I feel like a lot of them are shared. Especially when it comes to medical negligence and sexism in the medical world. I think that’s a very relatable thing for most women because everybody is gonna have to, at one point see a doctor about their reproductive health, whether or not they want to have children, and like that means everybody’s gonna be subject to the same kind of sexism I was.

Why do you use the materials that you use?

I use oil paints because I like incorporating an element of traditionalism into my paintings. I like to show off how good I am at painting basically. That’s part of it. And I am slow, and it doesn’t dry very quickly, so that’s really important to me. It’s like the element of tradition, the speed at which the paint dries and then the overall effect that it gives. With oil, you’re able to build up layers and layers of transparency that’s really important when it comes to painting flesh. And then in regards to fabric that I use, it started because I get bored of painting and I hate doing backgrounds, which you can definitely tell in all my work cause I’ve never painted a background. I started using textiles on my Adam and Eve piece, which I did during lockdown, and I can paint for two weeks and then after two weeks I’d lose interest and I’d sew for two weeks, and that’s like my normal pattern when it comes to artwork, and then the clothes I make. So then with these ones I just thought, right well I’ll just do the same piece, and I’ll paint for two weeks at a time, sew for two weeks at a time. That’s why I do textiles and painting, that’s where it came from. And then I started thinking; I paint about women, and sewing is traditionally women’s work, especially like the Adam and Eve piece that I call a tapestry, cause its hung like a tapestry. It’s not woven it’s close enough! And the embroidery I did to make it, the sewing that I did to make it, the idea of it being a tapestry, all those things relate to women’s work, and then I thought it was really interesting to make paintings about womanhood, doings things traditionally assigned as like women’s work. So that’s what came after I decided I got bored of painting and I didn’t want to do any backgrounds! So everything’s a happy accident.

In your painting featuring the horse, why did you choose a horse?

I chose the horse because I’m from Suffolk, and in Suffolk there’s a type of horse called a Suffolk punch and I’m a country girl at heart... actually not even just at heart. The Suffolk punch is a horse that’s bred to be stocky and strong and they’re working horses. I just thought they’d make a really good symbol for frustration, which is something I was looking for. I began researching horse behaviour and stuff like that, and I found out that horses buck out of frustration and they rear up out of fear, and I thought well I’m not scared, I’m frustrated. So I painted ... and Suffolk punches are this really beautiful chestnut colour and I haven’t quite got that in the painting because I just didn’t wanna use it. But that’s the essence, it’s a meaty, stocky, determined working horse and it’s bucking out of frustration... it’s a symbol for my frustration. And it’s really fun to paint.

How would you say your style, personally, intertwines with your work? Would you say it’s the same?

This stuff? I like to dress up as my paintings and I like to dress up as other paintings. I grew up in a bunch of churches and stuff, and around loads of art history and historical paintings and things like that. So that kind of renaissance, floaty, fairy-y, goddess-like floppy hippie stuff stuck, instead of magazines. I just dress up as paintings and then I like dressing up as my own paintings. My outfit is made out of that painting over there! I just used the scraps from that to make this waistcoat.

Who’s music do you enjoy, dead or alive?

I enjoy Karen Dalton a lot... a lot a lot a lot a lot, like obsessively, which is great. And also I think they’re called Tia Blake, they did a song called ‘Plastic Jesus’ that I’ve wound everybody up with, and I’ve made everybody listen to it and now it’s stuck in everyone’s head and it’s really good. And I’ve also made a Jesus playlist ... as tribute. It’s called I Love Jesus Christ on Spotify if anyone wants to listen to it. I’m not religious ... I just love God.