Celeste Mountjoy (more commonly known by her Instagram alias @filthyratbag) is a Melbourne based artist straddling the artistic boundaries between light, comical satire (think David Shrigley) and darker caricature (à la Polly Nor.) Honing in on some of humanity’s shittiest behaviours, Mountjoy takes everyday observations and transforms them into simple, line-drawn illustrations, that pack a powerful punch. Her illustrations — razor-sharp social commentary blended together with a hearty dollop of dark humour — span topics ranging from feminism, systematic misogyny and world politics, to mental illness and millennial problems.
Her first solo exhibition, opening this Friday at Backwards Gallery in Melbourne, is an extension of this practice. Providing an insight into the vast body of work that Mountjoy has amassed over the past 10 months, ‘I’ve Been To Paradise But I’ve Never Been To Me’ pokes fun at the curses of our internet vanity and our relationship with social media, whilst simultaneously dissecting the experiences of being a young woman growing up in this day and age.
As the art world welcomes her onto the gallery circuit, we sit down with Mountjoy and chat about 14 formative moments in the form of lifetime firsts.
First love…
I’ve been drawing since before I can remember – it’s my first love. I used to draw lots of stories. I have a whole sketchbook from when I was 4 years old filled with them. My mum would sit down with me and I’d tell her what I wanted the characters to say while she wrote it all down.
First illustrator to inspire you…
My dad had a lot of Michael Leunig books around the house. I really loved reading those books and to this day Leunig’s work really speaks to my heart.
First teenage phase…
My most solid phase was when I was around 14/15, I started dabbling in stealing my grandma’s cigarettes and smoking weed with my sister – I decided it was time to thread a few beads through my hair and started listening to a lot of Tame Impala and getting fingered in parks by greasy dudes with long hair. Gnarly Dude!
First insecurity…
My huge nipples.
First experience of social media…
I got involved with the internet really early on. Dad had it at his house when I turned 9 so I’d just spend all my time on it when I had the chance. I got Skype and started helping kids (and sometimes grown people) with their English for like 10 dollars a lesson on the weekends. It was a weird phase but I actually still talk to some of the people I met through doing it. It’s nice to have these kind of pen pals that have known me since I was a little kid.
First crush…
I had a weird kind of maternal crush on Hans Moleman from the Simpsons when I was really little.
First lesson learned from a relationship…
The more orgasms you fake, the worse the sex is going to get.
First awkward date…
Once I went on a first date with a guy that lied to me about having cancer to try get me to stay the night at his! Yikes!
First illustration posted on social media…
This in 2013:
First shitty conversation you immortalised in an illustration…
This is the first ‘comic’ I made and posted:
I was about 14, and at that age I found a lot of girls were against labelling themselves as feminists in fear that other girls or boys would think they were too ‘aggressive’ in their beliefs. I denied feminism as a young girl and only once I researched it for myself, without the bias from sensationalised media and ignorant people, did I begin to use the term.
First political issue you commented on through your work…
(Above)
First instance of trolling…
This was my very first real instance:
I got posted to a thread called ‘sluts of Melbourne’ on 4chan when I was 15. My big internet debut.
First illustration to go viral…
I think it was this one:
Feelings about your first solo exhibition…
I’ve worked really hard to get it together. Now I keep having stress dreams that nobody comes, so please come.