Archipelagogo is an exhibition featuring paintings, drawings, etchings and 3D soft sculptures inspired by the life work and creativity of Tove Jansson.
Rather than take inspiration purely from Jansson’s most famous creations, The Moomins, the exhibition is instead inspired by the things that inspired Jansson herself – art, love, family, travel and the geography of her native Finland.
The exhibition was initially commissioned by the Lakes International Comic Art Festival and The Finnish Institute in London with the blessing of the Jansson family.
The bespoke soundtrack to the exhibition was created by D.J. musician and co-founder of the Finders Keepers record label Andy Votel.
About the Creators
Felt Mistress AKA Louise Evans
is a Welsh textile artist who creates a range of one-off bespoke creatures with her partner, illustrator Jonathan Edwards.
Louise originally trained in fashion design and millinery and has brought many of the skills learnt through years of work as a couture dressmaker to the world of character design. As well as original Felt Mistress characters Louise has also collaborated with a variety of other artists including Jon Burgerman, Oliver Jeffers, Pete Fowler and Gruff Rhys (Louise created "John Evans" for the “American Interior” film).
Felt Mistress’ work has been exhibited all over the world including shows in Tokyo. Osaka, Los Angeles, Mexico, Paris, Berlin and London and used in Fashion shoots, ad campaigns, music videos and films.
In 2013 they were speakers and exhibitors at the international character design festival Pictoplasma in Berlin and later that year they staged their largest exhibition yet, The Hiber-Nation, at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff. It featured Louise’s biggest creations to date including a 9ft tall "The Hugger”.
Her work was collected in a 400-page hardback art book, “Creature Couture”, in 2012 and “Make Creatures with Felt Mistress” was published by Laurence King in 2016.
Recent projects include the prestigious Hankyu department store in Japan dedicating all 9 of their windows and in-store displays to Louise & Jonathan’s work for their 2021 Spring/Summer collection. 2022 saw the launch of an art trail in the Lake District featuring 5 life-size Felt Mistress characters. Commissioned by The Lake Comic Arts Festival, Lake District National Park and the National Trust.
Clients include BBC, Coca-Cola, Cartoon Network, Sesame Street, Sunday Time Style magazine, Esquire, Skoda, Ogilvy & Mather, Stylist, Selfridges, Hankyu Department Store, Arla & Pictoplasma.
image credits: Louise Evans & Monika Swindells
Jonathan Edwards
is an illustrator and comic artist with a long and diverse career. His work originally appeared in Deadline magazine in 1993 and since then has worked for, amongst others, NME, MAD Magazine, Tank Girl, Mojo, Q, The Radio Times, produced record sleeves for artists such as The Black Eyed Peas and The Jungle Brothers and created concept artwork for films and animation.
He’s been a regular contributor to the Guardian since 1999 and illustrated the Hard Sell column in the Guardian Guide for 10 years. He also publishes regular collections of his travel sketchbooks and paintings from his trips to Japan and Europe.
His character design work includes the vinyl toy Inspector Cumulus and many collaborations with his partner, Louise AKA Felt Mistress. Clients include
image credits: Monika Swindells
Andy Votel
A musician, DJ, record producer, graphic designer and co-founder of Twisted Nerve Records and the reissue label Finders Keepers Records. Votel began making hip-hop music in the late 1980s as the youngest member of the group Violators of the English Language (from which the VOTEL stage name is derived). In 2000 Votel signed to XL Records. He recorded two albums for the label, Styles of the Unexpected (2000) and All Ten Fingers (2002). These albums featured original Can singer Malcolm Mooney, Guy Garvey, Gramme, and Jane Weaver. Votel's music is often released under a pseudonym. His aliases include Applehead, Anworth Kirk, Tandy Love, Xian Orphic, Slant Azymuth, Neotantrik, and Tony Deval.
Having built a reputation through Violators of the English Language, Votel began mixing psychedelic music with jazz and hip-hop records at clubs like The Hacienda and Home And South from the early 1990s. He is an internationally renowned DJ and has performed at events such as Sonar, All Tomorrow's Parties, and the Green Man Festival. Votel founded the B-Music DJ Collective alongside ex-Hacienda DJ and journalist John Maccready. Other B-Music collaborators include David Holmes, Belle And Sebastian, Edan, Bob Stanley, and Gruff Rhys. Votel has presented shows for Radio 4 such as 2011's Free Wales Harmony, which documented the history of Welsh protest music. He appears regularly alongside Stuart Maconie on The Freakier Zone show on BBC 6 Music.
image credits: 1. via Proper Magazine, Neil Summers 2. via Soundcloud 3. via The Vinyl Factory
Tove Marika Jansson
(9 August 1914 – 27 June 2001) was a Swedish-speaking Finnish novelist, painter, illustrator and comic-strip author.
Brought up by artistic parents, Jansson studied art from 1930 to 1938 in Stockholm, Helsinki and then Paris. Her first solo art exhibition was in 1943. At the same time, she was writing short stories and articles for publication, as well as creating graphics for book covers and other purposes.
She achieved worldwide fame as the creator of the stories about the Moomins, written and illustrated between 1945 and 1977. The Moomin family and their friends live an adventurous life in the idyllic and peaceful Moomin Valley in harmony with nature.
image credits: 1. via Wikipedia 2. Reino Loppinen © 3. via Nordics Info Per Olov Jansson
All creative content is subject to copyright Louise Evans & Jonathan Edwards.
Do not copy or distribute without permission.
If you would like to host this exhibition in the future, please get in touch with us directly.
All images by Louise Evans & Jonathan Edwards unless stated otherwise.