Artist Annabel MacIver on reclaiming myth, and why originality means seeing what others haven’t

Annabel MacIver has spent years working across print, drawing, painting and sculpture, but it’s her current body of work that feels most her own. Taking Greek mythology as its subject and reframing it from a female point of view, the series began with a realisation that came through research.

“Most religious texts, myths – they’re recorded throughout the world and are used for the basis of all our societies – have been written from a male point of view,” she explains.

MacIver is one of three creators taking part in season two of The Creators, a film series produced in partnership with Jaguar alongside glass artist Emma Goring and Jaguar lead materiality designer Axel Goulée, exploring what it means to approach your practice with originality.

The work sits within a broader concern about where things stand. “I think I’m at a stage in my life where I’m very interested in how we have progressed,” she says.

“I feel at the moment we have come to a bit of a standstill in terms of equality and violence and lots of different things globally and in this country. For me, it’s quite important to look and comment on this and discuss this in various aspects of my work.”

Being inspired by other artists is, for MacIver, fundamental rather than a complication. Referencing and studying other work informs technique and opens up directions that would otherwise stay out of reach. The question is what you do with that influence – how you let it feed into something that could only have come from you.

She’s also thoughtful about the identity of being a creator at all. “I suppose to me being a creator is quite complex in a way, because you sort of find yourself being a creator rather than consciously saying I’m a creator.”

It is, she says, a privilege to put work out into the world – and one that comes with a great deal of self-questioning. And, she adds, there’s something freeing in that.

All three films in the The Creators series are available on Attitude’s YouTube channel now.