Maggie Dunlap is one of my favorite young art bitches. Her work combines girly cuteness with dark, Marilyn Manson-ey gothness, and sexy S&M. She’s 19, and when she’s not embroidering ball-gags she spends her time studying at New York’s School of Visual Arts. Maggie recently told i-D mag, “Feminist theory, and attempting to dissect my own experiences within the confines of girlhood, is a central theme in my work.” Oh, and I really, really want a pair of her home-made undies.
Words by Karley Sciortino. All the gorge photos of Maggie were taken by Myla DalBesio. All of the pics of Maggie’s art and underwear are from her website.
1. Where do you live, and why do you live there? I live in New York because I’m currently in college here but mainly because I love the smell of human urine and hot trash :)
2. What’s the most effort you’ve put into impressing someone, or turning someone on in a romantic and/or sexual context? (And how did it turn out?):
One time I spent all day getting ready for a guy to come over and watch movies with me, I put cookies in the oven and waited for him to arrive. By the time he got there, my hair was flat and my cookies were burnt and he ended up being gay anyways. LOL just kidding, thats a scene from Clueless.
3. Turn-ons? feminism, intelligence, talent, shared love of dogs
4. Turn-offs? Ignorance, bigotry, ego, mouth breathers
5. Porn or imagination? Imagination!
6. Your favorite restaurant: I have a master list but here are my top three: Black Market for burgers, Takahashi for sushi, Dimes if i’m feeling healthy
7. Your ideal date is: Dinner at any of the previously mentioned restaurants
8. The movie you have seen the most times over the course of your life? Probably The Nightmare Before Christmas, not because its my favorite movie but because I used to watch it on REPEAT as a child
9. Your childhood hero and current hero: My mom and still my mom.
10. Your favorite place or setting to work: Boring but honest answer, I love working at my desk at home or at the studios at my school.
11. Your favorite place or setting to relax: In my bed, watching X Files.
12. Guilty Pleasures? Insomnia cookies delivery feature
13. A book and a movie you recommend: Hour of the Wolf by Ingmar Bergman, Men Explain Thing To Me by Rebecca Solnit
14. Something you admire in other people, that you wish you had more of: The discipline to regularly attend spinning class.
15. The last thing you bought online: A shirt from yard666sale that says “the day you die is the day I smile”
16. Who do you text the most?: I have a group text with my boyfriend and two best friends (photography duo wiissa) and we are never not texting each other
17. The outfit or piece of clothing that makes you feel the sexiest: all black everything
18. Best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? And who gave it to you?: Jenny Holzer, not directly to me, but “It is in your self-interest to find a way to be very tender.”
19. If you could have dinner with one person, dead or alive, who would it be? Marilyn Manson
20. If you knew then (whenever, could be as recently as a month or a year ago) what you know now about sex and relationships, what, if anything, would you do differently?:
Don’t look for happiness in other people, jealousy isn’t romantic, neither are self-destructive tendencies.
