“It suck’d me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.”
Flea is an interdisciplinary art collective whose work focuses on technology, the abstraction of human interactions, the physicality of print media and archival practice. Flea is made up of artists Livvy Mitchell and İzel Duğen, 2021 Illustration graduates from Leeds Arts University.
Livvy Mitchell (they/he) is a non-binary graphic designer and creative director with a focus on print editorial media, the act of collecting and the visual language of DIY and rave culture. Their project Design Poetry focused on the interplay between poetry and graphic design, and how the tactility of written verse could be explored with a technological approach by using printed ephemera.
İzel Duğen (she/her) is an illustrator and digital storyteller based in Leeds, UK, and is from an English, Turkic, and Tajik background. Her work is narrative and character-based, thematically responding to and investigating the abstraction of human relationships through technology.
Flea have joined East Street Arts as one of three Convention House Residency seed commissions. They will be working on an explorative project that aims to examine interpersonal relationships and human connection in the digital realm.
What is the modern version of the 16th century love letter? In our modern world our relationships are mainly carried out virtually, using technology that will one day become totally obsolete. In this project, Flea want to explore how our digital communications and romantic lives could be archived in a physical form that would be preserved further into the future than our current technology allows. They will be using processes such as printmaking and 3D to evaluate best methods for this documentation, exploring the interplay of traditional and developing technologies.
Flea Collective
www.instagram.com/fleaartcollective
İzel Duğen
Livvy Mitchell
www.instagram.com/livvyillustration
