Artist Spotlight: Layla Jabbari

Layla Jabbari is an artist based in Hull. Her work combines printmaking, drawing and animation, often drawing inspiration from observing and having conversations with people. While she works across a range of printmaking techniques, Tetra Pak collagraph has become a central part of her practice.

The process uses the inside of food and drink cartons as printing plates, making it both accessible and affordable. She enjoys how food packaging connects directly to contemporary life and the people who use it. The material itself does not limit scale or shape, as she uses individual pieces as well as combining them to create much larger works.

Layla is also conscious of the environmental impact of printmaking so, unlike some traditional print processes, Tetra Pak collagraph doesn’t require acids or complex equipment, making it a really practical medium.

The creases, folds and imperfections from the original packaging often become part of the final image. “I really enjoy the uncertain nature of printmaking,” she says. “You have to leave it up to the medium to see what you get.”

Recently, Layla has begun to work more with etching, aquatint, linocut and lithography. A residency at Artlab Contemporary Print Studio in Preston gave her the opportunity to work with larger presses, develop new techniques and spend time exploring ideas that would have been difficult to realise elsewhere.

Fundamental to her work is a fascination with people and she is drawn to ordinary interactions and the small details of daily life. Most projects begin with observational drawing, often carried out in public spaces such as markets, parks, cafés, train stations and town centres.

These drawings often become the starting point for larger projects. While some images are based directly on sketches, many develop further through memory, conversation and reflection. Layla often modifies compositions later, emphasising particular feelings or details that stayed with her. “I find people endlessly fascinating,” she says. “I want my work to be a celebration of the everyday.”

Drawing also creates opportunities for conversations with strangers. She recalls working on trains between Hull and Leeds and finding that people would frequently approach her to ask what she was doing. Once they discovered she was drawing other passengers, they began sharing their own stories.

One of Layla’s recent works, The Last Supper, was created during her Preston residency. Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting, the work reimagines the scene as a contemporary hen party. The project grew out of observational drawing in pubs and clubs across Hull and Leeds.

Rather than treating hen parties as something humorous or exaggerated, she was interested in how they represented female friendship and group dynamics. “It's about the women that are with you at that moment in time,” she explains, “and in two years that might all change, but for that moment, those women are some of the most important people in your life.”

The residency gave her the time and space to develop the work through several versions before creating the final piece. It later became an animation and received significant recognition, including being Highly Commended at Trinity Buoy Wharf and placing third in the SCAF Emerging Artist Award.

Born in Iran and raised in the UK from the age of five, Layla is particularly interested in representing migration and multiculturalism in society, ensuring her work reflects the diversity of the communities around her.

This was the topic of a project she developed for Hull’s Fish Trail, where she responded to a salmon motif by creating a collaborative animation depicting migration routes from the Netherlands to New York, via Hull.

The process involved working with other people to stencil an image of a salmon onto the pavement in water in the different locations. The resulting images were then photographed before being sequenced alongside an audio track of an interview between Layla and her father, sharing his experience migrating to the UK from Iran.

She is continuing to explore her Iranian heritage through referencing Persian miniatures. Using various different printmaking techniques, she is experimenting with their flattened spaces and arrangements of figures. 

At the same time, she is developing animated versions of her existing prints and exploring how processes such as cyanotype might be incorporated into moving-image work for an exhibition at the University of Huddersfield later this year.

Layla Jabbari’s work is available to view and purchase at https://exhibtd.com/artists/layla-jabbari

Featured image: Layla Jabbari, Quiet Carriage, Tetra Pak collagraph print, 2024