11 Jul 2014

Artist Molly Crabapple on drawing Guantanamo Bay

From Nine To Noon, 10:06 am on 11 July 2014

Molly Crabapple is a New York-based artist and writer whose work has explored some of the most complex and controversial global and political issues of recent years.

In 2012 she became one of only a handful of artists given permission to visit and draw the United States detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, and has since made a second trip there. She was shortlisted for a 2013 Frontline Print Journalism Award for her reportage, which was published by Vice.

Molly Crabapple has also recently been into Syria to speak to, and draw, internally displaced Syrians at a camp south of the Turkish border.

Molly Crabapple's depiction of displaced Syrians at a camp south of the Turkish border.

Molly Crabapple's depiction of displaced Syrians at a camp south of the Turkish border.

Photo: Molly Crabapple

Her 2013 solo exhibition on the global financial crisis, Shell Game, led to her being called "Occupy Wall Street's greatest artist" by Rolling Stone Magazine.

Crabapple has also written for numerous publications worldwide, including the New York Times, The Guardian and Vanity Fair.

Among her other credits, Crabapple is the illustrator of Matt Taibbi's New York Times bestseller, The Divide.

She was also the illustrator for the stop-motion animation music video I Have Your Heart, which was funded via Kickstarter.

In September 2011, Crabapple locked herself in a hotel room, covered the walls in paper, and filled 25 square metres of wall with art. She called the finished project called Molly Crabapple's Week in Hell.

Molly Crabapple with the work she created during her Week in Hell.

Molly Crabapple with the work she created during her Week in Hell.

Photo: Supplied

Crabapple has also had a career in burlesque modeling and drawing, and her illustrated memoir, Drawing Blood, will be published by Harper Collins next year. She's on Twitter @mollycrabapple