Joey Levenson: You’ve previously tackled subjects such as sex and gender, and the zine often breaks off from homogeneity found in the media. How did the choice come about to now focus on mental health?
Luisa Le Voguer Couyet: With Hate, and my own work, I really want to try and encourage discussion about ways we can collectively change things. We both talked about doing an issue on mental health for ages, it’s something that affects everyone in one way or another, directly or indirectly.
Scarlett Carlos Clarke: Depression, addiction, anxiety, suicide… all things which dot the landscapes of the lives of our friends and family. Mental health is something which affects everyone in some way, it’s important that people can talk more openly about these things.

JL: You’ve accepted submissions for the first time in this issue, what was it that made you want to do so?
LLVC: At first that was kind of a mistake, because I posted something on my own Instagram about open submissions for a show I want to put on, but then people I didn’t know started getting in touch with their work thinking it was for Hate. An artist called Hannah King sent us the most wonderful paintings, so we decided to open it up for other people too. In regards to this particular issue, mental health is so broad and subjective it’s good to get other perspectives.
SCC: We’ve always found that approaching artists we liked worked better when putting Hate together but this issue we have been pleasantly surprised by a couple of contributors who submitted unique artworks for the issue. I think it was important to be slightly more open with the theme of mental health, which can be approached from so may different angles.

“Mental health affects everyone in some way, it’s important that people can talk more openly about these things.”

JL: In regards to social media, people are now more than ever able to find like-minded others and can freely express emotions they otherwise wouldn’t in real life. Do you feel like the millennial, and younger, generation’s exposure to social media has increased the conversation surrounding mental health?
LLVC: The internet is a great tool for that, I spoke to Sienna Murdoch of sadface.club about mental health and ways to combat negative feelings. People find great comfort on the internet, it can be anonymous which helps, people use social media to openly discuss their own feelings and often they find support.

JL: I noticed Kingsley Ifill’s artwork incorporates a selfie of Kim Kardashian, a popular target for a lot of hate. Do you think the selfie-culture that she’s brought about correlates with this constant mental pressure we put on ourselves to always look like somebody else, or is selfie-culture something to celebrate?
LLVC: I don’t know if selfie-culture is something to celebrate. I feel like Apple, Facebook, and Instagram have a lot to answer for in regards to the narcissism that we are exposed to today. Being able to capture every minute of your life and then post it on the internet for anybody to see can give you the impression that you are really important, and we are in our own way, but it’s sad to see celebrity selfies overtaking serious news stories. It’s all just more stuff to consume, and I think it can be negative for a lot of insecure people who measure themselves against that.

SCC: Social media causes so many problems, especially for young women. No one should be comparing themselves or their lives to Kim Kardashian. There are no boundaries for people with social media, your private life has become everyones business, its a phenomena of our times but it will be interesting to see if the younger generation are as intrigued by social media as our generation have been. We can remember a time where Facebook, twitter and Instagram didn’t exist. Maybe it won’t be such a big deal to people who have been brought up with it.

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