September 2020

Interviews with like-minded creatives and progressive thinkers who, like Toogood, refuse to be labelled.

Next in our interview series, we speak to Rosa Park, co-founder of Cereal Magazine and director of Francis Gallery. She is currently working in Bath and is photographed here in medium format film, wearing pieces from the new Toogood Collection 013, alongside images of Francis Gallery.

Where is home for you and what makes it home?  
As someone who has had a peripatetic upbringing and lifestyle, for me, home is not a physical place. Instead, it’s a feeling. I feel at home when I’m in the company of those I love most; my family and friends who I look out for, and who take care of me. The famous Ram Dass quote comes to mind: “We’re all just walking each other home.”

What do you create or make?

I curate exhibitions at Francis Gallery; edit magazines and books at Cereal; and create stories and campaigns for brands as a creative consultant.

What’s currently on your kitchen table?

At the centre of the kitchen table, there’s a watermelon, a pineapple and a bunch of bananas. We’re enjoying an unexpected bout of warm weather in Bath this week, so I’ve been tucking into fruit salads for breakfast. On the corner of the table, there is a small bowl of conkers that my husband picked up from the local park (he’s obsessed with them), and a pile of beetroot we used as props for a recent shoot, that we’re going to repurpose for making borscht.

What would improve your life?
Human teleportation.

What book is on your bedside table?
I Ching (the Richard Wilhelm & Cary F Baynes translation) and Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations are always by my bedside.
 
I have a habit of reading multiple books concurrently, and at the moment, they are:
 
Always Home, Fanny Singer
South and West, Joan Didion
Ben Nicholson: Writings and Ideas, edited by Lee Beard
Inner Engineering, Sadhguru

What is the most worn item of clothing in your wardrobe?

My grey raglan sweatshirt. It’s the most comfortable piece of clothing I own. I’ll happily admit that I sometimes wear it to bed, then out, within a 24 hour cycle.

What object do you value most and why?

An art deco brooch my mum gave me as a wedding present.

This piece is of particular significance, because it’s a physical representation of the day when a new level of closeness was established between my partner and my family, and we became one extended family. Plus, a brooch feels so wonderfully old-timey, and while I’m not one to accessorise with a brooch regularly, when I do, it makes me feel like a proper grown up. I also like to wear it as a pendant on a chain for special occasions, and it always reminds me of my mum and our bond.

How do you learn?

My two main modes of learning are through reading, and in conversation with people.

Where is your favourite view?

The imaginary forest I visualise when I meditate.

What is freedom to you?

Letting go of years of societal conditioning, in order to trust and fully harness my intuition.  

Rosa is photographed in the Housekeeper Dress in Forest, the Botanist Shirt in Crisp Cotton Chalk, and the Baker Trouser in Soft Twill Flint.

Rosa Park is the director of Francis Gallery and the co-founder of Cereal Magazine. She also works as a creative consultant and freelance editor.

She resides between Bath and Los Angeles, and is currently working on opening a second gallery location in Los Angeles, as well as producing the new Cereal City Guidebooks to Copenhagen, LA and Tokyo - launching next autumn.

Rosa is launching a new a solo exhibition titled Hidden Lines, by Spencer Fung, at Francis Gallery next Thursday 24 September. Cereal Volume 20 is launching on 23 November, 2020.