Founded in 2011 by artist Ali Mapletoft, Age of Reason Studios began as a fashion atelier, and has evolved into an interdisciplinary studio that challenges conventional models of creative production.

The studio collaborates with a wide network of artists, filmmakers, designers and creative practitioners across a broad range of disciplines. 

Rather than working within a single medium, it allows each idea to determine its own form, moving fluidly between film, performance, fashion, photography, publishing and live conversation.

Funding

The studio operates through a hybrid funding model, combining income from commercial ventures with public and private arts funding, which allows it to sustain an independent artistic practice.

Works

Its moving image work includes Pretty Twisted, Archetypes and Creatures of Transformation, a body of films concerned with identity, myth and transformation. The studio’s fashion line extended this enquiry into wearable form and was stocked at Selfridges, Liberty London, Harvey Nichols and Matches Fashion, with coverage in Vogue. Its publishing practice includes From Our Lips: 100 Women’s Lips, 100 Women’s Voices, a book that centres women’s testimony and self-representation.

Creative Oxygen

The studio also functions as the creative hub for Creative Oxygen, a consultancy concerned with restoring creative intelligence within organisations. In this capacity it serves as a site for research, experimentation and the development of new work.

The Founder

Ali Mapletoft is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans more than two decades across fine art, animation, fashion, performance and publishing.

Notable Achievements Include 

• Recognition at the Annecy International Animation Festival, Northern Wave International Film Festival and the Icelandic Music Awards
• Animator in Residence at the BFI
• Art department and set design for Vivienne Westwood’s Ultrafemininity show at the Louvre, Paris
• Fashion line stocked at Selfridges, Liberty London, Harvey Nichols and Matches Fashion, with coverage in Vogue
• Publication of From Our Lips: 100 Women’s Lips, 100 Women’s Voices, stocked in independent bookshops nationally
• Album artwork for Emiliana Torrini’s Tookah
• Commissions and collaborations with Channel 4, the BBC, Amnesty International, Rough Trade Records and Little Dragon
• Guest lecturer at the University of Westminster and Bournemouth University

Registered Company No. 07541197