Humans of Frome: Meg Mosley

I meet Meg hours before she visits her childhood home in Trowbridge or ‘Trowvegas’ as she calls it. She has been enlisted by her mother to help empty the attic of her old belongings. 

She tells me that this will be no easy task as she is somewhat of a collector of things. Her inability to throw anything away started when she was very young. Growing up in a home where her parents split up but continued to live together for the sake of their family, meant that the young Meg was surrounded by a sense of melancholy – a melancholy that meant that even at so young an age she understood the fragile nature of things and drove her to attach a universe of poignant meaning to even the simplest of possessions.

Last year, I directed the Frome Festival Fashion Show at The Silk Mill – it was called ‘The Time Machine’ and celebrated the past and present of Fashion in Frome. Meg volunteered to model along with many other fantastic Fromies. Within hours, Meg had created a vignette piece to open the show – the piece saw her stepping forth as a Georgian lady resplendent in a powdered wig and authentic looking gown…just something she threw together from her extensive wardrobe, she also provided the soundtrack and took a selfie at the end of the catwalk! The selfie (as I soon became aware) was somewhat of a signature move for her.

When most people crave re-invention following the break up of a long term relationship, Meg, returned to Trowvegas from London (where she studied art at St.Martin’s, a first class degree from Middlesex uni and won a scholarship for her MA at The Slade) where she took the idea of a fresh new start to heady heights. In a world plagued by people pouting into their phones and living out their lives in the public eye on social media channels such as Instagram and Facebook, and where reality stars were being elevated into super stardom – Meg decided to unleash ‘Megastar’ onto the world.

Megastar was born in 2012, a fictional character, an alter ego who lived out her existence through social media channels and quickly catapulted the unsuspecting and at times reluctant Meg into a limelight that she hadn’t quite anticipated.  In a few short months, Meg found that Megastar, who had been created as an exploratory experiment into the world of social media had attracted a lot of attention – so much so that she was asked to turn the Trowvegas Christmas lights on that year.  She also went on to launch her own perfume brand….Megastar lived despite her creator, who, by this stage busied herself taking notes and trying to make sense of the popularity of her alter ego and the new world phenomenon that is social media.

In 2016, again Meg Mosley surprised me by appearing on the Latitude Festival Programme, appearing as Megastar alongside neuroscientist Dr James Kilner  in The Wellcome Trust Hub where they presented their thoughts on ‘The Science Of the Selfies’. My 14 year old then proved very knowledgeable on the subject as he had studied Meg’s work as part of the art curriculum at his secondary school. Further investigation on the subject showed that Meg has also been lecturing at London’s Goldsmith’s College about the experiences of her alter ego Megastar.

Today, Meg works as Marketing Manager at Frome’s Town Council, a role that she enjoys as she loves her adoptive home town.  She tells me that she has been working on the opening party for the new town hall but has had to concede that they can’t quite fit the entire schedule of launch activities on that day and may have to roll them out over a period of dates in the future. This news doesn’t surprise as Meg has the ability to take an idea and escalate it into the hypersphere.

What next for Megastar?  A book commissioned by The Wellcome Trust and an exhibition, even as we speak I can see the ideas formulating in her mind, her eyes suddenly averted and a slightly dreamy yet anxious expression cast over her features.  I call her back into the room to finish our chat and laughingly mention that she often seems a million miles away when I happen across her in town.  Growing serious for a moment she nods her agreement and tells me that its rare that she is completely in the moment but rather examining what’s happening around her instead.

Later that night, her instagram page broadcasting live bursts of activity from the nearly cleared attic.. A selfie appeared titled ‘Lost Luggage (showing the same dress as in this photo) Meg shared her old sketches and precious things which had been kept in an old trunk.  Many of the treasures shared illustrating further how she spent so much time in her imagination as a child…at the end of her live post she climbed into the now emptied trunk an act which seemed so fitting and had a certain poignancy to it.

I asked Meg if she was something of an actress…a suggestion that she flatly refused until her face took on that expression again and she disappeared into her thoughts, …’I have often considered perhaps doing a one woman show……’   

I can assure you that would be one hell of a show! I urge you if you have a few minutes spare to watch this special film Meg made of her adventures with her Glamorous Granny ‘Agog – The Grandmother Diaries’ https://vimeo.com/58843661