The characters in artist and writer Jackie Ryan’s arresting images seem to exist in another dimension. Some of these figures, with their back-combed bouffants and retro get-up, conjure the over-the-top aesthetics of ’60s spy thrillers and ’80s bodice rippers; others pose cinematically against surreal backdrops that evoke a sense of simultaneous whimsy and dread. Though Ryan’s work is full of clever callbacks and nods to the golden age of pop culture past, her characters aren’t so much winking at the camera as they are asking us to look more closely. In this interview with Griffith Review Editor Carody Culver, Ryan talks about the relationship between artistic influence, visual imagination and practical reality.

CARODY CULVER: You work across genres and forms, but the element that unifies your creative practice is pop culture, especially 1960s pop culture: the catsuits and space-age spy antics immortalised in TV shows and movies like The Avengers (1961–69) and Modesty Blaise (1966). Why did you first find yourself so drawn to these aspects of pop culture, and how do they influence your approach to making art?