projects
sometimes we do things that aren’t writing. sometimes we want to do them, sometimes we do them so that we can afford to write. other times they aren’t paid at all but let’s not get into that right now. all our 2024 efforts are geared towards the publication of our book Poor Artists. but here are some projects we’ve done over previous years in a bit of a weird order:
🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩🧩
john moores painting prize
we were jurors on the 2023 john moores painting prize!. We actually filmed a walkthrough with the Walker after the show opened which you can watch here:
🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁
ideas for a new art world
In January-April 2021, we took part in Jack Arts and BUILDHOLLYWOOD’s Your Space or Mine project! Billboards and posters went up in cities across the UK that presented the following ideas for a new art world:
001: if I were the Tate, I would simply remove my racist paintings x
002: Universal Basic Income and affordable housing so that everyone, including artists, can make a living
003: Curators should ask the public what they want to see and what they think galleries and museums should be used for
004: people across the creative industries need to declare if they have rich parents who helped them get where they are today
005: The art world should not replicate the capitalist structures of other industries and instead should set a better example with a horizontal approach to decision-making and pay
006: dear museums, give back all stolen objects
->
the billboard project led to Rough Trade Books getting in touch to ask if we wanted to expand on the billboards in writing, which led to us writing a pamphlet called ‘ideas for a new art world’ which is available to buy on their site here
->
2023.12.29. – 2024.1.20: this also led to Yellow Pen Club, a group in Seoul, South Korea, getting in touch to ask about translating the posters for an exhibition called How to Become Collective(s) in their space. So cool! They also ran a workshop where people came up with their own ideas:)
->
27 March–8 September 2024: Similarly, Charleston House in Lewes invited us to be a part of their exhibition Duos: The Art of Collaboration where we exhibited 2 of the original posters alongside a new essay that we co-wrote especially for the show. I haven’t actually been so excuse these lofi screenshots of other people’s photos lol:
🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹♀️🤹
critics club
In 2021, we ran a school for criticism called Critics Club with eight writers in Bexley. The writers were Agnes Otuedon, Dani Tagen, Janice Aribisala, Maria Northwood, Thelma Obirai and Valentina Simion Craciun. The project was funded and facilitated through Three Rivers and it culminated in reviews in a new publication called The Bexley Responder :) I wasn’t well enough to go to the launch party but here is a picture i found online from the event hehe:
🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤🎤
live laugh love
in summer 2016, mere months after starting this website, we were invited to do an exhibition at a space called Muesli, which was based at The Royal Standard (studios) in Liverpool. Uncomfortable with putting Fine Art in a space for the first time, we decided to do an exhibition called Live Laugh Love in which we took the art people decorate their houses with and hung that in the gallery instead. We did a presentation at the opening to make our position clear (that all art has value) and that was that. no one remembers this but I think about it all the time 🍃
people should invite us to do exhibitions more often it was so much fun
🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃🍃
the leaf of pablo
back during less-bad-kanye times, we did an exhibition called ‘the 🌱 of pablo’ at Hutt Collective in Nottingham. We had just read an essay called Network Fatigue by Pablo Larios and we were inspired. so the show had videos, other printed-off essays, and things from our bedrooms and childhoods and idk what else. The only thing I remember from it is how much I enjoyed spray painting all the arrows on the wall? Who knows what it was about, really.
🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁
a small view
I’ll leave you with another 2016 exhibition, this one was called ‘💧🌚👼🏾’ and it took place in A Small View, a now-closed gallery in a now-closed building (Gostins, Liverpool, RIP). I can’t tell you anything about this one except that I remember putting it together between the degree show and brexit, and I felt like the world was ending, and it was nice to shut myself off in a gallery and rearrange things until they felt right. i was 22 aw. i did a reading at the opening.
