The Arthole Pop-up Playlist
Illustration by Arthole
Professional spaces: ArtHole
We spoke to Kay and Elliot to gather a little insight into the future of Art in Wales and what an exciting exhibitionist duo’s creative space looks like
Who are ArtHole?
Creativity is limitless, regardless of where you are and what space you’re working with. That’s why Blue Chip is excited to announce our new professional spaces column. We’re introducing the column of creative coves with an interview with ArtHole: a low-brow culture collective that organises - in my biased opinion - the very best illustration pop-up markets in Cardiff.
ArtHole was founded in May 2019 from a desire to connect more with Cardiff’s creative community and has since been tending to its thriving art scene - bringing artists out of their inspiration-filled domes to present, share and sell their work.
Kay and Elliot, the driven duo behind ArtHole, are fuelled by the idea of unity amongst the creative people of Cardiff, but it’s no secret that the recent and possibly returning pandemic has brought an extreme sense of separation to the forefront. One that neither ArtHole nor we could ever have anticipated or prepared for. We thought it important to check in on ArtHole and make sure they aren’t going quacking mad during this time.
So guys, what have you been up to?
Well, we capped off the year with a weekend-long art market at Cardiff Cineworld and got to spend the weekend meeting lots of artists that we’re lucky to continue collaborating with, as well as hanging with friend’s we’d made over the past year. We also spent the first half of 2020 working on our first magazine which we themed around geese (they mean a lot to our visual identity for those who don’t know us). We named, funnily enough, ‘A Zine About Geese’. The project introduced us to a load of new artists from a variety of backgrounds. We’ve been humbled by the whole response and it was such a pleasure getting to work with so many cool illustrators and writers - both in Cardiff and further afield. Since then we took a nice, needed, break from Geese to work on our newsletter, which we've been filling with more of our personal work. It’s a great way to keep in touch with people in a different way.
How did you spend your days in lockdown (as you’ll probably have to get back in that groove?)
We kicked off ArtHole Isolation Club the day after we had to cancel our art fair at Kongs. ArtHole Isolation Club is a low-key way of keeping ourselves engaged with the community and keeping our friends and followers occupied. We’ve done a few drawing challenges based on the merchandise we made for fairs but couldn’t sell in person, and we had an online market with Pop-Up Arts Fair in Falmouth on April 12th instead of the physical market. As for moving forward, we’ll probably play a lot of Doom, a change from the Animal Crossing we’ve been addicted to.
It’s important to a lot of creatives that their home is a place of comfort and inspiration. Would you agree?
I guess it is because we fill our space with things that inspire us for sure. We've managed to amass a decent collection of great work from people we've met and worked with, so we like to think that helps keep the juices flowing! We did a bunch of work inspired by the plants in our garden during spring, which then led to us filling our house with them. It's a pretty nice cycle of our art influencing our home and vice versa.
Tell us a little more about where you work on a daily basis.
We have a tiny dining room in our house that we converted into a little studio the day we moved in. Because of where it is in the house it starts to lose light earlier than other areas and this encourages us to procrastinate less which is very important. Having a room dedicated to that stuff is vital, even if it is a little chaotic doubling as a stockroom, zine library and music studio. Our landlord probably wouldn't be happy if he saw the state of the dining table in there, as it's dedicated to all the clay stuff we do. During the lockdown, we'd pretend it was the pub and hang out in there at night so it also doubles as a drinking base.
It’s great to see the fun in lockdown and bask in the comfort of creatively working from home, but how has it affected ArtHole as a business?
Damn it’s affected ArtHole so much more than we would’ve liked! We had an event lined up at Kongs that we’ve had to cancel - which we were so stoked for as the lineup was unreal. We were also due to attend some other fairs to flog our stuff but they all had to cancel as well, which cut off our magazine funding. Like everyone else, we’ve been trying to figure out our way around this whole situation, and find our place within it, especially with so much more important stuff going on than art.
What about the wider effect of the pandemic on art and exhibitions in Wales?
It’s been harrowing to watch so many art events, magazine launches and concerts we were hoping to attend slowly get cancelled. We also know a lot of people who run indie businesses who have struggled a lot over the past few weeks which sucks too much, we can feel for them. In saying this, there’s definitely been a shift in online events and initiatives and it’s heartwarming seeing artists in Wales supporting each other. It’s going to take a while to get used to this new approach to art events, but at least people are still making efforts to keep the scene strong. We have complete trust in the art scene in Cardiff and the South West. There’s a sense of camaraderie and collaboration that we’re interested to see develop. We’re both more worried, at present, about the independent businesses and venues we love (we already lost 10 feet tall this year!) We’re keen to try and promote them where we can.
Do you think this difficult period will mark a new wave of art?
Personally, isolation has made us try out new approaches and test new materials. We’ve seen this change for a lot of people we know too. This innovative mindset everyone is in right now is so unique that it’s hard to imagine there not being a shift. It’s going to be interesting looking back for sure. I’m a big fan of 80’s post-punk, a scene that was very much informed and defined by the political landscape it came from. I’m excited to see what kind of music and art we can expect from this period, and if it’ll be as bound to this era in the long term as punk is to then.
Do you believe your creative space is a mirror representation of yourselves?
Absolutely! It's organised chaos which completely sums us up. It’s also a great representation of that handmade, slightly janky quality we adhere to. With each event or trade that we've done, the wall space gets smaller, which also gives us a nice sense of progression and reflects the journey we’ve been on together, as well as all the super cool people we're lucky to have met on the way. All the things we've accumulated from our art friends and adorned the walls with has built up this reflection of who we are and what we do. It's great to be able to project that into our workspace.
Speaking of art friends, what do you hope your audience and fellow creatives are doing with their days?
We hope they’re doing exactly what they need to do to get through. Not spending too much time looking at the news, checking in with friends, family and neighbours and doing whatever chills them out and enriches their days. We know the pressure that some people are feeling right now to be productive with their time but you don’t have to be. (Just make sure you change out of your pyjamas occasionally, it does help)
Have you got any more wise words for our readers for the road ahead?
There’s no time like now to try something different and there’s really no right or wrong way to approach this whole situation. We spend too much time worrying about whether what we are doing each day is ‘right’ or not, but with no precedent to compare it to, why dwell on that? Everyone’s navigating this together, the best we can do is help each other, which will bring us closer when this is over.
If you had to be stuck indoors with a group of artists or your choosing, who would you choose and why?
This is a tough one! We’d have to go with Yuk Fun who are based in Brighton, for their endless level of cool. Sundance Goods, who are both diamonds of creativity and super zen. 2B or not 2B in Manchester would also bring the pizazz. Anyone is welcome in the ArtHole crisis bunker though!
And while you’re stuck indoors with this fun group, what would your ideal professional space look like?
It would for sure have a kiln and a nice old-school relief press, but, it would also have to be a bit bigger for that to ever happen. We’d love our ideal studio to have a massive window that lets in lots of good natural light and proper nice views are also essential The ocean, some good, green hills, or a forest? We don't mind which. Just don’t make it too spacious and clean, we prefer homely and rustic, these spaces are always better for creativity.
What would you be sad to leave behind if you were to find a new space?
The intimacy of our workspace makes for a really nice environment which we’d miss. Although it's part of our house, it definitely feels disconnected and has a totally different vibe, which sets us in a good place to create mentally. Its close proximity to the record player and coffee machine is a big bonus. Oh, I'd also love to soundproof it so we can record music later without worrying about the neighbours.
