PRESS

WHAT’S THE POINT IN BUYING A CAT WHEN YOU’LL JUST END UP HAVING TO WATCH IT DIE?



Hubbawelcome is a new collective of contemporary artists based in East London, formed by Chris Mundy and Greg Lockhart. Their work is inspired by online culture and the psychology of growing up in the information age.



With a particular interest in social media, their pieces exhibit themes of loneliness, isolation, compulsion and death. Chris Mundy explains, “In our work we visualise the obsessive and disposable nature of how individual people interact online. We feel that being completely connected with ones peers at all times has actually become a catalyst for loneliness, gradually dehumanising relationships and individual identity.”



Hubbawelcome create prints, animations and installations by collecting fragments of online culture and reconstructing them using repetition and grids. Their pieces are bold, single-minded and colourful – appearing almost like ads for obscure products. They site artists David Shrigley, Andy Warhol, Banksy and Steve Powers as influences.



Having contributed to various group shows across East London including The Season Ticket, The Old Shoreditch Station, The Hackney Long White Cloud and High Roller Society, Hubbawelcome will be showing a preview of their first solo show, entitled: “WHAT’S THE POINT IN BUYING A CAT WHEN YOU’LL JUST END UP HAVING TO WATCH IT DIE?” at the infamous House of Detention for Clerkenwell Design Week on May 22.



Greg states; “For our first solo exhibition, we’ve set about creating a show that feels like walking through a physical, analogue version of an internet blog. We’ve reanimated fragments of online culture to make our pieces seem intangibly connected. Similarly to how bloggers connect disparate, found objects though common themes and styles.”

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Show preview: Clerkenwell Design Week, May 22.
Solo show: August 2012.