We chat to Bruce Asbestos about his monster exhibition at Lakeside Arts this summer

Can you tell us about your background in art and your studio at Primary?

Feels like I’m talking ancient history now. I came to Nottingham to study at Trent in the early 2000s, and just thoroughly enjoyed how dynamic Nottingham was. There seemed to be lots of new projects and galleries opening all the time. I got a scholarship from NTU to Musashino University in Tokyo, for five months and it was an utterly life changing experience. I got to experience both the super pop Hello Kitty sanrio-kawaii type of Japan and the super extreme, noise music and digital arts there. It taught me that pop art should both be radical and embrace new technology.

Nottingham has always been a great place for artists, and has definitely punched above its weight in terms of contemporary art, it’s great to see that both Primary and Backlit own their buildings now. It's great for art in Nottingham in the long term.

Could you tell me about your art practice?

I’ve always enjoyed that super broad approach to art, sort of Bauhaus approach where everything can be utilised. I curated Trade, an artist-run gallery at One Thoresby Street and Primary from 2008 - 2018, and now make giant inflatables, video games, catwalks and socks. I’m always wondering what would make good Pop Art today? What would it look like if you updated it?

Could you tell me about your exhibition at Lakeside Arts?

I heard that Hello Kitty was one of over a hundred different characters, and it was the one that ‘worked’. With each exhibition I try and make a new character, or try and develop the story of an existing one, many of the shows this year are of a new family of monsters called the Hooboos, I like this starting point where you make the physical work and often you get an unexpected feeling from making an exhibition, I’ve started to think they look a little frightened, so that starts to inform a story, and then for the next exhibition you can add some other magic element, play on that aspect a bit more. I’m basically testing the waters to produce my own TV animation in the future; I need enough characters to fill that world.

How do you make the inflatable monsters?

I work with a company called Glow Inflatables in Lincolnshire, it’s a great relationship, they understand what I’m trying to do as an artist, and how best to make the work really look excellent.

What are your thoughts on consumer culture and how it relates to art?

I remember an artist saying to me once that he was both a cog and a spanner in the machine; I think making art feels like that, sometimes you’re oiling that capitalist machine and making it run better, and other times you’re refusing or undoing. I’ve been thinking recently about the Luddites and what they’d make of A.I..

How do you envision artists utilising and responding to AI technology in the future? Should we embrace it or protect traditional methods of creation?

In my most recent collection, I used AI to generate designs for the catwalk, then attempted to execute those looks as closely as possible. I was intrigued by the idea of outsourcing design to AI and grappling with the results, especially since AI lacks understanding of physical construction, budgets, fabrics, the human body, history and so forth. The AI actually masks months of hard work. 

I wanted to approach the AI conversation from a different angle, viewing it as part of the creative process rather than simply ‘good’ or ‘bad’. We often think of AI-generated images as final products, but I see more potential in using AI as a tool within a larger creative framework.

In the near future, I believe everyone will have a very capable AI assistant - it will become commonplace. Consider how rudimentary Apple's Siri is currently; that will change dramatically within two years, we’re at the beginnings of that now, and these will be as common as 4k TVs or 5g mobile internet, we don’t really even see that relatively technology as being special anymore.

In fields like TV commercials where my wife works, there's still a strong preference for real people and authentic imagery over AI-generated content. This suggests that a sense of human authenticity or presence remains crucial, even in heavily edited final products. I initially thought advertising would quickly embrace AI-generated content, but it seems there's still a need for a human element, somehow that equals trust. 

I often think about knock off fashion bags - people who buy the fakes are quite a different audience from the people who want a real Louis Vuitton, I think the same for art is like yes, if you just want a picture of a bear holding a fish, Ai is going to replicate that quite easily. But it only ‘wins’ in one dimension; if you pair art down to just ‘image making’ then your going to lose, if you put image making into a wider context of social connections, ideas, history, an individual’s career, then it’s never going to replace an artist with just a bizarre imagination, and a desire to create something new and weird. For me Ai is starting to cut chunks of work out of very dull un-artistic processes; e.g writing funding bids, or doing your accounts. Potentially that frees artists up to do more creative work. 

I'm also fascinated by how quickly technology becomes dated. Eventually, we might seek out specific ‘eras’ of AI art, much like we now appreciate the aesthetics of early websites or vintage Instagram filters. You look at websites from the 90s, at the time that was the most futuristic thing, and now it feels kind of kitsch and clunky. We’ve already seen that leap in AI images, and I think still they have a kind of ‘sheen’, you can kind of feel that they are AI, without specifically being able to point out why.  

All of the AI has handwriting, when you use them a lot you can really tell that someone has used chat GPT to write something for instance, the tone is a bit formal and a bit off for a human to write, but we have to be realistic, most writing is like the boring uncreative type anyway, it’s forms and facts, not like incredible poetry! Let AI replace the boring. 

Your fashion work is very fun and fantastical - can you tell us more about it? Do you think there should be more fun in fashion?

I was always interested in textiles, and was the only boy who wanted to do GCSE textiles at my school. My mum was always super supportive of anything to do with sewing or making, so that gave me confidence to start.  But I’ve also always been a big guy, so fashion was really never for me, nothing fits my shape and I didn’t have mega bucks to participate, so directly or indirectly understood that it was only for other people, and not for big silly lads like me.

Now, I just see catwalks and fashion as an extension of a very broad contemporary art practice. I think there isn’t space for my work in the fashion world necessarily, I just have to force it when I see an opportunity. I like that fashion also is a way to connect art to a larger world of pop culture. There’s definitely a fun playfulness in fashion which is really exciting, and great fashion is indistinguishable to contemporary art. 

What other things do you have planned for this year?  

So I’ve just come back from my show at Factory International in Manchester, and opened my A/W 2024 exhibition at Leicester Gallery. I’m going to Ah Haa in Colorado, then Rosehill Theatre, Cumbria and then I’ve got an exhibition in Bangkok later this year. It’s my busiest year so far, but it feels great to play a home game at Lakeside!  

Bruce Asbestos brings his colourful inflatable monsters to Lakeside Arts from 1 August to 8 September 2024 in a free family-friendly exhibition.

@bruceasbestos