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The White Pube: Origin Story Talk

The White Pube are art critic bloggers that I've been following for over a year now, who approach art in an honest and unapologetically funny way. When I heard that they were doing a talk at The Art School, I figured it would only be polite to go hear them.

(I should add, I didn't manage to get any images of the event, however I did tweet them before asking if I had to pay at the door)

I dragged my lovely friend Eoghan along and we made trecks.
They discussed their beginnings with the blog and how/why they started. The team consisted, at the start, with two Central Saint Martin's students named Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarina Muhammad. They shared a studio space together at university, and after discussions about how frustrated they were about how there was a great lack of diversity with art critics (mainly with how many middle-class white men seemed to be the only ones to share their opinions on art pieces) and they also just had some thoughts that felt worth sharing.

They also added that during their time at art school they very rarely visited art galleries. It was more difficult for them to get around in London to different galleries due to travel costs (plus they added that you end up arriving feeling very sweaty, which can be a painful experience for most people involved). So really it was the frustration of the lack of diversity and equality amongst art criticism that drove them to take action.

This is also how the name came about. The White Pube is evidently a play on The White Cube, which they joked featured more middle-class men's artwork and lacked in real diversity.

A lot of what they discussed were certainly things that I never gave much thought of before - certainly at least on topics such as diversity and equality in the art world. But also on areas such as how they started a blog during their time in art school, and how they kept it up after graduation, and also how they deal with finances, running residencies, and part-time jobs.

All in all, it was a very beneficial talk to hear. I appreciated how honest they were, as they really didn't hesitate to say things that most people wouldn't feel comfortable saying in front of an audience. It was really helpful to hear those things and gave me a lot to think about.

RK

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