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Holly Halkes (b.1993), is a British artist living and working in London, UK. Her paintings capture the spirit of carnivalesque celebration, depicting uninhibited interaction and the breaking down of barriers. Blending reality and fantasy, her work explores eccentric human behaviour shaped by contemporary living in the 21st century. With a focus on humour, Halkes examines the relationship between self-identity and surroundings, employing lively paint application and repetition of visual symbols to evoke moments of fun and laughter. Beneath the surface, her paintings touch upon internal and external conflicts, revealing vulnerability and anxiety.
Holly Halkes solo exhibition “Until Everything’s Forgotten” opens April 25th during Berlin Art Week at Better Go South Gallery. presenting her new body of work entirely created during her residency with the gallery.
Bio text by Vanessa Murrell
Hi Holly! It’s a pleasure to sit down with you! First question that I always ask. How does a regular day look like for you in London?
Hi! Thank you for taking the time. A regular day, well no day really looks the same, which I love and am so grateful for. Usually though, it’s coffee when I wake up, that’s an essential, as I’m not a morning person, so that kick starts me. Sometimes I exercise first thing but usually after the coffee kicks in I grab a banana and I’m off to the studio. It’s studio all day every day, painting or researching for a new work. Then a quick power nap in the afternoon, followed by grabbing a bite to eat or a drink with friends. My social life keeps me going. I need to feel stimulated by what’s around me; it keeps me sane in the studio the next day.
I’m curious. Growing up, what kind of kid were you, what did you enjoy doing and how did you spend your time?
You’re really making me think back here! My parents would probably describe me as having been a bit of live wire, very energetic, but I was observant too. I remember I’d love to rummage through my mum’s keepsakes in the shed or the loft. I’d always find the most interesting things that made me think. I still have a habit of doing that now actually! My mum and dad were great at always getting creative projects going, colouring in or building things. I remember we had this amazing wicker dressing up box at home with the most random colourful fun outfits in to play with. One day I would be Ginger Spice with fairy wings and then the next a neon knight riding on a wheeled horse with no tail! We were always dressing up and making up dance routines to perform. There was always colour and life around.
Alright, so you graduated in 2022, and correct me if I’m wrong, but you’ve been working full time as an artist, right? Talk to me a little bit about how life has been like post school. Is it everything you had imagined?
Yes, I’ve been working full time since I left City and Guilds of London Art School, which was a very special place. I was lucky enough to sell out my degree show “Sickly Sweet”, which was incredible and very surreal. I remember being in a Chinese restaurant at the time with my boyfriend when I got this stream of messages from people wanting to buy my paintings. I think I went into shock. I’ve not really stopped since then. It’s been a lot of making and travelling. Last year I went to Stuttgart and Milan for group shows and then for my first solo show at the end of the year at Albert Contemporary in Odense, which took just under a year to make. I’ve tried to consistently keep up the momentum and the pressure on. I don’t think I ever had a full image of what life after art school would look like. I just said to myself I must do everything I can to continue making better and better paintings, otherwise I’d be back working in a coffee shop. Don’t get me wrong I loved making coffee, but without painting I don’t feel like me!
Carnivalesque celebration and breaking down of barriers. What is it about those topics that makes them important for you to document through your work?
I guess for me, embracing the spirit of the carnival allows me to explore ideas that challenge societal constraints and pushes my own boundaries in the way I create. My work is a lot about liberation and individuality and the carnivalesque really contributes to a more diverse and dynamic landscape. You only need to look at Bruegel and the upside-down universe that he creates, it’s magical. When I talk about breaking down of barriers, what I mean is I hope to create a dialogue that touches upon the nature of us as humans and how we interact, connect and understand one another within our individual context of self. At the end of the day, I want my paintings to be relatable, in whatever way that means to you.
Same thing goes for exploring eccentric human behaviour shaped by contemporary living in the 21st century. Can you tell me about that?
I love the absurd, something that feels a little off beat, or where you need to work a bit to connect the dots. I like to take a feeling or a moment and allow it to become something else, I guess this becomes heightened in the way I paint with chaos and life and energy and that then becomes eccentric. I don’t like to overthink what comes out of me, but I feel the landscape of the world we live in right now is complex and painful and as an artist I feel the responsibility to engage with this.
So, the red line through your works are internal and external conflicts, vulnerability and anxiety, correct? Can you tell me about that as well?
I mean life is unpredictable, you never know quite what you are going to get. Generally, we see culture creates the framework for behaviour, activities, values etc and how people respond to challenges and world events. I guess then we as humans constantly battle to feel complete as society puts expectations on how we live and what we think and of course this causes inner anxieties and confusions. I try to make work that reflects on what’s going on around me. We can all feel vulnerable and anxious at times so it’s a universal feeling that I’m trying to work with.
Can you also tell me about your use of symbolism?
Using symbols repetitively creates a build-up of gusto and I guess chaos or obsession. I like to use it for impact, it creates an intensity, like a constant drumbeat being drilled into your head. The meaning of the symbol really relates to the individual object I’m using. In in my upcoming solo show “Until Everything’s Forgotten” the symbol of the rotten apples, which become more and more rotten, relating to the decay or forbidden fruit or the inner feeling of rotting. It’s just a tool I use to help heighten whatever emotion or narrative I want to get out of the painting. On a more simplistic level I just love to paint the same thing more than once, it’s fun!
How do you deal with creative blocks?
If I’m having a creative block in the studio, I switch it up. Walk around, go to galleries, read a book, talk to fellow artist friends, scream into a wall, that kind of thing! Just stepping away from the paintings for a while sometimes changes the perspective, it shifts the work and that really helps. Then when I come back into the studio I’m usually in a different headspace.
I know you’ve got a solo show with BETTER GO SOUTH, on April 25, titled “Until Everything’s Forgotten”. How did that come about and what’s the story behind that title?
Music is where I usually find the title for my shows, through song lyrics. It’s ironic really as I’m terrible at remembering song lyrics, but once I get a song on repeat and a line stand’s out, it’s like I can feel the whole show coming together in my head. “You and Me” is a song from the Noughties by the Wannadies, one of the lyrics informed the new works in the show. It’s nostalgic for me, it reminds me of a challenging time, memories that have faded but are still present. Which is really the whole summary of my show and for me it related to the lyric “Until Everything’s Forgotten” from the song. It’s insinuating that there’s something still there, it’s not quite forgotten, whatever that is. The memory.
So, for the show you will be presenting seven new paintings that traverse seasons from winter to spring while confronting existential themes of life, death, and rebirth. Can you tell me about your thought process and what inspired this new body of work?
I made the work during my two-month residency at Better Go South in Berlin. It’s the first time I’ve been in a different country solo for this long and so I wanted to challenge myself. It was an intense experience at the beginning, it was quiet around me which it never usually is. The silence allowed me to tackle my own grief and then I felt it was important to acknowledge loss at a greater level, reflecting on the world right now. I wanted these paintings to be a love letter to loss and reconciliation towards renewal. On a previous residency in Denmark, I had made a painting called “Wintering” it embodied the season of Winter, but not how it feels. I then read a book called “Wintering” by Katherine May which I’d heard good things about and it ended up forming ideas in the show. In summary the book explores the change of the seasons and how we can benefit from slowing down our productivity and to listen to our bodies in difficult times. May is trying to encourage a healing mindset and time of reflection and renewal.
I then had a great conversation with Vanessa Murrell, a wonderful friend and a fantastic curator and writer, who wrote the text for my show. She also said she could relate to this idea of Wintering and the power of retreat in difficult times, so I felt it was relevant.
Here is a snippet by Vanessa Murrell from the text for the show: Throughout the exhibition, Halkes navigates the dualities of human existence, inviting audiences to consider inner and outer worlds, familiarity and unfamiliarity, order and chaos. Her paintings underscore the imperative of understanding our own nature to understand all that is around us. Until Everything’s Forgotten meditates on the human spirit in the face of loss.
Where a lot of your previous work has featured food fight motifs, for this show you seem to be stepping away from that. What’s the story there?
The food fights really started in my final term of art school where I was focusing on exploring the indulgent, chaotic, messy and obsessive nature that humans have with the connection of food. It’s such a big part of life, but also pop culture, it’s incorporated into films, comic books etc.
I guess I wanted to engage with the cinematic side of food fights and how they have the power to amuse, humiliate and relieve tension. Within this and a big part of my creative process is to use humour in my work. I’m still interested in using these elements as part of my language but constructing a new path where I could engage with other objects too.
Being, the body, nature, creating new compositions that created more of an internal feeling of space. In a way these new works feel more authentic and personal to me. Let’s say more deeply autobiographical than before. I certainly opened myself up for this show and dug deep. But never say never to painting lots of food again! Things come in waves.
With that in mind. What are you hoping to convey?
I don’t think I’m overly trying to convey or push a narrative, even though I’ve explored one through exploring my own inner feelings and other resources. At the end of the day, I’m really just inviting the audience to reflect on their own inner worlds. To be honest, I hope that whoever is viewing my paintings takes whatever they want from the work.
I’m putting myself out there and using my own emotions, but I wouldn’t want to control what people see or think. I showed the work to my good friend and fantastic artist Cathrin Hoffman recently and the way she saw one of the paintings “Lean Into It” was so fantastic it even made me double think what I saw myself. This is the great thing about art it can spark the most bonkers thoughts, and then there’s the laughter that comes with it.
Can you describe your studio practice for me? And are there any necessities you have to have with you or present in the studio?
My studio practice in a nutshell is MESS. My studio is messy, my clothes are messy, the floor is messy, the paint is everywhere. I must have complete freedom and be loose when I make paintings, so even when the mess annoys me, I just know that’s how it’s meant to be. I do like to tidy up at the end of the day, so let’s say its organised mess! I guess my process is always changing.
Generally speaking, I flit between sketching, note taking, reading books or online about a particular subject that I’m into at the time. Then when I have a visual/theme or story I want to tell, I start drawing on bits of paper and sticking them next to the canvases. And then to be honest I just like to go for it. For me, it needs to start with a lot of energy and some sort of emotion, so I must be in the right headspace. I start by layering the background colour, putting down a line, filling a shape then I keep working like this until something clicks and I feel like I’m getting somewhere.
A necessity…would be my noise cancelling headphones. I’m always listening to podcasts or music. Recently I listened to every episode of This Culture life podcast with John Wilson where he interviews creatives across many fields – it only took me about a week or so! I really recommend.
Anybody you look up to?
Look up to hmm… there’s certainly people I admire. Creatively speaking, I’ve always loved Alexander McQueen, the man and the early times of the brand! I think he once said in an interview that his work was like digesting all parts of his life and then vomiting it back up again. I love that, he really gave himself fully to his craft. I’ve always really liked photographer, Tim Walker’s work, he has the most wonderful imagination and aesthetic – it feels limitless. Then Terrence Malick – his film The Tree of Life, did something to me. I’ve never felt so affected by a film, the beauty and the depth of rawness surrounding grief and other existential themes is mind blowing to watch.
Artists I look up to, there are so many, but to name a few Celeste Rapone, Julie Curtiss, Jessie Makinson, Flora Yukhnovich. I could go on, but I love painterly painters!
How do you approach colour?
Mostly instinctively. However, I think a lot of what is surrounding me feeds into the colours I want to see on the canvas or the mood that I’m in. I like to look at images from film, books, other paintings that I love. We’re living through the digital age, so I do use photoshop to create colour mixes, but I’m flexible with it. Usually, I start with a flat colour background in my paintings. Lately though in my new solo show I’ve played around with applying the colour slightly differently, blending certain backgrounds to create more melodic moments. I’ve been looking a lot at Lisa Yuskavage’s dynamic world that she creates and I’m currently on residency in Berlin sharing a studio with Callum Eaton, which has informed the first layer to some of my paintings, he likes a blend! But after I’ve got my backdrop down there’s a real spontaneity within in how I layer paint and colour.
What motivates you?
My inner self chatting away at me to keep going! I’m a big believer if you don’t push yourself or put in 100 % then it’s not going to just fall into your lap. You’ve got to help create opportunities for yourself. I also don’t think I would function well without having painting as my purpose. I love what I do and feel so lucky. Let’s hope it continues!
How would you describe a perfect day?
A sunny light studio, with a really well-made coffee in hand, listening to Miles Davis’ jazz and being in the flow of painting. Does it get much better than that?!
Alright Holly. I always ask these two questions at the end of an interview. The first is. What’s your favourite movie(s) and why?
That is such a tricky one. A film that’s stayed with me that was out recently was Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things”. I left the cinema thinking if I was to make a film, I hope it’s like that. It has a bit of everything, the humour, the uncanny, it’s surreal, it’s fun. All elements I’d like to see in my paintings. Oh, and the costumes! LOVED IT. I also can’t get enough of My Best Friend’s Wedding, what a classic. I like some light relief, takes away from the intensity of painting. Ratatouille will definitely give you that!
The second is. What song(s) are you currently listening to the most right now?
I listen to the same songs on repeat until I get bored of them. Right now, in the studio, I’m throwing it back to the noughties and listening to “You and Me” by the Wannadies, like I previously mentioned. Then Dawns by Zach Bryan ft Maggie Rogers, Into My Arms by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Mondo Bongo Joe Strummer & the Mescalors, Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison …. these are my songs at the moment. I could go on, but you get the gist… it’s really quite a random and eclectic mix!