Studio Visit – Wandering Bears

Trine Stephensen and Matilda Hill-Jenkins: Hello guys.

Nik Adam, Peter Haynes and Luke Norman: Hello!

Trine: I thought we could start of by talking about how the Wandering Bears (WB) collaboration started. How did you find each other, first of all?

Luke: Well we all met at uni when we were studying at UCA, Farnham in Surrey and there was a small group within our year who shared the same kind of ambition within photography. We all stuck together and shared our ideas together. I think Wandering Bears was the initial format of the concept, it was for a small group of people to share their ideas and their work together.

Trine: And how did it evolve from there?

Pete: We were all studying so we’d be trying to find stuff for our sketchbooks and then we’d sit on the internet for hours in the evenings, just looking for images and posting them on the WB website. Posting other people’s work kind of moved the collective of 13 people to a collective of around 100.

Nik: One of the first things we did was make the website I guess. We had 13 people on it, all from Farnham and then Jake Kenny. We had everyone’s folio on it. For our degree show we made a book, our first ever book, and it was.. do you remember?

Pete: Yeah.

Nik: …and it was just one picture for each person in the collective.

Luke: It was green covers wasn’t it?

Nik: Yeah, I’ve got it at home, we only made around 15 or something and we sold them all.

Pete: I forgot about that!

Nik: So they’re just stapled and then we scribbled Wandering Bears on the front and had a picture from Pete’s folio, our folio, whoever else was involved, and I think we wrote their names at the back or something.

Trine: So the chosen people for that publication were all students from your year?

Nik: Yeah, at the time we just approached some people didn’t we? And said this is what we want to do and they were all people whose work we were into, who had the same kind of ethos and everything.

Trine: So you started off being friends, sharing the same ideas and researching other photographers. You created your own community in a way. I think that is a unique way of working, since photography can be quite an individual process sometimes.

How did you continue the projects with WB after graduating from uni?

Nik: I think it changed very quickly after uni, because it transpired that although we were all photographers at the time at uni, out of those 12 or 13 people there was a very small percentage who were actually practicing photography in the end. Some went on to be teachers, some went on to do masters and other stuff. So I think there wasn’t enough there for it to continue like it was and that was the main reason as we quickly found out didn’t we?

Pete: Yeah, but we did do a show after uni with everyone. That was in Epsom, called Take It Somewhere New. It included lots of little photos.

Trine: Was that the first exhibition you curated?

Pete: Yeah that was the first exhibition we did just as us, and that featured all 13 people. So that was really good to do that, it was fun. It feels like what we did there has been the structure for all of our shows, doing it together really quickly. Except the production was a lot bigger for Unseen Photo Fair in Amsterdam this September, and the same with Current Obsessions with Webber Represents at Webber Gallery Space this week; it’s about involving different people.

Trine: How do you go on with the selection process now for people to include on the WB website and in your shows? How has that changed?

Luke: I think one of the key things is that when we developed the concept for Wandering Bears, we felt that at the time there weren’t many other photo websites highlighting emerging talent, which was what we wanted to offer. That was how we started to find our first collaborators or people we would feature. We went to students or graduates and people who were just starting to make their name. You’d find that those kind of people were really interested and really keen to work with us.

Trine: That’s great.

Luke: I think it was a really positive thing that they were really into what we were doing.

Pete: Mmm, the majority of the shows have been quite open to a lot of people. So even the one we did in Copenhagen which was on Nordic photography: Nordic Tones, we invited 15 maybe 20 people. We try to include as many people as we can. Sometimes it gets a bit overwhelming. Like the Sunny Side Up show we did at Margate Photo Festival in 2011…

Nik: Yeah, and like Pete was saying that was completely open to absolutely everyone, so we actually printed everyone’s picture..

Pete: Or tried to…

Nik: To an extent, and I think again, a lot of the time our curation methods when we do the shows are very spontaneous and we sort of react to the space when we get there. So we knew what sort of space we were getting with the Sunny Side Up show because we’d seen photos, as long as we’ve got the printing sorted, and the actual materials to just go into the space and almost freestyle. And that really worked for that show because it was just image, image, image.

Pete: Overload!

Nik: So we just had to kind of figure out how we wanted to do it when we got to the space.

Trine: All the shows we’ve seen curated by you guys, they are all quite different. You’re continuing to explore new ways to present photography.

Nik: I think that’s really important, like you say, that we always try and do something a little bit different. For the show Sunny Side Up we had all of the images on the floor, and over the weekend we asked visitors to go up to the pile and put their favourite images up on the wall. It’s a very simple concept but I think it keeps them in the gallery space for a bit longer.

Trine: It’s quite interactive in a way.

Nik: Yeah, and also they’re able to say which images they like. If they don’t like anything, they don’t put anything up and if they find something they like, they put it up. We always like to try and make people feel welcome. Sometimes by desaturating the work a little bit it enables people to come and interact with it.

Trine: The show you did for Unseen Photo Festival in Amsterdam this year was also quite interactive in the process up towards the show. You were working with American photographer Charlie Engman and again exploring new ways of how to present the photographic images for the audience. Can you tell us more about how this collaboration came about?

Nik: Absolutely. Unseen approached us, and we suggested a bunch of ideas for the Unseen exhibition and then from the list of artists we wrote down, they actually picked myself and Luke and Charlie and asked us if there was something we could do between us. So I don’t think that they were suggesting that we cross each other’s work over but they were saying how can we get you two sets of artists in the show. So then we just went back to the drawing board and thought of quite a fun unique idea for a show. I think that’s what happened.

Luke: Yeah, definitely.

Matilda: I think it’s nice because you collaborated from different places and that’s your kind of ethos anyway; talking to people all over the world.

Nik: Yeah Charlie Engman was on the other side of the world! He was there for the show in the end just because he was in Amsterdam but yeah the whole process of the work was completely done online and we were sending each other files back and forth, manipulating them and just figuring that out. I think that is a really good point, because through Wandering Bears, going back to the blog, which was really strong when we left uni, we were having contact with people all around the world, and we found quite quickly that we had a worldwide network of people.

Pete: The first time we really let other people post on the website was in 2011.

Nik: We did an America month, and Charlie Engman was part of that. We had guest posters and he was one of the guest posters, and we’ve had quite a lot of contact with him since then. So when something like this comes up, it was quite easy to engage with him because we’d been speaking to him for a long time.

He also did the first Wandering Bears Objects, (points to large picture on wall). So that’s one of his pictures. I think we were able to use all of those relationships and we built up, I don’t know whether it’s a reputation or just a trust of people to say ‘we’ve got this idea, do you want to get involved?’.

Trine: It also adds up lots of interesting layers to the importance of collaborating, as you did with Charlie Engman for the Unseen show. Do you feel like most of the time people would like to be involved?

Nik: Yeah, I think that because we’re doing it non-profit but for the love of what we do, people will see that that’s the only reason we do it, whether they like us or not, that will make their decision as to whether they want to join in.

Trine: For the exhibition Current Obsessions at Webber Gallery Space this week, you invited people from different professions in the photography industry to take part; curators, editors and photographers. They were all given a voice; giving them the chance to be part of the selection process. How did the idea for this show start?

Pete: Again, Webber approached us to do a show there. That was a year and a half ago or something. We’ve just been meeting..

Nik: … ongoing negotiations (laughs).

Pete: Yeah for a long time. Again they came to us and said ‘we’ve got this gallery space, do you want to do something?’, and it took quite a while for us to even come up with anything.

Trine: So you came up with a proposal?

Pete: We just proposed a basic idea and then..

Nik: …I think we had a few ideas floating around didn’t we?

Pete: But then one morning we were just sitting in a cafe and we thought, ‘oh, why don’t we do this.’ So yeah, a lot of the ideas just suddenly appear and if you sit down for too long it just gets too confusing.

Nik: I think if it’s a good idea it just instantly makes sense.

Matilda: Can you describe the concept behind the exhibition? In case our readers don’t know.

Nik: Yeah so we’ve asked a group of people, like you said, photographers, curators, editors. Basically Pete’s hooked up their Instagram accounts to a Tumblr so that anything they “like” on Instagram is recorded on the Tumblr.

(example: annajaylikes.tumblr.com)

Trine: So how does that work?

Pete: It’s a program called If This Then That, so yeah, you’re scrolling through your Instagram, and you “like” an image, and you can get it to automatically save to a Dropbox or to email it to yourself every single time. You log in from different accounts and you can do it from anywhere. I started doing that back in January for myself and that’s where the idea developed from to invite people.

’ve liked maybe 10,000 images in the last 11 and a half months and then we invited different people to do the same thing over the space of one month. So some people have really curated it, like Anna Jay who’s done a colour rainbow and it’s quite short and Max Marshall has liked a lot of flowers and plants. But then myself, I’ve just continued liking in the way that I did since January, but I have been liking nice images rather than random friends images.

Trine: So each person taking part had the same brief? But ended up with really different results.

Pete: Yeah each person could do what they wanted.

Nik: I think it’s a really interesting concept because there’s this image consumption that we are engulfed in on the internet with you know, Tumblr or Instagram and because…how many images are there going to be in the show?

Pete: Probably like 6,000.

Trine: Oh my god!

Nik: We just got them printed on these huge A3 sheets and some of them are 6 metres long, some are 2 metres long. So it’s not necessarily about the individual images but about the consumption of images and how people are looking at things and engaging with work. I think once we have it in the gallery space it’s going to take on another form of… I don’t know whether it’s sculptural or whether the pieces of paper become one image.

Matilda: Will you decide how to hang it when you get to the space?

Pete: Yeah, so we’re going to get everything printed and just go. We’ve kind of got an idea of how we’re going to hang it, but yeah it’s going to be cascading images down the walls.

Matilda: I feel like there’s a danger that you could have made it quite rigid if you’d prescribed what they had to do, but it’s nice that it’s really open; that each contributor is very unique.

Nik: Yeah and I think we got an interesting range. We have someone from Vogue, from Dazed and we did a test print of Holly Hay. She works at Another Magazine and it was really interesting seeing her feed because it was quite fashion. So I think once you start to realise who the people are, you’ll probably go around looking and actually really take in their feed. So you’ll see the show as this sculptural thing but then you’re also thinking, ‘I wonder what Thomas Brown has liked over the past month’ and you can really get into his mind set.

Trine: That’s interesting. Would you have name tags on each individual image that has been “liked”? Or only on whose feed it is?

Nik: I think we’ll probably show people whose feeds they are so that they can identify that, but not on the actual individual images. We’re going to do one long scroll with everyone’s Instagram name who has an image in the show. So if Pete liked one of your images, there would be your name on this super long scroll, so people might be trying to see if they’ve got an image there, and try and find it.

Pete: We have kind of got a crazy amount of data, because you can sift through and tag images with trees or sky and see what everyone is “liking” the most. And we’ve seen what the most liked accounts are. It’s quite interesting.

Luke: Yeah it’s really interesting. We were looking at it the other day and it was amazing, just seeing what Instagram account had the most likes and yeah, Paper Journal was very high on that list.

Matilda: Woo!

Nik: What number was it?

Pete: Paper Journal was number one! and National Geographic was number two. I didn’t have any likes.. I want that on the record! (laughs)

For the show it’s basically 6,000 photos in total, nearly 2,000 different people’s accounts and nearly 120 metres of images.

Nik: And also what we’re going to do at this show which I think is going to be super cool is we’ve got a projector and again Pete has figured this out, not us! So all of the images he puts into some bit of software and it’s going to flick through all of the images really quickly, and we’ll have that on a loop. Which I think really demonstrates the message we’re trying to put across.

Trine: I think it’s a really important show to have right now. We’re surrounded by images all the time.

Matilda: With Instagram images we’re so used to just flicking past content constantly. It’s a nice contrast having images printed on a wall and actually taking it in compared to the incessant rush of images… that is the epitome of Instagram; the flashing images that you’ll have, you just don’t take it in.

Nik: Yeah definitely, and I think the way we’ve printed it is almost like a manual Instagram feed as though it’s printed out of a phone or something.

Matilda: The big move of the Wandering Bears website from something that was a bit more frequent and updated on a regular basis, (as most online platforms are) to your first Chapter # 1 which is a lot more content and not frequent at all. It’s that same idea of stopping, and not having this constant flow of information coming at you all the time.

Can you talk to us about when you decided to make that change?

Nik: Yeah, I guess when the first Chapter #1 came out which was…I’m trying to remember..

Luke: January?

Nik: February? I think it’s because we’ve all got busier in our day to day jobs and we all seem to apply a lot more time to that whereas before we had a lot more time to work on Wandering Bears. We’ve had many discussions about it haven’t we? And we decided we weren’t too into that constant content and we wanted to try and accumulate a lot of stuff and then put it out at one time as opposed to kind of drip feeding it over the space of 6 months. Yeah so I think it was firstly because of time, and secondly because we wanted to sort of change the way that people interacted with our site. It’s almost gone round a kind of full circle.

Trine: So the WB website is now acting as a more curated online platform, as a nice chapter to your exhibitions in a way. And you’re also exploring the interview format on your website, with doing video interviews rather than only text.

Matilda: I was really aware when I was watching a video interview on the website yesterday, that I was actually sitting and listening to someone for a long period of time on the internet. I think, for me anyway, it’s become quite rare that I do that. If you’re reading an interview you can get bored or distracted if something else pops up while you’re scrolling. But I feel that mostly, if you’re a visual person; watching a video and hearing and seeing someone speak can be much more engaging.

Trine: Is that something you’re going to continue with?

Luke: Yeah we’re just working on our second Chapter at the moment. I think that once we’ve finished with this exhibition we can really crack on with it but the videos are definitely something we’re going to pursue for the next one because like you said they work really well and we got a really good response from it.

Nik: We’re always trying to think of new ideas, and I mean the video interviews aren’t a revolutionary idea but we were almost testing the water to see how people felt about recording themselves and sending it back. Compared to how we’re having a conversation now if this was being recorded it would be really easy to listen to and watch wouldn’t it? So we kind of put ourselves in the position of what would we like.

Matilda: I quite like that Lina Scheynius makes so many self portraits and I’ve become so used to seeing her as a still image. Then you actually see her speaking and moving in her WB debate video interview, and it’s.. I mean not surreal, but it’s a bit different.

Nik: I really like hers because the fan is just making a heck of a noise and you almost don’t know what she’s talking about for a little bit because the fan is taking over! (laughs) but it’s quite raw and I think that’s really nice. There were also some people who did some editing towards theirs.

Matilda: I liked Max Marshall’s, with his Frida Kahlo-esque backdrop.

Nik: Yeah! I’m sure we could even do some with snapchat or something and get people to send them back but it’s just about fun ways of engaging with people. That’s the hardest thing; to always stay ahead and try and think of refreshing ways to talk to people or show people stuff anyway.

Matilda: Do you think that you would ever move the online platform of Wandering Bears into print? Or is it important that it remains online?

Luke: Well we’ve been talking about doing another book soon. We’ve done a few over the years. It’s something we haven’t done for a while and we’re sort of keen to do it again. But I think for the foreseeable future it’s something that is a multiple platform; with shows and lectures and workshops and books and things like that. So I think it will continue in that line. But I can’t imagine it ever being a magazine or anything like that, no.

Nik: No. But in terms of making stuff, we did this WB objects #1 ages ago and we’re really keen to do a new one. And for this show coming up at Webber Gallery Space, each person that we’ve chosen to be in the show have sent us one image from their Instagram feed, and we’re going to print those. They should be arriving today actually. So what we’re doing is, you see those postcards up there with the orange dots? They’re that size and we have the picture on the front and on the back we have their name and their Instagram tag and it’s going to be an edition of 15.

Trine: And you’re going to sell those print at the show?

Nik: Yeah, and all those proceeds are going to go to The Lighthouse Refugee Relief charity.

Trine: Let’s talk about your studio space. You only recently started working from the same place.

Pete: We’ve only had the studio for two months and Luke’s come back from living in Copenhagen. So this is the first time we’ve all lived in the same city and all had a space together.

Luke: Since uni.

Pete: Since uni yeah, so that’s about 5 years we’ve been apart, but now we’re back! (laughs) But no, yeah just being in here and being able to stick photos up and we basically built the Unseen show in here. I don’t know what we would have done if we didn’t have that.

Nik: It would have been impossible!

Pete: Yeah, just everything sometimes comes together and that’s amazing.

Nik: Now we have this space here we’re able to do things a lot quicker. The last 5 years we’ve always been doing stuff together, but we’ve had limitations. Right now like Pete said, we’re all here and we’re all together and we’re really.. not fast tracking things, but if we want to do something like Unseen, we can, we have this space and we’re all here. Before we were all having to arrange Skypes.

If we want to sort something out when an email comes in, all we have to do now is look down our line of desks and we all talk to each other and then press send. Boom. It means we can respond quickly, which is absolutely vital, especially with these shows we’re doing at the moment. I don’t think they would be possible. Or one person would have to do it, and that’s a lot more work for one person and that obviously inhibits them, so we’re able to spread the load…

Trine: But you also do your personal work from here as well? I can see images from your recent shoot here.. (Luke & Nik)

Luke: Yeah we do everything out of here, this is our office and our work space and we’ve got some work up here that Nik and I are working on at the moment which we’re editing now. As Nik said, for us as a photographic duo it’s our first time we’ve been working together in the same place since university. and it’s just.. it’s amazing, being in the same place and actually being able to work together.

Trine: Could you do shows in here? Or is that not possible for you.

Nik: I guess it’s something to consider in the future, obviously we have all of our work stuff here, a.k.a computers, cameras.. If we had a private view for exclusive friends, it would be nice to set something up here.

Matilda: You definitely should do that.

Pete: RSVP party.

Trine: By appointment. (laughs)

So you’ve said the studio changed the way that you work together. How are you going to move on from here? You’ve recently moved into the space and you’ve already done two exhibitions, as well as soon being finished with online content for Chapter #2.

Luke: I think it’s just snowballing in a way, we’re able to do more and more now that we’re together. There’s a few other things in the line that will happen in the future, so I think it will just enable us to do more stuff which is what we want to do.

Nik: I think now that we’re all together we’re able to give it more time and spread it evenly and we also have a new team member who just joined us. She joined a couple of weeks ago and she’s coming in one day a week. Jennifer Martin is her name. She studied at Slade, so she has this photographic background and she’s really great. It’s really good to have someone who has sort of ignited the process again.

Trine: So after getting the studio space, it has been easier to expand the team?

Nik: How can we give someone an opportunity if they’re just sitting in our front living room? Here they can come to our office, and they can also help us with our photographic work, they can help Pete with his work and as well as Wandering Bears we can also show them how we operate and how we work, which we feel will be beneficial to that individual.

Matilda: I really like that you advertised it as a “team member”, rather than an intern or volunteer. Because I feel like a lot of internships can feel disjointed (not this one!) or as though you’re just passing through and not really making a mark or involved completely in something.

Nik: That’s so key. That’s why we chose Jennifer, because she said she wanted to invest her time in something long term and be part of something, and it was kind of what we were talking about before, what we wanted in someone. For us as well we want someone who is invested as opposed to just ticking the box and being a 3 month intern. We all work together and try and push things forward and do new things.

Luke: Nik touched on it earlier, we do this for the love of photography and we’re not getting paid…

Nik: Not for the paycheck (laughs)

Luke: Still waiting for that! (laughs) … So yeah, that’s something that Jennifer is in line with, she’s doing it because she wants to invest in something, so I think it all adds up.

Nik: It was a fit wasn’t it?

Trine: How often does she work with you?

Luke: She comes in on Mondays and she’s been working a lot with the WB Chapter 2 and the show. She’s going to come along and help with the installation for the show at Webber. So it’s exciting.

Trine: It’s good to have someone from the outside. You started it all together and always worked together, and now having a new fresh perspective..

Nik: It can only be a good thing. It was a bit daunting, because like you said, we just had Wandering Bears to ourselves and we were going to let someone new in, but like you said it gives you a fresh approach, and often we just turn around to Jennifer and ask what something looks like from the outside, because obviously she’s been aware of our platform before, but is now part of it so it really is a fresh set of eyes and opinions, and we really appreciate that.

Trine: That’s good. It sounds like you’re really treating her as your team member, and your equal. As you mentioned as well, with all of these internships you’re often in the shadows and not really mentioned.

Pete: That’s my biggest thing, if someone helps out, just say their name, just once! Somewhere! Please!

Luke: Yeah, we’ve all done internships and we all know what it’s like when you don’t feel appreciated so I think we’ve all taken that on board and used the positives from internships. We want Jennifer to feel that she’s on the same level as us.

Trine: She might feel more engaged with it, being included in the team, and it gives her the chance to share her own opinions. I was quite curious about the name ‘Wandering Bears’ as well. Because I’ve known your platform since 2011. And I never really thought about why it was called Wandering Bears, Matilda and I were just talking about it before we got here.

Luke: What did you guys think?

Matilda: I said shall we even ask this question! (laughs)

Trine: (laughs) I think as a platform for photography it’s good to have a catchy name and it doesn’t need to be related to photography or the actual practice. You are Wandering Bears and we’ve just accepted it!

Nik: I’m trying to think of some funny names we’ve been called.

Luke: Wandering Beards! Because we get loads of submissions on the email, and a guy emailed and said “I’m the world’s first digital photographer” and he worked for Kodak years and years ago and then he just wrote at the end, ‘ha! Google corrected it as Wandering Beards!’

Matilda: Ha! Also I think it really fits, weirdly, with the weekly Instagram takeovers. People travel to different places and share their images. Because, although you didn’t start the WB Journeys takeovers until more recently, it’s all about travelling, or wandering…

Trine: Are they archival pictures from the photographer or are they actually travelling and posting at the time?

Nik: It’s kind of developed so, originally it was there and then you would post. But then I think as we were chatting about it and other people were mentioning that it’s a little bit stressful and means you might not enjoy your holiday.

Matilda: When Jake and I did the takeover, weren’t we the first people to do a Wandering Bears Journeys takeover? We did it in Paris, and I remember that’s pretty much all we did! That was what our holiday revolved around..

Nik: Yeah, that’s not great is it! I think there’s a little bit of pressure when you’re doing it, so I think that some people weren’t posting much. But while we still do that, we also accept people who have gone away and shot film, so they have time to come back develop their films and actually it is a real chance to show a project and display it on Instagram.

think Samuel Bradley was one of the first people who did that. He came back from his trip and made an edit, which is really nice to see. It was really different and quite a strong piece for Instagram. I think if someone was going away tomorrow and they wanted the feed and it was free for a week, they could take it but also if you went away and you shot something and you want to do a takeover in a couple of weeks time it would also work.

Trine: Why choose people travelling?

Luke: I think it’s because that’s what we love doing, we’ve been on so many trips together and we have the best time when we go away. It’s so much about obviously all being photographers we take a lot of pictures, and I think as soon as you go somewhere you’re instantly inspired.

Nik: Instant…

Luke: Instagram! But yeah, I think that’s a big part of why we decided to do that.

Nik: I think everyone always feels more inspired when they’re somewhere new on holiday because they’re happy. I think for us it fits the mould of Instagram. We’ve always wanted to have this constant interaction with people and that is a real channel that people can literally just take away. We have some bigger people take over and some people who have just opened up accounts. There is a slight curation to it, but it’s also very free.

Matilda: It’s quite fun. It’s similar to sharing holiday snaps with friends isn’t it?

Nik: Definitely, and I think that’s what’s nice; we can give the opportunity to some people who might not be able to do shows, the chance to show their work to quite a big audience. Once the ball got rolling on this, it’s 100 followers a week sort of thing. Like your guys instagram. It just snow balls doesn’t it, because you’re showing it to so many people, every time it gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

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Trine: Last question. You have created an audience through your blog, Instagram, collaborations and now exhibitions. Do you think you have been reaching out to a new audience through your exhibitions? For example the one you did in Amsterdam at Unseen Photo Fair.

Nik: Yeah definitely, I think Unseen was a real breakthrough in terms of a new audience, but also key people. I think that it secured the Webber show, because the director of Webber was there and she saw it and was totally impressed. We also met people from The Photographer’s Gallery, Tate, Photoworks, Foam… and they were all like “let’s do something”.

Trine: So it was kind of a confirmation that what you’re doing is well perceived.

Nik: Yeah I think it gave us confirmation that what we’re doing is alright.

Luke: Those public events are the only time you actually get any feedback, for us at least. Because so much of what we have done in the past has been on the internet.

Trine: That’s what I was going to say, yeah, because if you do something that is only online, you don’t know really who your audience are.

Nik: You’re basing it on the “likes” or the views or whatever and what does that even mean.

Trine: Yeah you can see how many hits or how many people have been on the site and you’re never sure who your audience might be, but for an exhibition you actually get to meet your audience and interact with them and they are able to see who you are as well.

Nik: Definitely.

Pete: And I guess the Unseen show and then the Webber show have been the biggest we’ve done in a way, where we’ve had a budget, which is something we’ve never had before.

Trine: Mmm.. Great.

Nik: Are you guys coming to the show on Thursday?

Matilda: Yeah! I’m excited.

Trine: Definitely.

Matilda: Do I have to RSVP?

Luke: You must.

Nik: You could do it through the Facebook invitation

Matilda: Is there going to be a bouncer?

Nik: Nah we’ll get you in Matilda.

Pete: Through the back door.

Matilda: Cool. Well thanks! Thanks for having us.

Nik: Thank you! It’s nice to talk about it. All that in one go, the whole histoire.

Trine: Thank you so much.

Nik: Also shout out to Jake Kenny! You know.. he’s always there, there or there abouts (laughs). He took the photos for this! Oh yeah and shout out to Steve.

Luke: One of our team members.

Nik: He’s in the photo with us on the ladder. He was in our first ever show, he was part of the original collective and he’s a good friend. I guess if you’re a good friend, you tend to be hanging out with us, just like you do at these Wandering Bears things and it’s just how it evolved. It’s so open, we don’t ..discriminate.

Current Obsessions opens this Thursday 3rd December 2015 at Webber Gallery Space.