Earlier this year, a call went out across the U.K. for hobbyists to share their passions—whether crafty, techy, nerdy, or otherwise—via a dedicated website. The goal? To build the Hobby Cave, the largest exhibition of hobbies in the nation’s history.
Those who clicked through met British-Gujarati artist and filmmaker Hetain Patel, who, in a homespun video, encouraged people to join “the loudest presentation of our quiet pastimes.”
Patel has a hobby or two himself and has centered them in his artistic practice for much of the past decade. It began in 2013, when Patel morphed his Ford Fiesta into a real-life Transformer robot (with help from dad, who converts cars into hearses professionally). A follow-up work, “Somerset Road,” wrapped a Ford Escort in a carpet modeled on one owned by his grandmother.
Hetain Patel, Fiesta Transformer (2013). Photo: courtesy Hetain Patel.
Playing Spider-Man is another hobby. To date, he’s made three Spider-Man costumes by following along with YouTube tutorials from his kitchen table. Patel has carried his early fascination with the Marvel character into adulthood, incorporating it into his art to explore identity and social performance. Initially, at least, the Hobby Cave was simply Patel’s personal desire to gather all of the world’s Spider-Man costumes into a single room.
After a discussion with Mariam Zulfiqar, the director of Artangel, an organization with a knack for commissioning engaging left-field projects, the pair realized something powerful, subversive even, lay at the root of the idea. By placing the work of hobbyists at the center of an exhibition, Patel hopes to challenge the power dynamics of the art world and gatekeepers who decide what is and isn’t valuable and worthy of attention.
Patel believes making art is a privilege and has set out to platform people who find time to create despite the pressures of life. “There is a vulnerability in sharing something so personal which often happens in private spaces around the responsibilities of daily life,” Patel said. “But there is also a tremendous power in sharing collectively.”
The arts and crafts submission from Evie Hancock. Photo: Thierry Bal.
The result is “Come As You Really Are,” which is set to run through October 20 before embarking on a U.K. tour in 2025. The exhibition is housed in Grants, a century-old former department store in Croydon, south London. The windows are still etched with descriptions of the goods once sold inside including lace, ribbons, gloves, silks, and linens. Today, courtesy of Artangel, Patel, and the U.K. public, there’s more besides.
Miranda Worby’s My Little Pony collection at “Come As You Really Are”. Photo: Thierry Bal.
Among the thousands of hand-crafted objects on loan are cosplay costumes, handmade puppets, mosaic work, pottery, an encyclopedic collection of My Little Pony toys, origami twisted into beguiling unusual forms, miniature models, chainmail jewelry, and furniture built from broken skateboards.
Clay models at “Come As You Really Are”. Photo: Thierry Bal.
At the center of the exhibition is a film from Patel, which spotlights the creativity on show with the stylings and production values typically associated with high-end advertising.
There are, of course, contradictions at play here in terms of the project’s anti-art world intent—most of all, the involvement Artangel, a group that has platformed some of Britain’s leading artists with great brio and thoughtfulness. Its success has rested on questioning what art is and where it can happen. A similar questioning is taking place here and that’s the point. After all, the word’s root, hobbyhorse, is a toy whose activity doesn’t go anywhere. But at Patel’s behest, these hobbyists are making moves.