We’re really looking forward to hosting a discussion between writer and art critic Zarina Muhammad, and artist Michael Lacey, who will be diving into some of the ideas for a new art world proposed by the white pube’s recent Rough Trade Books pamphlet. The conversation will be streaming via Instagram Live.

The art world is a bit broken. So many problems, such little time. Between January-April 2021, we plastered the distilled thoughts of years of writing on billboards and posters across the UK. We wanted to plop these aphorisms out there, as simple, feasible solutions; almost to prove how easy it can be if change is sincerely sought.

The ideas are not radical, and they’re not new. They’re just six Very Good Ideas that we think you should listen to. In this pamphlet, we’ve listed the six ideas and taken the time to explain why we think they are, in fact, Very Good Ideas.

There could have been hundreds. Maybe there should have been. But these were the initial ideas for a new art world we went with. We hope they’ll make you think about more Very Good Ideas too.

Zarina Muhammad is a writer, art critic, and artist (sometimes). she is a co-founder of the white pube, an online art criticism platform that publishes reviews, essays and other little bits in between.
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cancer sun/aries moon/sagittarius ascendant
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hobbies: skincare, making chutney & growing things that she can eventually eat at some point.
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‘hysterical schoolgirl’, ‘intellectual charlatan’, ‘alt-right jihadi meme-lord’, ‘sociopathic pseudo-critic’, leading proponent of ‘The Philosophy of the Warm Tummy’ & cowboy in the art world 🤠

Michael Lacey is an artist based in Liverpool. His work primarily uses painting, drawing and collage to describe the topography and inhabitants of a fictitious, nameless netherworld, a contemplative and dreamlike space rich in symbolism and dark humour. His collage works have been exhibited widely around the UK and internationally. Recent projects have included residencies with Manchester City Council, METAL Liverpool, and the white pube, short fiction for Hoax Publication and co-writing the ‘lockdown sitcom’ Gated Community with Laura Yuile for Collective, Edinburgh. Since 2020 he has managed OUTPUT Gallery, an artist-led space which aims to platform the work of creatives who are from or based in the Merseyside area.