The most ambitious exhibition ever presented about the UK’s hobbies will open in London this summer, celebrating people who dedicate their spare time to making, modifying and collecting.
Come As You Really Are is presented by award-winning artist and Spider-Man enthusiast Hetain Patel and commissioned by arts organisation Artangel. It serves as a contemporary portrait of the UK as seen through the lens of the nation’s hobbies. The inaugural exhibition will be presented in Croydon, followed by presentations at partner venues across the UK throughout 2025.
In January 2024, people from across the UK responded to a public call-out for information about their hobbies, sharing their personal stories of what these activities mean to them and why they pursue them with such dedication. Over 1500 responses form the basis of the exhibition, which will feature familiar pastimes such as arts and crafts, knitting, Lego creations, Warhammer figurines, football shirt collecting and miniature model making, alongside lesser-known hobbies, including doll customisation, micro-ceramics, car modification, chainmail jewellery, making 19th century banjos, and furniture upcycled from broken skateboards.
The exhibition will feature thousands of unique hand-crafted objects loaned by hundreds of people of all ages, backgrounds and professions from across the UK. The project demonstrates how individuals express themselves and assert agency through the activities they pursue and the things they make and collect. Some people started hobbies during lockdown, whilst others have been doing their hobbies for decades. Many find they offer a moment of escapism and provide an outlet from studying, work or caring duties, while for some they are a means of connecting with others and finding a sense of purpose.
Artist Hetain Patel will present work as part of the exhibition. At the heart of the project is a new film by Patel, which elevates the outstanding creativity and passion that people put into their hobbies. The film adopts the artist’s trademark approach of combining high-end cinematic production with scenes from the everyday to showcase ephemeral pastimes, such as wild swimming, alongside handcrafted objects in a style usually reserved for Hollywood films and luxury advertising.
Also featured are three Spider Man outfits made by the artist, including a 3-piece suit, and two modified cars. Fiesta Transformer (2013) is a modification of Patel’s first car, turned into a robot with the help of his father in their family garage in Bolton. The second work, Somerset Road (2024) sees the familiar form of a Ford Escort enveloped in a hand-tufted patterned rug modelled on Patel’s grandmother’s carpet.
Artist Hetain Patel said:
There is a vulnerability in sharing something so personal, which often happens in private spaces around the responsibilities of daily life. But there is also a tremendous power in sharing collectively, which is at the heart of this project. I hope people join us in this celebration of the unstoppable nature of self-expression that is demonstrated by our hobbies.
Mariam Zulfiqar, Director of Artangel, said:
Hetain Patel’s work has always invited us to reflect on identity as multidimensional and complex. For Come As You Really Are, he extended an invitation to people around the UK, asking them to share the pastimes that form part of their identity. The ambitious presentation of thousands of objects loaned by as many people embraces our differences, and invites us to rethink what we value in an age dominated by consumerism.
This nationwide project has been made possible through a network of partners across the UK, and could only have been achieved with the generous contributions from the many hundreds of participants. We hope people enjoy seeing this very public presentation of the activities that enrich our lives.
Hetain Patel is an award-winning British-Gujarati artist and filmmaker. Much of his practice is derived from his childhood hobbies and interests, including his lifelong passion for Spider-Man. In 2013, the artist created his first sculpture, Fiesta Transformer, when he converted his car into a real-life Transformer robot with the help of his father. Come As You Really Are is Patel’s most ambitious and far-reaching project to date.
The exhibition will be presented in part of the Grade-II listed Grants building in Croydon. Opened in 1895, the Grants building was once home to a department store selling clothes by the Grants brothers who had a tailor’s shop across the road. Croydon had the first major international airport in the UK, and Grants was visited by French aristocrats who would fly in to buy suits. The store didn’t recover after the Second World War and eventually closed its doors in 1987. The building’s facade still shows details of the goods that Grants sold, including “haberdashery” and “silks”. The interior of the building has changed use over the decades, while the façade still portrays the building’s connection to handmade textile items.
National partners include Factory International, Manchester; Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea; Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool; Museum of Making, Derby Museums Trust; National Festival of Making with Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery; Wolverhampton Art Gallery; Barnsley Civic; Inverness Museum and Art Gallery; Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland; CCA Derry~Londonderry; Hospitalfield, Arbroath; and Tate St Ives.
Come As You Really Are, 18th July – 20th October 2024, Grants Building 14-32 High Street Croydon CR0 1GT artangel.org.uk/project/come-as-you-really-are/
You can still submit details about their hobbies for inclusion in future iterations of the project via thehobbycave.org.uk/
Come As You Really Are partner presentation dates:
February – April 2025 Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
March – July 2025 Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland
March – June 2025 Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool
April 2025 Museum of Making, Derby Museums Trust
May – August 2025 Barnsley Civic
July 2025 National Festival of Making 2025 (Blackburn Museum)
July – September 2025 Wolverhampton Art Gallery
October 2025 Centre for Contemporary Art Derry~Londonderry
November 2025 Tate St Ives, Cornwall
December 2025 – January 2026 Inverness Museum and Gallery
January – March 2026 Factory International, Manchester
Dates TBC Hospitalfield, Arbroath