Art / Rough Trade Bristol
Vinyl, canvas and card decks: the launch of Rough Trade’s listening bar
The traditional gallery space can sometimes feel clinical and detached, but the city’s best art thrives where people can actually talk to each other.
This weekend, the new ‘listening bar’ at Rough Trade Bristol became the site of that exact kind of creative collision.
Curated by the Loovre – what claims to be ‘Bristol’s smallest and most excloosive art gallery’ based in the toilet at the People’s Republic of Stokes Croft building – Akin was a mixed-media exhibition bringing together a diverse cohort of local creatives to map what community and culture meant to them.
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Amid the steady crackle of vinyl records and a stacked lineup of live music, the art on display functioned less like static decoration and more like a live conversation starter.
Among the installations driving these conversations was a collaborative, interactive tabletop piece by Jo Belliveau, who moved to Bristol from Florida, that marked her first time showcasing a piece in an exhibition setting.
The project began organically within her own social circle as something fun to do with friends, asking her mates to create a card each and channeling their individual perspectives into a single, cohesive custom deck.
“A lot of people came in not having done much creativity in an art form, or maybe they had but in a different format,” Jo reflected, capturing the open-ended spirit of the project.
“It was my favourite thing inviting them to make a piece and then seeing where their mind led them, and a lot of them have a narrative attached to their cards, so hearing that narrative as well”, she added.
It was the first time Florida-born Jo Belliveau had exhibited her art
About the audience response to her work, she said: “It’s really cool to hear the people who come and view it, what they perceive one specific part to be about or another. And I find it’s a really good display of that collective experience.”
However, bringing the massive tabletop installation into Rough Trade required some serious behind-the-scenes maneouvering by the curators, leading the Loovre team to initially decline the submission.
“But then they sent me another follow-up email saying that they had moved things around so that my piece could be displayed as well,” Jo said. “I was really overjoyed to be a part of it.”
The exhibition was part of the launch event of the venue’s new listening bar which also included vinyl record plays and live music
The collaborative nature of the floorplan also allowed her to connect deeply with other exhibitors, several of whom run, facilitate, contribute and participate in other community-focused event series in Bristol.
“Through these pieces you can see a uniqueness in the way everyone interacts with the people in their communities.” Jo highlighted, adding that the space itself was essential to that energy: “It’s a great venue. I’ve been so excited about the listening bar. I really love slowing down and fully listening to a record. I like that it’s a space where people can just be together and mingle.”
While Jo’s installation mapped immediate social connections, artist Frances Patrick’s mixed-media piece looked toward the natural fringes of the city to explore how urban communities build culture.
Frances Patrick’s art carried a message for those living in heavy urban environments
Drawing on a background in sociology, Frances’s work is a direct tribute to the Tortworth Arboretum, a community woodland organization on the outskirts of Bristol that clears areas for the trees, protects the canopy and brings diverse groups together.
“They support people who are struggling with their mental health or addiction maybe, and give them that kind of safe space to just have a human experience in nature.” Frances explains.
Her resulting artwork is vibrant and highly tactile, blending acrylic paint and textiles with everyday items found around the house, including packing materials like the shredded netting used to protect fruits and fragile items.
For Frances, bringing these forest textures into Rough Trade carries an intentional message for people living in heavy urban environments.
“When we live in a city, especially in Bristol, there is so much going on which makes it great, but it is also urban, and I feel like we can forget that being in nature is something that’s really human and we can forget to even desire it.” she noted.
“Because I’ve volunteered with them (Tortworth Arboretum) a few times, every time I’ve come back here and felt like I’ve remembered something: that we, as people, forget what we want”.
She added: “I feel like it’s good to be in nature, around other people, and experience it. I wanted to embody that experience and show that this is an important cultural experience for people, especially those who live in cities.”
To push herself into the heart of the exhibition’s community, Frances made the deliberate choice to attend the launch on her own. “That forces me to talk to people about it”, she said with a smile.
“Otherwise I’d just be standing in the corner somewhere. But now I’ve had so many interesting conversations by just being in a space where people get to connect visually and then musically as well.”
Representing a completely different corner of the landscape, Elsa Loker’s contribution trades the green forest canopy for the gritty, unpolished realities of the pavements of East London.
Having recently relocated to the South West, Akin marks her first time exhibiting her work in Bristol, and her piece looks directly back to her roots to find beauty in the margins.
Elsa Loker’s art is about ‘forgotten areas of society’ that nevertheless forge community and culture
Her canvas captures the late-night texture of the metropolis, translating street corners and solitary figures into vivid, character-driven scenes we see around us every day.
“I picked this piece because to me this is what evokes a feeling of community and culture,” Elsa shared of her motivations. “This is my culture from where I am, dingy areas of East London.
“Like the little weird guy on the street corner, walking and smoking outside the corner shops that stay open 24/7. It is about the forgotten areas of society that actually look pretty scary but just need a little bit of love, and they’ve got a lot of character going on.”
The relaxed, music-centric environment of the new bar space stripped away the clinical weight too often associated with independent art showcases, opening up easy lines of communication between Elsa and the crowd.
One of those spontaneous interactions proved to be the highlight of her debut, bridging the gap between the overlooked subjects on her canvas and the real-world space of the venue itself.
“There was a security guard here earlier who came over and we started talking quite a lot,” Elsa recalled, “He said he really loved all the detail in it, which was really sweet to hear, especially from someone that I feel is usually in the background.”
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Whether stitching packing shreds into an abstract woodland canopy, looking closely at the overlooked figures on a late-night urban pavement, or watching a custom deck of cards shift hands across a tabletop, Akin succeeds because it treats culture as a living, breathing and democratic resource.
By embedding local artwork directly within the open, music-led architecture of Rough Trade’s listening bar the Loovre didn’t just put on an exhibition, they built an intentional space where visitors could simply sit down, listen, and be together.
All images: Vihan
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