Guest Blog: Alex Cubb On New YouTube Series THE BARE & KLARE SHOW

It was 2018. Remi [May] and I were going insane as she tried to complete an art foundation course at Loughborough Uni (would not recommend). We decided the only right thing to do would be to turn her student accommodation into an art piece. So, with as many resources as we could get our hands on, a tiny budget, and probably some kind of developing mental illness, we began to turn her room into a surreal, messed-up teenage girl's bedroom.

The teenage girl was called Mary, and she was a modern representation of Mary the Virgin - full geek, reject and try-hard. Her room was covered in social media screenshots (what controls and governs her life), alongside a monster under the bed, a shrine to the iPhone, a floating puffer fish (her bad thoughts) and evil childhood toys. We were going mental and art was how we dealt with it. You can view our creation here: www.scaredykat.co.uk/art

It can be really difficult when you're creative and in a bad place, whether it's just that you don't have access to a lot of materials, you struggle with your mental health, or you're physically stuck in a negative environment. Remi and I have both experienced these things, and finding a way to still be creative sometimes seems impossible, but for us, it has always been the thing that's saved us.

When we've been in darker places, we've used whatever we possibly can to create and channel our energy and emotion into making something. Most of our best art has come from bad things, as we just can't really deal with it without making something from it. We have a lot of opinions because we have experienced a lot of negativity in our lives, and art is a way for us to get those opinions out and enable us to move forward.

We think art is the best when it includes a commentary on society, combined with a unique style and technical skill. That's what we think the greatest art truly is, and resourcefulness, alongside a tiny budget, has always been something that we know too well.

Thanks to conceptual art, everything has been done before. Nothing is new, and even if it is more original, it will still have been influenced by everything that has come before it. So, we think that instead of just creating more substances that will eventually be thrown away to rot, art should be used to inspire and change the world we live in for the better.

At the moment, we're working on a YouTube comedy/art show called The Bare & Klare Show, which is a six-part series hosted by two magical stoner bears and featuring their enchanted friends such as Piers Morgan the Giant Penis, Shaun the Dumb Turtle, and Coco the Fat Bat. With themes such as Isolation and Art, through to the environment and social media, Bare and Klare guide the human race through lockdown better than any other programme out there right now - trust us, we checked. You don't have to.

Think creepy Blue Peter meets Eurotrash meets 80s horror meets naughty Elmo. Every second of the show is unexpected, proving that Bare and Klare have the shortest attention span known to bear. By the sixth episode, however, there's a true insight into the purpose of the show and the messages lurking underneath. Watch the first two episodes here.

Resourcefulness, as you will see if you watch, plays a massive factor. Nothing says budget like a massive rubber duck with identity issues. Art on a budget is arguably more interesting than expensive art - is that what you would call it, expensive? - which is often just a pile of bricks anyway, or a canvas with a pea on it or something. Maybe we'll do that next.

Regardless, during this weird lockdown period, our budget attitude has really helped in creating new content for our fans. We kind of live in lockdown as it is anyway - we have no friends and hate most things, so we spend most of our time with the cat indoors. He knows what's good. Aside from Bare and Klare and our art exhibition, we also have made our own music videos - again, all done by us and on a tiny budget. We learn how to do things as we go - animation, set creation, filming, lighting, staying sane.

We are very lucky in that we are privileged, so we have access to space, a good camera and lighting, a computer to edit etc., but not everyone has this privilege. It is very difficult to be creative when you have little resources and other priorities, especially during this time of uncertainty, but you can be creative with almost nothing. Even just having a phone can enable you to be creative now with interesting photographs, homemade movies/sketches or even recording songs. YouTube is a great place to put your work if it is video-based, as there is so much shit on there that there isn't really a standard.

Do yourself a favour and WATCH THE BARE & KLARE SHOW NOW.

Watch The Bare & Klare Show on the Scaredy Kat YouTube channel