SKUX AZ

SKUX (adj, verb) from the mouths of two SKUX-crossed lovers… To Indeah Clark - SKUX is kiwi slang - cool, sick, grubby, bit rough but still awesome. To Tamahae Puha - SKUX is gangsta, SKUX is pizzazz, SKUX is grease, SKUX is anything.

“It was born one night of realising how similar we were…much before our relationship… that we want our art to fund our life, to do in a way that we would both enjoy”, Clark says. Puha agrees, “We’re taking back our art… We talked for so long about all the things we wanted to do and one day we were just like, why don’t we do it?” Before officially committing to SKUX AZ, Clark and Puha slowly stockpiled their designs while continuing to hustle in their hospitality day-jobs and a steady slew of commissioned art designs and projects.

Clark, who studied art at both Newcastle Art School and the University of Newcastle (and was a 2014 finalist in Maitland Regional Art Gallery’s Brenda Clouten Memorial Travelling Scholarship) admits her true creative blossoming through SKUX AZ came from rejecting years of ‘listening to people telling you how to do your art.’ “With my confidence, it was me figuring out - you really just need to not give a fuck about what people say and think about you. SKUX is really for us…you really need to take a step back and not let anyone influence your personal way of believing and thinking because, the minute you start thinking, I can’t do this, what if people say it’s shit…. for us, we have to do our art, and our art is for us.”

Puha, a self-confessed ‘arty weirdo’, who says SKUX AZ has “changed the way I am creating. It’s changed a lot of my own opinion of myself ”. “It’s a journey because I didn’t have support from the one’s that I felt closest with. You stop wanting to, and being creative. It’s got a lot to do with SKUX, it’s got a lot to do with Indeah.”

Their designs come straight out of ‘personal jokes, things that have made us laugh’, describes Clark, including a nondescript tourist ornament reimagined as a reclined, white elephant stoned out of it’s mind.

Dubbed the ‘Sleazy Tee’, the pair printed 30 tees in black, white and powder pink, and sold them over one weekend! “We put the shirts up for sale the day we started our Instagram account and BOOM - that was it, it shot off.” Puha explains. “It was rewarding seeing people walking down the street wearing it, not just buying it for nicety.” Clark adds ‘“More men bought the powder pink than the women. To see all these burly dudes wearing the powder pink SKUX, the gender stereotype is gone. If you like the colour, whack it on. There should not be a gender attached to colour.”

Since then, demand for new SKUX AZ merchandise has snowballed. Unlike most new entrepreneurs, they purposely held back the designs to focus on the work. The pair have teased new designs, such as ‘The Good, The Bad and the SKUX’ and the ‘What Have You Done Now?’ on their Instagram page, which will be available at their first ever SKUX AZ Hootenanny event in Maitland on 20 October.

“(‘What Have You Done Now?’) is the severed finger floating in a jar - it’s a piss take on myself ”, Clark offers. “I come from a long line of clumsy people. My dad, who I get all my clumsiness from, lost a finger. All I’ve ever heard growing up said to me or my dad is ‘What have you done now?’…. I thought that was just funny…hopefully someone else sees that and thinks ‘that’s me’.”

‘The Good, The Bad and The SKUX’ design depicts a child holding two locked and loaded two revolvers, covered in red and yellow hues - conveying a torn, emotional imbalance of equal parts rage and cowardice. Puha sighs, “I mean America’s gun crazy… and somehow that’s still appealing, people are still buying kids fake guns. Why would you give your kids something that encourages them to shoot something?” Both agree that ‘humour is a very big tool for SKUX - it’s so good to get a point across.’

Clark and Puha recently moved their SKUX AZ HQ into their new studio space in Maitland’s hidden creative entrepreneurial haven, The Factory. They have plans to establish screen printing facilities, to translate their design into apparel and merchandise as another element of their creative process. Surrounded by other inspiring Maitland creatives, The Factory figurehead Jaime Pritchard and Triple Three Productions - a fully fledged, hybrid recording studio helmed by producer Sean Ballenden, SKUX AZ have found a dynamic, kinetic home for their art.

Puha explains, “Being as part of the Factory is cool because (Jaime and Sean) are two of the hardest working creatives that I know. They’re doing their 9–5 jobs, paying off a house, a mortgage, a car - but they’re working their fucking ass off and I love that shit”.

Clark adds, “( Jaime’s) totally dedicated to what she needs to do for herself, that she’s really putting everything into (The Factory), because she knows what is really going to make her happy. That’s the beauty of being an artist - you don’t have to sacrifice your happiness and wellbeing. She could do anything she wants with her skills - she is so stoked to get The Factory rolling. It’s what she finds important.”

SKUX commissioned Pritchard, an accomplished graphic and creative artist, to design and unveil a monolithic interactive art installation, Unicorn Creep. The immense scale of Unicorn Creep will command as much attention and respect as the musical spectacle to the SKUX AZ event.

Supported by Maitland City Council’s My Place grant – the SKUX AZ event is touted as an ‘art, music and food hootenanny extravaganza’, featuring music from Flight to Dubai, The Bad Time Boys, Mr. Sauce, Green Mohair Suits and DJ Jakesy Hustle. The concept for the SKUX AZ hootenanny had simple beginnings, Puha explains. “It was going to be in the back of Indeah’s house - invite a couple of friends around, throw out a couple of cartons and choose the artists we felt were fitting…”

“The best thing about the My Place grant is that it’s given us the opportunity to show respect to all of the artists involved” - a point that Clark agrees with. “Usually, if you’re (a visual artist) doing live art at an event, you won’t get paid, but the bands will get paid. People think it’s no big deal, you can just whip it out”. Puha adds “At the end of the day, we wanted to give other artists, musicians, creatives – the chance to put their work on display, have fun and celebrate themselves”.

Clark and Puha see SKUX AZ evolving to something ‘so much bigger than us’. “We get a lot of satisfaction out of building ourselves. I think it’s going to be so much bigger than us… We want something accessible for everybody.”

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