Joel VDK, Matt Stuckey and Stewart Cook have been blazing their own (impeccably well-designed) artistic trails for a while now. Now we hear that they’ve combined superpowers and established their own top-secret headquarters, goodness only knows what sort of crazed creative mischief is in store for this fair city. They come from the Treehouse… and they’re here to pleasure your eyeballs. With a book headed our way this month, we caught up with VDK, Matt and Stew for a bit of a pow-wow on art, short shorts, and the future of everything.

Before I get on the Treehouse, what kind of projects have you each been working on individually? Creative work you’ve done. Like, I know that Joel, you’ve done some professional stuff for Coopers, that kinda stuff…
Joel: In terms of professional stuff, I’ve been in advertising for ages. Oh, damn it, I’ve brought up advertising already! I didn’t want to mention advertising! But that’s my background, and that’s how I know Stu. I guess on a more professional level, Coopers and stuff like that… but I don’t really want to talk about advertising. In terms of illustration and art, lots of exhibitions. I’ve done some stuff in Sydney, and around town, shows at Electric Light and Tapedeck Razorblade. And I just had a show with Josh Smith at Dragonfly.
Matt: I’ve had a solo show at Dragonfly and a lot of group shows around town – that’s actually how I met Joel, doing that group work. And I put on Coolmart at Dragonfly every month.
Stewart: I haven’t been as heavily involved in exhibitions as the other guys, but I’ve done a lot of band and video work. I met Joel through the advertising industry, and the ad industry has been my main thrust for the past ten years.

Matt, my housemate’s been raving about Coolmart but I haven’t been along yet. Tell me a bit about it.
M: Basically, it’s live art with DJs. It’s an opportunity for anybody who’s brave enough to draw in front of other people to come along and just have fun. Sometimes it’s pretty lonely working freelance if you don’t have a studio, because you end up just sitting alone in your house all day and you lose your social skills. So it’s an opportunity to get a bit of a community going. What happens is, I rock up on the night with a couple of cans of paint and brushes, and a lot of Posca markers. (If Posca would like to sponsor me, that would be great - my life's ambition is to be sponsored by Posca.)
J: Posca, if you're listening...
M: Anyway, I invite a few people along, and sometimes we have a plan [for the work we'll be making on the night], and sometimes we'll just freestyle.
S: [Stu spots a male waiter wearing short shorts]. Those shorts are distracting me. Those legs are way too 'out there'.
M: The Treehouse would like it to be known that waiters should not wear shorts. Ever.
S: That's gotta be an Occ. Health & Safety issue, surely...
M: My God, I've lost my train of thought.

How long have you been running Coolmart?
M: About eight months now. When I was in Japan I saw a really awesome video by this group of dudes who just painted non-stop for a week and when they'd covered everything, they just went over it again and again. I met them and did a couple of shows with them, and I was on TV, which was rad.
S: Japanese TV!
J: Oh, man! That’s so awesome.
M: The whole philosophy of those guys was that the process of the creation is more important than the final piece. It's really important over there - like those Zen monks who make those intricate sand pieces only to break them up. I came back that kind of feeling, wanting to be creative just for fun, without any brief or any end product in mind. Lisa (from Paperhorse) and I did the first one, and Joel was the next person to come on board. Everyone was a bit anxious to paint in front of other people, and it took a while for a lot of people to grasp the idea of creating something just for the joy of doing it.

Alright guys, what’s the story behind the Treehouse?
J: Stu and I both got sick of advertising after being involved in the industry for a good decade or so. I always talked to Stu about how it would be cool to get a bunch of dudes together, not necessarily as an agency but just like-minded people to hang out and do their work. I leased out some studio space and now we have the Treehouse.

Where is the Treehouse exactly?
J: It’s in a top secret location… well, not really – it’s off Sym Choon Lane. In a crappy little urine-smelling alley.
M: An awesome little urine-smelling alley.
J: We make it awesome.

The Treehouse’s first project is ‘Never Grow Up’, a publication featuring work from each of your personal sketchbooks. Seems like a neat idea.
J: I think the idea with the book is that we just wanna get something done. We’ve talked about it for so long, so it’s more of a case of finally saying, “Screw it. Let’s just find out how much it costs and do a low print run!” In terms of distribution, we’re sort of just doing it all ourselves, at least initially.
M: I like to think of this book as a warm-up. A proof-of-concept. So now we know how to make a book, and the next one will be bigger…
S: It will just be awesome to get something done, that’s by us, and for us, and if people jump on board that’s great. A book is something tangible. It’s not like a show that lasts for three weeks – it’s a product.

Do you think there’s an ‘Adelaide aesthetic’?
M: More than an artistic aesthetic, Adelaide has a bit of a 'mood'. The vast majority of artists are really welcoming, and the community is very inclusive - if you're willing to have a go, and if you bring in something of a decent quality, and as long as you're not an absolute hack or know-it-all, you're set. There's a nice mix of humility and confidence in here right now - that's the Adelaide mood.

What’s your vision for the Treehouse?
S: As a general thrust of the studio, I think it's a matter of creating products we can sell and live off as opposed to creating ideas for other people to live off. In advertising, we'd be creating for a product. Here, we want our creativity to be the product.
M: The nature of advertising and design in Europe is that everything is art - art and design are intertwined. So you get these awesome commissions - Nike will approach an up-and-coming artist and give them a chance. These aren't artists who are chasing Nike - they're just artists who are doing their thing, but there's this kind of culture over there where businesses look for people who are just doing their thing and who are awesome. So we're hoping that if we keep doing our thing, eventually companies and other artists will approach us to help them. That'd be the dream.
J: In Europe, because the brands are looking to advance, and because culture is shifting all the time, I've noticed that they tend to seek out the artists they like directly instead of relying so heavily on advertising agencies. I think the advantage for us is that it's becoming more common for a client to go direct to a creative instead of going to an agency. There’s been some artists in Melbourne and Sydney who are doing quite well from that sort of thing. I think the idea is not so much to sell yourself to advertising, but if businesses come along and say, "Hey, do your thing and we’ll give you a hundred thousand dollars"… that’s fine with me.

Oh God, this is getting depressing! I reckon some advertising is pretty nice – dare I say it, some advertisements are even artistic…
S: But does it have artistic value or is it just a nice design? I tend to think art is more an emotional expression than an intellectual conceptualization. A lot of design is a manipulation of images to force you to read a particular piece of information or to hook you into buying something. Whereas I think art is an incredibly personal thing - you do it because you have to do it, and here's no ulterior motive to what you produce, whereas advertising necessarily has an ulterior motive. So, as much as an advert can look shit hot, I don't think you can classify it as art on any level.
J: It may have some artistic elements to it, but I completely agree with Stu - its purpose isn't there to be artistic, its purpose is to be there to promote something. A lot of ads look cool, but don't have a lot of meaning.
S: Yeah, advertising can be rewarding... if you're a robot. I'm over it. I'll tell you what's awesome about working in an advertising agency, though, and that’s getting a receptionist to make your coffee and get you muffins. In the Treehouse, I want a receptionist to dance in the corner.
J: And answer the phone, right?
S: She can answer the phone while dancing.
J: Well, as long as she answers the phone…
M: Personally, I'd like a midget to answer the phone.
S: And that's what the Treehouse is all about. Whatever we come up with, we do it. Because we want to.