Upgrade Yourself Monthly: Making Meaning with Materials
Join us for our next Upgrade Yourself Monthly with Hetain Patel – a featured artist in Holy Pop! Hetain’s work explores identity, belonging, and self-expression through the stories, objects and materials that shape our everyday lives.
For 18-30 year olds
| Dates | Wed 5 Aug 2026 |
| Times | 6pm–9pm |
| Space | River Rooms New Wing |
| Price | Free |
Please note this event is for 18–30-year-olds.
What we wear, carry and create can say a lot about who we are.
In this artist talk and workshop, Hetain Patel will share insights into his creative journey and the ideas that have informed his multidisciplinary practice. Drawing on projects from across his career, he'll reflect on how ordinary materials, personal histories and cultural references can become starting points for unexpected forms of artistic expression.
Central to the session is Hetain's exploration of fabric paint as a tool for communication and transformation. Through examples of Hetain’s work, you’ll be invited to explore the relationship between the familiar and the unfamiliar: how materials, techniques and ideas can move between disciplines, and how creative practices can emerge through experimentation, curiosity and play.
You’ll get the opportunity to create by customising an object of your own with fabric paints, inspired by Hetain’s practice with this medium. The workshop will create space for making, conversation and collective reflection, encouraging you to share ideas with others while developing your own creative responses.
Whether you're interested in visual art, fashion, craft, performance or simply finding new ways to express yourself, this session offers an opportunity to think differently about the materials around you and the stories they might help you tell.
As always, free drinks and food provided by Butch Salads will be available throughout the evening.
✨ And here’s the bonus:
All attendees will receive tickets to All attendees will receive free tickets to MC Escher: The Exhibition at Somerset House. Dutch artist M.C. Escher is famous for drawing optical illusions, impossible buildings, and endless patterns. For the first time in London, the exhibition brings together over 150 of his original works from his earliest works to those of his mature period highlighting the techniques and research that shaped his practice
To get involved in the session, please sign up below:
To get involved in the session, please sign up below:
Sign up will close 10am Tue 21 Jul. If you’ve secured a spot, you’ll hear from us by Wed 22 Jul 2026.
While we’d love to host everyone, places are limited. We’re committed to championing underrepresented groups within the creative industries and will prioritise applicants from these groups. We’ll also consider your reasons for applying to prioritise those who would benefit most from taking part.
If you're offered a place, you'll need to confirm your attendance - otherwise, we may offer this to someone else. Please check your spam folder!
About Hetain Patel
Hetain Patel is an artist interested in connecting marginalised identities with the mainstream in an effort to destabilise notions of authenticity and promote personal freedom. Often with an autobiographical starting point, he uses humour and the languages of popular culture to highlight familiarity within the exotic. He also works with photography, sculpture and performance. His films, sculptures, live performances, paintings and photographs have been shown worldwide in galleries, theatres, and on iconic public screens including Piccadilly Circus, London and Times Square, New York. His works have been presented at the Venice Biennale, Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art (Beijing), Tate Modern and Sadler’s Wells. His video and performance work online have been watched over 50 million times, which includes his TED talk of 2013 titled, ‘Who Am I? Think Again’.
with thanks to The Linbury Trust