Do Something for Nothing x Light & Noise - Using creative mediums to demystify homelessness.
Joshua Coombes and Jamie Morrison are two friends using their creative skills to help make a change for the better. Joshua, a barber, and Jamie, an artist, set up the art show ‘Light & Noise’ in an effort to bring attention to the humanity of the individuals experiencing homelessness in our cities.
“I think that homelessness touches people directly, when you see someone on the street they're really in the thick of it. We’re living in a time now where so many people are vulnerable and close to homelessness.”
– Joshua Coombes
We speak to Joshua and Jamie about the importance of human connection, using our skills for good, approaching a problem that seems unfixable, and changing the narrative on homelessness.
1. Joshua, Jamie, tell us a little about your backgrounds and how you came to launch Do Something For Nothing and Light & Noise.
Joshua
It all started about 5 years ago in an effort to address a really big problem that we all see in most of the cities that we live in; homelessness. I was trying to figure out what to do as one person, trying to help in some way. It can feel like this gargantuan, overwhelming problem that seems unfixable.
My entry into that was a haircut and cutting hair for people who would otherwise not have access or means to something like that. I didn't really think about that being useful before I started doing it. I just had my (hairdressing) things with me one day and met this guy who was living on the street, I asked him whether he wanted a haircut and it started with that. It was a recognition that even something small like a haircut is a chance to spend time with someone and provides this really great vehicle to listen, which I didn't really have the chance to do before. I don't think many people have the chance to listen, unless you're spending time stopping and speaking to people, most people are busy: you’ve got things to do, and maybe mouths to feed, so it's not easy.
Listening to them and finding out more about their lives dissolved all the myths that surrounded homelessness for me. I think from the outside, there's a hell of a lot of stigmas and negative stereotypes surrounding the issue of homelessness, specifically due to people who suffer with addiction and mental health issues. The behaviours that may seem incredibly distant from your own life from the outside, but truly are just a surface layer and a product of a lot of the trauma that people have been through or are going through. There‘s an acute amount of stress that people feel when they're living outside, having to survive, hour by hour working out how their day is going to go. Do Something for Nothing began out of me going out and cutting hair, but then realizing that these stories were important to tell other people.
That was 5 years ago - I was still working in a salon, and then I quit my job and carried on doing this which led to the art show, Light & Noise.
Me and Jamie have been friends since we were late teenagers. I was looking for a way to try and do more than just post something on Instagram, in the hope that maybe other people would react to this - I was missing a tangible way of expressing things, in a room with people, and knowing Jamie’s art, and being a massive fan of what he does, it just seemed like a perfect fit to do what we do now with Light & Noise.
We started meeting these really lovely people with good hearts, who have a lot to talk about and a lot of life experience, which isn’t just something you can empathize with, but also is really inspiring. Sometimes I'll cut hair, and sometimes Jamie will make a connection and take a portrait photo of them which he then goes on to paint afterwards.
“We started meeting these really lovely people with good hearts, who have a lot to talk about and a lot of life experience, which isn’t just something you can empathize with, but also is really inspiring.”
Jamie
It was about introducing another skill set. In the same way that Josh is able to do a haircut, I figured I was able to make a painting, so we thought we could join forces and maybe involve other people. The premise of the art show is “what can you do?” We're not masters of either of these crafts, but we're using them as a tool to connect with people, so there's definitely a way that you could do something. Hopefully people come away from the shows thinking: I could do that, I could do something to connect. It doesn’t have to be painting or a haircut, everybody is good at something, we can use those things to connect to each other and not ignore each other.
Photo Credit: Joshua Coombes
2. Could you tell us more about the art show, Light & Noise?
Jamie
We did the first one in Skid Row in Los Angeles, which is a really insane place where lots of people have been left behind. We met people there that were really inspiring. Some people had been on the streets, and others were helping people in areas where now they've been housed.
Doing the show is always site-specific to the city we’re in. It’s about the people in that city that are facing these difficulties: look around, this is happening right here, these peoples’ stories are on the wall. If the portraits sell, the idea is to give the subjects themselves the money and if we can't track them down, give it to an organization. Hopefully everybody comes away from that feeling like a connection has been made, communication has happened, and financial help has been given to the person who needed money so desperately.
Costs are always an issue, especially for the first show - everything was out of our own pocket. If the costs are covered, then greater things can happen for the people that we meet, in the places that we visit.
Joshua
It's a lot for two individuals who are living in London trying to pay rent, but it’s an opportunity to partner with sponsors around the world to get this message out there.
Jamie
We've now done the art shows in 12 different cities all across the world and it's always the same message. It's about peoples’ plight in these places, and what can we do to try and regain the idea that they’re people and not just a statistic that you walk by.
Joshua
I think the art show is an opportunity. We saw on the first night that we did the show in Skid Row that people came from “hipster” gentrified places we were staying, like Echo Park and Silver Lake, and came down to this area that they might not usually go to and realized it's not all that bad after all.
We’ll invite another artist along who's part of the community and who can bring in a local crowd. We also try and feature people’s work who we might have met on the street, who are actually experiencing homelessness themselves. This is a really important part of it for us as well, to try to bring people together on the night.
“It’s always the same message. It’s about peoples’ plight in these places, and what can we do to try and regain the idea that they’re people and not just a statistic that you walk by. ”
3. Can you tell us how you’re using your skills and expertise to create social change?
Joshua
So many people are forgotten, and that’s when it feels like the only thing to do is try and find another way of expressing that.
Art is kind of like a last resort action. If you think of the amount of articles that are written about homelessness, the amount of money, to be really honest, that's been raised - people really care about this issue but there's also a NIMBY (not in my backyard) syndrome, where even though funds have been raised, you don't know where to fix this thing or where to put it. You can have all the money and the funds to help people, but without telling a new story around this issue it's just no good
Our exhibition isn’t grey and it isn’t bleak, that was the idea from the beginning. It's about trying to spark a new conversation. We're used to seeing this problem portrayed in such a grey, bleak kind of way, painted by a lot of society. We tend to focus on the thing we already know about them, which is how difficult being homeless is. These people are human beings, and they're taken and put into colour, the portraits are hung on a wall, and it gives an importance to their life and shows another side of who they are.
Jamie
They usually have all that colour and vitality when you meet them, it's just that's not how it looks when you walk by somebody and they’re asking for change. If you stop and connect, all that colour comes out because their defining feature is not that they are homeless at all.
Photo Credit: Joshua Coombes
“I think that homelessness touches people directly, when you see someone on the street they’re really in the thick of it. We’re living in a time now where so many people are vulnerable and close to homelessness.”
4. Why is it so important for you to change the narrative on homelessness?
Joshua
I think I've stopped seeing it as so much homelessness, but just as: how do you want to live in a society? I think that homelessness touches people directly, when you see someone on the street they're really in the thick of it. We’re living in a time now where so many people are vulnerable and close to homelessness. At the sharp end there's homelessness and how we cure it, and then there's the prevention. Don’t you want to live in a place where if this happens to someone you know, there's more support and more holistic care? I'm just trying to find ways to have this conversation - not just focusing on the socio-economic reasons why someone might end up homeless, which are plenty, but the mental health side as well.
There’s still this massive barrier of fear between you and these people that have been constantly othered for years, mainly by mainstream media. As long as we dehumanize people, it means a city can keep ticking and this is normalized. It’s just bad choices, bloopers and mistakes that have put them there. Yes, it's scary and, yes, it can be a bit hardcore sometimes, but I think that's just life in general.
The biggest lesson that I’ve learnt through all the people I've met and in doing the art show is that I think there is a better way. The most difficult part of homelessness is when people have just been completely forgotten - things perpetuate and they get worse and worse. Your hope evaporates quickly. When people are listened to it really means something to them, and if you can get clarity and objectivity on your situation, suddenly a world of opportunity opens up. Without that, it's really, really difficult, and I think it's a missing piece to the puzzle of our society.
“The most difficult part of homelessness is when people have just been completely forgotten - things perpetuate and they get worse and worse. Your hope evaporates quickly. When people are listened to it really means something to them, and if you can get clarity and objectivity on your situation, suddenly a world of opportunity opens up. ”
Jamie
If you individualize the problem, they aren't any different to any other people in the world. It doesn't have to be scary, just because it’s harrowing.
Photo Credit: Joshua Coombes
5. How do you both approach making connections with the individuals you meet?
Jamie
Very organically, hopefully. We don’t want to put anybody on the spot. Just literally say hello and see what happens from there. Some people seem more approachable than others, some people you connect with faster than others, but in general you don't do it with any sort of objectifying qualities. We just try and treat people with respect and see where the conversation leads.
Quite often, we're not from that place, so we come across as: “who the hell are these two?” - you know? “Why do you have accents?” There’s a topic of conversation that we can have that doesn't have to be about: you're homeless and we're not. That’s not the reason for connecting. Hopefully we're connecting on a deeper level.
Joshua
The point that Jamie makes is important because we’re clearly in a privileged position - I've got somewhere to sleep tonight, and you haven't - but that can't be the focal point. That's only going to breed an interaction of sympathy and ‘having’ and ‘having not’, I’m here and you’re there. I've heard from people on numerous occasions that having pity or sympathy is so useless to people a lot of the time. It’s not really useful to anyone, but it's natural to feel that way.
6. Joshua, you’ve previously said you want to start a human conversation and not a political one. How do you think your creative mediums and platforms help move the dial in that direction?
Joshua
What I've noticed from the people coming into the shows is that people are looking to do something. They really are. There's a bunch of people in most cities we live in who are young, creative people, who want to do more. There is a dormant energy I think, laying within us that everyone is going to access, maybe at a different age.
7. How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected your social mission?
Jamie
Josh hasn't stopped going out and meeting people, and I've met some of these people with him and managed to paint some new portraits, but it stopped our plans for Light & Noise in its tracks.
We’ve all been stuck inside for however long since this pandemic, falling into a routine of feeling like this stuff doesn't even exist anymore. We haven't done one of our shows in almost 2 years, it’s quite strange. Hopefully that is on its way to change.
Joshua
I'd like to think by the end of next year we'll be full steam and would have done quite a bit of this all again. I think the need and the desire for it will be as strong as ever.
8. What is one piece of advice you have for others inspired to “do something for nothing”?
Jamie
Realizing that there's definitely something you could do to help. People connect to one another. If you have any amount of time, there's no need to feel like you have to ignore something that's right in front of your face.
“It’s about trying to reach out in your community, maybe even to one person, and get to know them in a closer way”
Joshua
It’s less about finding an answer to other peoples’ problems, but inspiring others by doing something that feels right to you. Yes, sometimes these stories stick and I hear about loads of people who get involved in this in their own way, but I think my biggest thing that I'd like people to take away from any of this is not the specifics; me going out to give haircuts, or us doing these art exhibitions. Of course that's not it.
I know we all feel fatigued by the bad things that are happening, but I can’t let anyone take away the part of me that asks “what can I do?”. If I can focus on one person who's in front of me and talk to them, that's a liberating feeling in some way. We have this terrible way of thinking that when we see something bad that we think: how do we fix the whole thing? That’s such an unrealistic goal. It’s about trying to reach out in your community, maybe even to one person, and get to know them in a closer way, and that for me is a really good way to look at all this.
Photo Credit: Jamie Morrison
9. What can we expect to see from Do Something For Nothing and Light & Noise in the future?
Jamie
More art shows! More of the things that we’re missing.
Photo Credit: Joshua Coombes
Joshua
Just trying to do more in person. Honestly, like everyone at the moment, we’re missing the physical side of this. Getting this on the road again, being able to do this in new cities, being able to meet new people, being able to talk about these things. And trying to create more of a movement of people transitioning from a fatigued, the world’s fucked feeling, to feeling active and feeling like you can imagine what the idea of change could look like.
Earlier this year I released and published a book, Do Something for Nothing. It has a couple of people who we've featured in the art exhibitions in different cities. I’m trying to get that out there more this year, and it’s really important because that's the chance to go a bit deeper for me - I’d usually tell these stories on social media and Instagram, which feels so disposable. It's kind of nice to have that out in the world.
I’ve also started a virtual book club where you can buy however many copies of the book for your team. The team has a chance to read the book for a few weeks and then we'll get on zoom and do an hour and a half discussion book club as you would in person, creating an open space to talk about homelessness in a vulnerable way and ask questions. I think that's a big part of this as well – adults get so worried about asking the wrong questions. It's important to talk about all the nitty gritty, and all the real shit that incorporates some of the work that I do and the messages that we put out there.