At your own pace: Art Beyond The Shell encourages London’s introverted clubbers to feel at home

Functions is our bi-monthly interview series profiling parties from across the world. This time we meet: Art Beyond The Shell.

In 2021, after the UK was hit with a wave of national lockdowns, Dualeh Oke made a plan to launch a club night with his friends that would motivate Londoners to get back out into the ‘new norm’ of life. While many suffered new social anxieties after being cooped up indoors for extended periods, Dualeh’s plan was to create a space that would allow London’s introverted clubbers to ease back into social settings. With a mascot in tow – a small, plushy, turquoise turtle that represents “the people who have had a slow start and marginalised groups” – Dualeh built the first iteration of Art Beyond The Shell, a night where enjoyment is encouraged “at your own pace”.

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After a successful first event hosted at an intimate studio space in Bow, east London, Art Beyond The Shell grew into a regular club night with a unique concept fusing music with activities, art, and games. Dubbed ‘the four walls’ – where each corner of the space it’s hosted is curated differently, from a board game area to a chill-out zone, a dancefloor to a visual display – the concept became a mainstay for every event. “It's all very DIY,” Dualeh says. “We paid the money out of pocket, it was a bit of an experiment to test the idea. We knew it was something that we could build on and continue to grow.”

Musically, Art Beyond The Shell pulls local emerging DJs to perform at its events across London, blending sounds like dancehall, R&B, soca, and Afro house without a specific headliner for each bill. “Our programming is very meticulous, and we go back and forth over the DJs that we want to pick and the journey that we want to take the audience on,” Dualeh explains. In the four years since its launch, Art Beyond The Shell has travelled across multiple continents, hosting shows everywhere from Seoul to San Jose, with a mission to continue getting introverted clubbers - or "turtles" as the party likes to refer to its attendees - out of their shell, all over the world.

We sat down with Dualeh to find out more about Art Beyond The Shell. Check it out below.

How did Art Beyond The Shell start?

The idea came about during lockdown in 2021 when venues and stuff started to open. There was a lot of anxiety in the air, people didn't really know how to socialise. Some people who were extroverted beforehand had become more introverted, or maybe vice versa. The mascot then came about, which was a turtle, our idea of something that’s both extroverted and introverted – everybody's a little bit of both. The idea was to create a space where everybody could come out and be able to enjoy the night whether you’re introverted or not. Right at the end of 2021, we did our first event testing our formula, the same one we still use to this day, where there's things for people to do to get them out of their shell to party, dance, sing, and all of those things. These things help people get social, break the ice, and allows for interaction and building connections. You can take your time, connect, and meet people. It’s a space for you to come out of your shell, essentially, and it's grown and evolved over time.

Can you dive a bit more into the turtle references? And does the mascot have a name?

The funny thing is, the mascot doesn’t have a name. He's basically a mute – he doesn't speak – so we don't know his name! With his personality, he’s reluctant to be outside, he doesn't want to be in the party, but he's here partying anyway, and he's going to try. He's a tryer at heart, and even though he isn’t really comfortable in social spaces, he's going to dance anyway. The turtle represents people who have had a slow start – he’s a symbol for marginalised groups. It was always a unifying mascot. I'll say that Art Beyond The Shell is a very predominantly Black space. It's a queer friendly space, and it's predominantly working class creatives that pull up, but it isn’t explicit to those communities. Many different people can identify as a turtle, so it's the thing that unifies everybody in the space. Although he’s timid, with the people around him and those that support him, he's able to come out of his shell and enjoy himself. You know, have a lit time by the end of the night!

Do you remember your debut event? What was it like?

It was the same formula that we still use to this day, a concept that we call ‘the four walls’. At the debut event that we hosted in a studio space in Bow – I think it could fit maybe 100 people – there were four things happening on each wall. So on one side of the room, we had DJs, and then we also had a lot of visual elements with some 3D renders that were exhibited from a few artists. Then we also had retro video games that we got on an emulator, like the zombie shooting games, and a few board games. And then we had the dancefloor, and a space where you can just sit on the sofa to chill and chat. It's all very DIY, and we paid the money out of pocket, it was a bit of an experiment to test the idea. It was in that third phase of COVID lockdowns and reopening, so it ended up being a quite intimate space. Despite it not being a packed event, the people that were there really enjoyed it. We knew it was something that we could build on and continue to grow. We still use the ‘four walls’ concept to this day in all of our events, and there's always multiple things going on.

Your slogan is ‘enjoy at your own pace’. What does this look like in practice?

First and foremost, enjoyment is subjective; that can look different for everybody. To some people, that could be a club night with really good music. But depending on the individual, that can look different. We really want to cater to the different ways that people can enjoy a night out, especially now as years have gone on, I think there's a lot more spaces and events, and a lot more communities who are going out and enjoying social time in a different way. Whether that’s running clubs, chess clubs, or those spaces built around wellness – they're still enjoying their time, socialising, and connecting with people. We were big on that from early on. It's the idea that, if there's a friendship group of five people and three people want to get lit and enjoy themselves, but two of them might just want to be in a smoking area and chit chat while still consuming music in a different way, they can do that. It's ‘enjoy at your own pace’ forever.

Can you talk us through your upcoming zine?

We've actually produced two zines already, and we're going to make a third and final instalment hopefully next year. Going back again, I feel like Art Beyond The Shell as a community is a post-COVID, post-lockdown community – it's the new normal after everything that happened at the beginning of the decade. We really wanted to document that. From that first event to where we're at now, we've travelled to different cities – whether it be Seoul, Toronto, Lisbon, Paris, Mexico City, or San José. We've been able to bring that formula to these different places, and it still works. We're not an explicitly Black space, but we wanted to document all these different places and see Black joy, and how different people are and how they interact and step into this universe that we've created. It was a big reason behind the zines – archiving and documenting, and reimagining what the 2020s look like to us. Sometimes you look back at the '80s or '70s, and you're like, ‘their fashion is really cool’, or ‘I wonder what they were listening to’. The zines are a time capsule. We're creating them with 10 years, 20 years, even 30 years in mind for you to look back at. It's done with this whimsical lens, focusing on joy, and the idea that joy is a radical thing. The last five years have been very, if we're being honest, especially with how expensive everything is. The idea is to step outside your shell – it's an intentional act. You can come to enjoy yourself, meet people, party, and do fun things. We wanted to document the political aspect of that, and it also just looks cool as shit!

You host plenty of London events, but you've also branched out to other cities. How do these events differ from the ones you host in London?

I would say it's very much dependent on that the formula stays the same everywhere we go, but it's dependent on the crowd we tap into. We've been very blessed that every city that we've gone to, it's felt the same. If you bring a bunch of people in a room and you have these elements, you curate a space in a specific way, the outcome is going to be very similar. If anything, we're kind of blessed in London – it's a city where there's so much stuff to do, there's so many events. But the feeling of the events is the same. We always joke that it's like ‘turtles in different subtitles’.

How do you curate a line-up on the music side? Do you guys have a specific sound?

When it comes to music, we play all different genres, but it’s not an open format. We don't choose one hour for R&B, one hour for dancehall, one hour for house music – it's very much a blend of genres. Our main staple event is called Turtles in Colour. It's the idea of colours being a spectrum, and sound as a spectrum. In one single set, you could hear everything from R&B to soca to Afro house to hip hop, to whatever else. If we had a formula in terms of our curation, it’s always pushing sounds that allow for a bit more curiosity. We're putting people onto things that they might not be as open to, but mixing that in with the sounds that they're familiar with. A big aspect of Turtles is collective enjoyment – whether it be sing-along karaoke songs, to tracks you’ve never heard, but it still makes you move and want to dance. Our programming is very meticulous, and we go back and forth over the DJs that we want to pick and the journey that we want to take the audience on. We won't book DJs that we feel like are too similar on the same line-up, and when it comes to booking artists, we don't have a headliner. All of the DJs that we book are as important as each other, from the opening to the closing, and we don't book DJs to sell tickets. They’re being booked to be part of that sonic journey that we're trying to curate. We always have a mixture of both male and female DJs, and since our audience is majority women, we want the people who are playing the music to reflect that, including the MCs and the hosts. 

How would you describe the vibe of your events?

The number one thing that comes to mind is that they’re carefree, there's no wall hugging. People definitely come to dance! They come with open-mindedness, and even though they might not know the sounds and styles that are being played, they're very willing to get involved. London is one of those cities where people can be a bit arms-folded if they don't know a song, or if the DJ is playing music that they don't know. In Black spaces, it's different to other spaces I've seen, especially in electronic music. We've been blessed enough to create a community where people, as soon as they arrive, are ready to socialise and dance, they're ready to come out of their shell. People come by themselves, people come in groups, but they're ready to connect and speak to other people. There’s a whole lot of yapping going on! People will dress up and express themselves with the clothes that they're wearing, and they don't take themselves very seriously. If they’re buying into this world that we're building around this imaginary turtle, dancing with the plushy toy and taking pictures with it, then you can't really take yourself too seriously. It’s goofy, silly vibes.

And lastly, what is next for Art Beyond The Shell?

Our main goal going into 2026 is to continue to see if we can take it to other cities. We've traveled to seven cities in total, and we feel like the formula has worked in all of those spaces. We'd like to continue to grow. Eventually, the big goal is to tour it as an experience. The collective experience is something that we bring to many cities, and find those turtles in each city around the world. We’d also like to build on the merch that we have. Merch makes it more tangible for the experience. We also want to continue to push the community aspect and the wellness side, and create opportunities for more marginalised groups, and push the political aspect. Joy is radical. We have to continue to take a step forward despite the obstacles, and continue to move at our own pace.

Find out more about Art Beyond The Shell here