A chat with GONEPLACE
The Belfast illustrator capturing nightlife’s highs, lows and late-night truths.
Somewhere between the first sip of a pint and the flicker of morning regret is where the world of GONEPLACE lives.
Through grainy textures, awkward exchanges and characters that feel both exaggerated and painfully familiar, the Belfast-based illustrator has built a visual diary of nightlife’s peaks and troughs. Equal parts hilarious and quietly unsettling, his work captures the moments that never make the hungover Instagram dump - half-remembered conversations, friendships stretched thin and the loneliness that creeps in even when the room is full.
These are a few questions we pulled together at 5 am in a stranger’s kitchen:![]()
Your work has evolved fast over the last few months, but certain things keep resurfacing. What are the through-lines you’re consciously holding onto and why do they matter to you?
The idea of absurdity is a constant throughout my work, and I think that’s because I find it interesting how bizarre some regular, everyday things are, yet nobody comments on it. Party culture is a lot more prominent in my work at the minute, and it’s I think interesting to show the weirder side of it all, and the positive and negative elements.
I like to show how surreal these scenarios are, but take away the humour and I think a lot of my work consistently has a feeling of anxiety and horror. Sometimes this is by design, but sometimes this is just how I’ve interpreted a scenario and it translates on to the page without me realising.
Another thing I’ve noticed is some things that I find humorous in the visuals, other people find horrific, and vice versa. I love that it can appear differently to different people.
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Nights out sit at the heart of your work - equal parts of the chaos and the quiet aftermath. How do you balance humour and honesty without tipping too far into either glorifying or condemning it?
I think the humour and honesty go hand in hand in my current work because there is humour in all of these scenarios to an extent, without me needing to add it.
What I love about what I’m creating at the moment is the fact that I don’t lean into labelling anything as good or bad, I leave it as is, and then people’s interpretation of it tells the rest of the story. It’s just nice to know it makes an impact
You’ve made LFO - LFO almost inseparable from the Goneplace world. If you had to swap it out for another track, what would it be? And would that change the work slightly?
In a perfect world, I’d pick a Beatles tune, but I don’t know how well that would go down. In terms of a dance track I’d have to say ‘Jamie xx - Gosh’ just purely based on sentimental value. It was my absolute favourite tune in my early 20s. When I think back to raves, that’s the first tune comes to mind, but if you asked me tomorrow, I’d probably give a completely different answer. There’s too many to choose from.
Honestly, I don’t know if any tune other than ‘LFO - LFO’ would suit my videos, but the who knows what the future holds.
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You’re clearly building out a full Goneplace universe rather than isolated pieces. Are there any unspoken rules in that world, and where do you see it expanding next?
I like to think there are no rules at all in that world, but I think if there were one, it would be that anything I draw is based on some form of reality, and I want to keep it that way. In terms of expansion, since I was 4 or 5 years old, I always wanted to create comic books, and I stopped wanting that for a long time. This has shown me now that it’s possible and that people might actually read something I create, so that’s definitely next on the list.
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A lot of your work hits people in that uncomfortable “too real” zone. When someone sees themselves in a piece, what do you hope they walk away feeling?
“If my work has someone walking away from it with any feeling at all, nostalgia or anxiety or something else entirely, I think it’s done it’s job”
FOLLOW GONEPLACE HERE
Your work has evolved fast over the last few months, but certain things keep resurfacing. What are the through-lines you’re consciously holding onto and why do they matter to you?
The idea of absurdity is a constant throughout my work, and I think that’s because I find it interesting how bizarre some regular, everyday things are, yet nobody comments on it. Party culture is a lot more prominent in my work at the minute, and it’s I think interesting to show the weirder side of it all, and the positive and negative elements.
I like to show how surreal these scenarios are, but take away the humour and I think a lot of my work consistently has a feeling of anxiety and horror. Sometimes this is by design, but sometimes this is just how I’ve interpreted a scenario and it translates on to the page without me realising.
Another thing I’ve noticed is some things that I find humorous in the visuals, other people find horrific, and vice versa. I love that it can appear differently to different people.
Nights out sit at the heart of your work - equal parts of the chaos and the quiet aftermath. How do you balance humour and honesty without tipping too far into either glorifying or condemning it?
I think the humour and honesty go hand in hand in my current work because there is humour in all of these scenarios to an extent, without me needing to add it.
What I love about what I’m creating at the moment is the fact that I don’t lean into labelling anything as good or bad, I leave it as is, and then people’s interpretation of it tells the rest of the story. It’s just nice to know it makes an impact
You’ve made LFO - LFO almost inseparable from the Goneplace world. If you had to swap it out for another track, what would it be? And would that change the work slightly?
In a perfect world, I’d pick a Beatles tune, but I don’t know how well that would go down. In terms of a dance track I’d have to say ‘Jamie xx - Gosh’ just purely based on sentimental value. It was my absolute favourite tune in my early 20s. When I think back to raves, that’s the first tune comes to mind, but if you asked me tomorrow, I’d probably give a completely different answer. There’s too many to choose from.
Honestly, I don’t know if any tune other than ‘LFO - LFO’ would suit my videos, but the who knows what the future holds.
You’re clearly building out a full Goneplace universe rather than isolated pieces. Are there any unspoken rules in that world, and where do you see it expanding next?
I like to think there are no rules at all in that world, but I think if there were one, it would be that anything I draw is based on some form of reality, and I want to keep it that way. In terms of expansion, since I was 4 or 5 years old, I always wanted to create comic books, and I stopped wanting that for a long time. This has shown me now that it’s possible and that people might actually read something I create, so that’s definitely next on the list.
A lot of your work hits people in that uncomfortable “too real” zone. When someone sees themselves in a piece, what do you hope they walk away feeling?
“If my work has someone walking away from it with any feeling at all, nostalgia or anxiety or something else entirely, I think it’s done it’s job”
FOLLOW GONEPLACE HERE