From the beginning of February to the end of June, Tom Hallet (31) will take up residence in the M studio.

"As a child, I was always drawing. After secondary school, studying art seemed like a logical step, although at the time I had no idea what that really entailed. My only references at that time were the large names like Picasso, Manet or Cézanne - mostly men. I didn't have a defined vision or anything like that, but I knew that art was the only thing that I felt comfortable with and could really express myself in. Something which I could use to explore my identity, in the freest way."

"I enrolled at LUCA School of Arts in Brussels and it was love at first sight. You are well surrounded by teachers who take the time for you. The first few years really opened up a world for me."

"At LUCA School of Arts they emphasise the concepts behind your work. What you do to make that work is then less important. That has had a great influence on me: being able to think about my work, going to the core of what I say, that's what I learned there. As a result, I drew very little during those years. It was not discouraged, but nor was it encouraged."

Collective

"When I graduated, I first tried to make money like everyone else. As an artist, you have so many jobs: you have to make your art, have a regular job so you can earn money to make your art, promote yourself... A very difficult issue to tackle. You are also suddenly on your own after years of being part of a fantastic community. Fortunately, a few like-minded former students of St Luke's and I have found each other. We founded a collective, SOIL Collective, through which we started to organise our own exhibitions."

"At one point we were in Porto, participating in an exhibition. It was an exclusively digital project, and I am not a digital person at all. Since I could not contribute very much, I spontaneously started drawing and sketching again. After a while I thought: ‘I really have something to say here. I would very much like to show this.’ I felt so confident about it. The collective said yes, and soon after I had my first solo exhibition."

"After that, the ball got rolling and I started focusing on my drawings. My work has been exhibited at Wiels in Brussels, I had a residency at Morpho in Antwerp and now there is the residency at M..."

Horror

 "I also make sculptures. They have the same sort of sensitivity as my drawings. There's horror in it, something erotic, something visceral... It stinks, but plants grow from it. Just like my drawings always have something romantic about them."

"At the moment, my main source of inspiration is not visual art, but literature. I read a lot. I am queer myself, and I tend to gravitate towards writers who use my language and share my world. Maggie Nelson, the author of 'The Argonauts', for example. Her writing is always very human, even in her more philosophical works. You begin to understand the complexity of queer identity when you read it, and that is one of the things I try to do with my work as well. Among other things, I draw to express my inner world. The inner experience, the ambiguity of what identity is right."

"In my figurative drawings, I often work with stereotypes that people associate with queer life: that we are always looking for sex, that our only goal is to convert other people to our lifestyle... All these strange social constructions that don't make sense. I like to play with that in my work: I let my characters reclaim those negative connotations. This makes them very mysterious and at the same time very soft and open. I always try to give them their own identity. They look you straight in the eye, they challenge you to question your place in the world."

Large size

"My residency at M started on 1 February and will last until the end of June. The offer came after the exhibition at Wiels. I was one of the few artists there who did not have a gallery. That worried me, I felt I would be left out. But then I had a great conversation with Valerie Verhack from M. She suggested: do a residency with us. That way, you can concentrate on your art and build your network. A fantastic proposal, because of course you want to do your job.”

"I am going to work out a proposal for the M-IDZOMER festival at M. I am playing with the idea of having a performance between my sculptures and drawings - something very new for me."

"But above all: I am going to draw. M's studio is really huge, and I'm going to take advantage of that to work in a larger format - most of my drawings so far have been A4. I have ordered a roll of paper measuring 1.40 by 10 metres, and I'll see how I can find the right size with that. I already have a working title and an idea, but I don't want to talk about that yet. The next few months I'm going to take advantage of that large space and draw, draw, and draw some more."