Hear, Now. A Podcast from Whitechapel Gallery.: Recent Episodes
Whitechapel Gallery
In episode 4 of our mini series The London Open Live Podcast, we present 'Futurity - Ignorance is Bliss?' featuring Lois Weaver, Gigi Brathwaite, and Pianka Parna (host). In this conversation, we reflect on ideas of momentum, mapping out what we need from our audiences and each other as live art practitioners and artists. How do we nurture intergenerational and inter-experiential exchange? How can we begin to break out of scarcity mentalities and focus on solidarity building and resourcing sharing?
In episode 3 of our mini series The London Open Live Podcast, we present 'Community Building & Venues', featuring Lois Weaver, Joseph Morgan Schofield and Pianka Parna (host). We speak to experiences around hiring and accessing venues for Live Art performances, events, and festivals, as well as the changes to health and safety legislation and their impact on putting on this kind of work. The conversation explores DIY performance cultures, the difficulties and fallout following cuts to funding, and how art institutions and spaces can effectively advocate for Live Art practices.
In episode 2 in our mini series The London Open Live Podcast, we present "Live Art 101: what is it & why do we do it?" - a conversation between Joseph Morgan Schofield, Martin O’Brien, and Pianka Parna (host). Speaking to key concepts and ideas around piercing, blood practices, pain, and nudity, this episode interrogates ideas of 'braveness' and 'insanity' often associated with live art and forms of pain practice. What is the stigma and pathologisation around these ideas? How do we open the conversation to audiences who feel they need to 'understand' a performance while watching it? And why is 'understanding' important at all?
For the first episode in our mini series The London Open Live Podcast, we present "My First Live Art" - a conversation between Martin O’Brien, Gigi Brathwaite, and Pianka Parna (host). Diving into our first experiences of live art, the episode speaks to childhood memories, nostalgia, and routes to live art practices, as well as access to and the state of performance and live art education in the UK.
Hear from Professors Sara Crangle and Rod Mengham as they discuss the life and work of poet, writer, and artist, Anna Mendelssohn. Drawing on the material presented in the exhibition 'Speak, Poetess' (11 Oct 2023 – 21 Jan 2024), discover how Mendelssohn's powerful written and visual language give form to history and social experience.For more information: www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/anna-mendelssohn-speak-poetessTranscript available: www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Hear-Now-Mendelssohn-Transcript-PDF.pdf
Discover the inspiration behind artist Johanna Billing's film 'Each Moment Presents What Happens' (2022), as she discusses her ideas for the work with Whitechapel Gallery Director Gilane Tawadros and curator Judith Winter. The conversation touches on the legacy of Black Mountain College and approaches to collaborative art practice.For more information: www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/johanna-billingTranscript: www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Hear-Now-Johanna-Billing-Transcript-PDF.pdf
What should public space feel like? How do we find comfort, character and community in it? These questions underpin an immersive environment created by Duchamp & Sons, Whitechapel Gallery’s youth collective, and London-based artist Gaby Sahhar.
Hear members of Whitechapel Gallery's youth collective as the discuss their experiences and the process behind making this exhibition.
For more information: www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/escape-the-slick
Giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the Life Is More Important Than Art summer season, which encompasses exhibitions, social spaces, live performances and listening experiences, award-winning journalist Stephen Smith speaks to the artists, curators and contributors that made it all happen.
Featuring interviews with Gallery Director Gilane Tawadros alongside artists Osman Yousefzada, Rana Begum, John Smith, Martin O'Brien, Sarah Davies and Stephanie Jefferies, and William Cobbing, the Life is More Important Than Art podcast takes a closer look at the contemporary relevance of the James Baldwin quote that informs the exhibition's title, and an opportunity to learn more about the artworks on display - directly from the artists.
For more information: www.whitechapelgallery.org/life-is-more-important-than-art
Has performance art become institutionalised or does it still hold the power to challenge the institution? Drawing on two exhibitions, Moving Bodies, Moving Images and Out of the Margins: Performance in London’s Institutions 1990s – 2010s, this episode explores the relationship between performance art and the contexts in which it is shown. Guests featured in this episode include co-founder of Live Art Development Agency, Lois Keidan, artists Hetain Patel and Leah Clements, and curator Erin Li.For more information about the exhibitions, visit:www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/moving-bodies-moving-images/www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/out-of-the-margins-performance-in-londons-institutions-from-the-1990s-2010s/
Episode 18 of Whitechapel Gallery’s Hear, Now podcast series delves deeper into the themes that underpin the exhibition Tracing Absence. Students graduating from the MA Curating Art and Public Programmes course, run by Whitechapel Gallery and London South Bank University, had the opportunity to curate this exhibition as part of their course, which confronts the different ways in which absence manifests in the world.
Tracing Absence features new sound art pieces by Joseph Sergi and Yiskāh (alias Jessica Beechy) and works from the Christen Sveaas Art Foundation. Student Cathy O ‘Sullivan presents and introduces fellow student Ada Egg Koskilouma who talks with Sunil Shah and Lou Mensah, to explore what absence means to them.
Sunil Shah is an artist and curator based in Oxford, UK. He is interested in the politics of photographic representation and conceptual post-documentary practices with relation to history, memory and identity.
Lou Mensah is a London based writer, photographer and the founder of Shade Podcast, a platform which hosts conversations with creative and radical thinkers on the politics of race and representation within the arts.
Please follow this link to view the publication that accompanies the exhibition and listen to the sound art works by Joseph Sergi and Yiskāh: https://linktr.ee/tracingabsence
For more information: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/tracing-absence/
Episode 17 of Whitechapel Gallery's Hear, Now podcast series delves into the myriad of ways in which artists have studio spaces. Presented and produced by Marthe Lisson, hear from Russell Schofield, director of MDM Props, and artists Rory Cahill and George Mackness, who collaboratively developed ‘PLAZA’, part of this year’s London Open exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery.
This episode of Hear Now is inspired by A Century of the Artist’s Studio : 1920 - 2020, a 100-year survey of the studio through the work of artists and image-makers from around the world, on show at Whitechapel gallery until 5 June 2022.
For more information: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/a-century-of-the-artists-studio-1920-2020/
Episode 16 of Whitechapel Gallery's Hear, Now podcast series explores the work of Paulina Olowska and her current exhibition The Travel Bureau - selected works from the Christen Sveaas Art Foundation. Listen to fascinating excerpts from a live conversation with Iwona Blazwick, as well as a short introduction of The Travel Bureau by Whitechapel's Assistant Curator Grace Storey.
For more information: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/christen-sveaas-art-foundation-2/
Transcript: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Paulina_Olowska_transcript_mp3.pdf
Iwona Blazwick speaks with MaryAnne Stevens, a specialist in Norwegian art history, about artist Ida Ekblad’s selection from the Cristen Sveaas Collection, which expose us to the eeriness of night scenes, from moonlit landscapes to dreams and nightmares. We also hear from poet Mark Ford, who reads the eponymous WH Auden poem that inspired the display.
For more information: www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/christen-sveaas-art-foundation
Transcript: www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Episode-15_Transcript.pdf
Delve into the ideas behind Theaster Gates’ new exhibition, with curator Lydia Yee in conversation with the artist. We also hear from historian Jason Young about the work and legacy of David Drake, an enslaved man whose pottery, engraved with poetry, was an act of resistance in the nineteenth-century American South.
For more information: www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/theaster-gates-a-clay-sermon
Transcript: www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Episode-14_Transcript.pdf
Artists’ Film International is a collaboration between Whitechapel Gallery and 20 global partner organisations. In 2021 the works selected give us pause to reflect on the meaning of care in today’s society – from bodily, mental or spiritual care to healing, trauma and solidarity. Curator Emily Butler is in conversation with Agnė Jokšė, and artist Rehana Zaman speaks with curator Jemma Desai, to consider the meaning of care within their work.
For more information: www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/artists-film-international
Transcript available: www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Hear-Now-Episode-13_Transcript.pdf
This Work Isn't For Us by Jemma Desai: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HGBSsBsERxSaD1t0Oq_9acqAqiAPPLekBxaJ8tk-Njw/edit
Damascus-born artist Simone Fattal is in conversation with curator Laura Smith about her new commission for Whitechapel Gallery, an environment of ancient ceramic architectures and flowers emerging from memories of lost landscapes.
For more information: www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/simone-fattal-finding-a-way
Transcript: www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Transcript_Hear-Now-Episode-12.pdf
‘Mend carefully. / Think of mending the world / At the same time.’ These are the instructions offered by artist Yoko Ono for her 1966 work Mend Piece. In this episode curator Cameron Foote reflects on the meaning of this work within Ono’s wider practice, alongside art historian Midori Yoshimoto and art therapist Nicky Roland.
For more information: www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/yoko-ono-mend-piece-for-london
Transcript: www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Transcript_Hear-Now-Episode-11.pdf
Join curators Nayia Yiakoumaki and Cameron Foote as they examine the pivotal role of women as both artists and as behind-the-scenes organisers within the Surrealist movement in Britain in the 1930s, explored through the lens of the 1936 London Surrealist Exhibition and the women involved. They are joined by the curator Tor Scott and art historian Richard Shillitoe, investigating the legacies of Edith Rimmington and Ithell Colquhoun in particular.
More information: www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/phantoms-of-surrealism
Transcript: www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Hear-Now-Episode-10-Transcript.pdf
Whitechapel Gallery Curator Laura Smith is in conversation with Whitney Hintz, Curator of the Hiscox Collection, about a new display of works selected by the artist Sol Calero. They consider Calero’s immersive installation, comprising a brightly coloured, densely hung environment celebrating the natural world and the many ways that artists in the Hiscox Collection explore it.
For more information: www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/desde-el-salon
Transcript: www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Hear-Now-Episode-9-Transcript.pdf
Artist Ayo Akingbade discusses her new film Fire In My Belly, co-developed with Whitechapel Gallery’s youth collective, Duchamp & Sons. Echoing the precarious times we live in, this newly commissioned work offers a compelling take on questions of home, community and crisis in London. Akingbade is in conversation with Curator Renee Odjidja, members of the collective and the Co-Founder/Director of Migrant’s Bureau Alisha Morenike Fisher.
For more information: www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/a-glittering-city-ayo-akingbade-with-duchamp-sons
Transcript: www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Hear-Now-Episode-8-Transcript.pdf
Celebrating the work of pioneering artist Eileen Agar, Whitechapel Gallery Curator Laura Smith and Assistant Curator Grace Storey share reflections on her legacy, alongside special guests including artist Lucy Stein, poet Daisy Lafarge and designer Beca Lipscombe, who tell us why the multi-talented Agar remains a leading light for contemporary creatives.
For more information: www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/eileen-agar
Transcript avaliable: www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Hear-Now-Episode-7-Transcript.pdf
CONTENT WARNING: This episode features a reference to rape and sexual violence.
In her new video installation Indian artist Nalini Malani explores global issues of social injustice, positioning the voiceless and the invisible alongside gods and goddesses, intellectuals and poets. Here Malani is in conversation with curator Emily Butler to interrogate the myriad stories and political truths in her nine channel animation and how she translates her artist’s notebooks into moving image.
Find out more: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/nalini-malani-can-you-hear-me
Transcript: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Hear-Now-Episode-6-Transcript.pdf
Portuguese artist Carlos Bunga creates monumental structures out of everyday materials to propose architecture as transitory and corporeal. Having destroyed the gigantic painted cardboard environment he had created for Whitechapel Gallery, Bunga discusses structure as memory, the movement of the body in painting and the Shaker’s idea of making as a form of prayer, with curator Emily Butler.
More information: www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/carlos-bunga
Transcript: www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Hear-Now-Episode-5-Transcript.pdf
In the late 1970s in London’s East End, Whitechapel Art Gallery developed a pioneering approach to art and education. Jenni Lomax, Community and Education Organiser at the time, invited artists to work alongside communities to set up residencies in schools, workshops at the Gallery and local partnerships with key organisations. Lomax joins curators Sofia Victorino and Nayia Yiakoumaki to return to this paradigmatic moment in the story of art education, discussing what can be learnt from artists and audiences.
For more information: www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/exercising-freedom
Transcript available: www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Hear-Now.-Episode-Four-Transcript.pdf
Renowned artist, ceramicist and writer Edmund de Waal joins Whitechapel Gallery Director Iwona Blazwick to discuss the legacy of British artist and potter Bernard Leach. Founder of the Leach Pottery in St. Ives 100 years ago and celebrated in Kai Althoff’s current show, Leach drew on traditional Japanese ceramics to lay the foundations for modern Studio Pottery. Author of a critical account of Leach’s genesis and aesthetic, de Waal discusses his enduring appeal.
Find out more at www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/kai-althoff-goes-with-bernard-leach
Transcript available here: www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Hear-Now.-Episode-Three-Transcript.pdf
What role might art play when our freedom is curtailed? Can confinement trigger new creative processes and networks of solidarity? Hear Whitechapel Gallery’s Youth Forum, Duchamp & Sons alongside Curator of Youth Programmes Renee Odjidja discuss their process in curating an exhibition virtually. They consider the ways in which lockdown has affected experiences of art and culture and how the home – as refuge or prison, as still life or real life - has inspired generations of artists.
Find out more at www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/home-live-in-room
Transcript available here: www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Hear-Now.-Episode-Two-Transcript.pdf
Renowned British painter Gary Hume speaks with curator Laura Smith about his transcendent selection of art from the Hiscox Collection. Immersed in the transformative power of colour and form, Hume invites us to escape the everyday and to find new joys and sorrows in the myriad worlds imagined by his selected artists including Keith Coventry, Nan Goldin, David Hockney, Alex Katz, Yves Oppenheim, Thomas Ruff and Alison Wilding.
Find out more at www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/accelerate-your-escape
Transcript available: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Hear-Now.-Episode-One-Transcript.pdf