Hear, Now. Episode 20: Life Is More Important Than Art

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-poetess Transcript 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-billing Transcript: 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 and for a transcription of this episode please visit: 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/ Transcript: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Performance-Now_Transcript.pdf

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/ Transcript: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Tracing-absence_Transcript.pdf

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