Exhibitionistas │Visual Arts From All Angles – Details, episodes & analysis

EXHIBITIONISTAS CELEBRATES ONE YEAR OF PODCASTING! 🍌🍌🍌If you want to give us a birthday present, we have ideas>>>>>For a one-off donation: paypal.me/exhibitionistas [https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/my/profile]For a membership: https://www.patreon.com/c/exhibitionistaspodcast/membership And now the episode. We talk about Lauren Halsey's exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, curated by Lizzie Carey-Thomas and Chris Bayley. It's a maximalist environment that led us to a discussion about art, freedom, identity, revolution and care. It also allowed us to find out more about the myths and origins of the term Afro-Futurism, which surprised us a great deal.To know more about the exhibition: https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/lauren-halsey-emajendat/We also mention Emily's friend, an artist using street signs in her work. Go to Instagram and check her out! @janeroerevolutionMusic by Sarturn.

After a hilarious take on Gladiator II by Emily, we explore Muholi's unique path into activism, photography, curated exhibitions, sculpture, and self-imagery. Muholi's work focuses on queer communities in South Africa through a form of what the artist calls "visual activism". But there is also self-portraiture, as the artist is part of this LGBTQIA+ diverse fabric. For Muholi, their use of the pronouns they/them goes way beyond gender identity. It recognises past histories, visible and invisible, and identity as multitude. Muholi says 'There are those who came before me who make me.' Shockingly, Emily and I broke our own rules and actually visited the show together… which turned out to be quite productive. 

To know more about the exhibition: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/zanele-muholi

You can follow them on Instagram too: @muholizanele

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Music by Sarturn.

If you enjoy Katy Hessel's The Great Women Artists Podcast, this episode is for you. It is centred around the artistic practice of non-binary South African artist Zanele Muholi, whose work is steeped in questions of identity and gender in a sophisticated and nuanced way.

This is a different kind of episode... We decided to record smaller formats here and there for you to explore a topic related to exhibitions that everyone thinks is a given. There are no givens for us, we like to question everything.  And we know that unlike cinemas, or bookshops, exhibition galleries can feel intimidating. And we want you to know that an art lover and an art professional can also feel this discombobulating feeling of alienation in exhibiton spaces, which at times, prompts us to feel embarrassed, out of our depth, or even to make a few faux-pas. It happens to everyone, especially, I would say, to exhibitionistas.  And by now, you, dear listener, can consider yourself as such! We are a big community! This is the last episode of this season. We will be back very soon, with a new string of exhibition experiences, and perhaps, who knows, smaller episodes like this one alternating with the big ones. A weekly episode drop?! Who knows, anything is possible. After all, we did start this podcast with innocent and extravagant confidence. And look at us, here we are. @exhibitionistas_podcast exhibitionistaspod@gmail.com Music by Sarturn.

This time we went to the Serpentine gallery in Hyde park. What a nice setting for a contemporary art venue. That walk back to the tube is always a slow and ponderous one. We do talk a lot about walks back to the tube after visiting exhibitions in this episode! We visited the retrospective exhibition of the feminist pioneer Judy Chicago, whose blueprint was a hitherto unpublished manuscript, Revelations, inspired by Illuminations and myths of the Goddess. You can purchase it online or in the book shop. The show was curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, the artistic director of the gallery. We exchanged different experiences and thoughts about the exhibition, based partially on the curatorial choices that were made and which puzzled us somewhat, although we support the ecological reasons they are based on. For more information about the exhibition go here: https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/judy-chicago-revelations/ Follow Judy Chicago on Instagram: @judy.chicago And follow us! @exhibitionistas_podcast Music by Sarturn.

In this episode we discuss Matthew Krishanu's exhibition The Bough Breaks at Camden Art Centre, a place we adore. We chat about loss, childhood, overlapping times, grief and the colonial residue of authentic relationships filled with love. We didn't always agree but that is the power of exhibitions: we shared diverging experiences, which made the episode even more compelling and at times hilarious. There a few hilarious anecdotes about 80's parenting - or lack thereof. For more information about the exhibition: https://camdenartcentre.org/whats-on/matthew-krishanu-the-bough-breaks Music by Sarturn.

When small displays convey the biggest experiences and stories.... This episode is dedicated to Lubaina Himid's display of drawings and collages  for her Turner Prize installation Naming the Money at the Royal Academy. As often, but particularly at the RA, exhibition going is full of encounters, idiosyncratic journeys, rushes and meetings.   We explored Himid's biography and other projects, namely her Guardian artist residency. For more information about the project: https://lubainahimid.com/portfolio/naming-the-money/ Enjoy this new episode!  And follow us at @exhibitionistas_podcast. Music by: Sarturn.

Soufiane Ababri's work took us to The Curve, a difficult space at the Barbican that Ababri worked to his advantage and to the delight of these two exhibitionistas. The artist's work explores notions of diaspora, immigration, colonial trauma, post-colonial issues, queerness and much more. But most of all it is a delightful installation of magnificent drawings for their skilled unskillfulness and their recording of queer love, tenderness, sex and life. The exhibition is called "Their mouths were full of bumblebees but it was me who was pollinated", and it was a commission specifically for the, well, curved space of The Curve.  For more information:  https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2024/event/soufiane-ababri Follow Soufiane Ababri on Instagram:  @soufianeababri Follow us: exhibitionistas_podcast Music by: Sarturn

Have you ever been to an exhibition that changes your heart rate, slows you down, and inspires you to take a nap with a cat? Such was our experience at Zeinab Saleh's exhibition at the heart of Tate Britain, part of the Art Now program, which welcomes contemporary young artists in one of the many rooms of the museum. We discuss the notion of quiet, how it is dismissed in our culture, and how the artist not only embraces it but also almost magically creates it through mixed media paintings and drawings. A simple setting eliciting mindful dreaming and sheer presence. The exhibition was curated by Amy Emmerson Martin (assistant curator) and Nathan Ladd (curator). For more information visit the Tate's webiste: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/zeinab-saleh @exhibitionistas_podcast Music: Sarturn

We are delighted to explore our first ICA show in this episode. We discuss artist and writer Aria Dean's Abattoir U.S.A.!, a videogame inspired video installation and a sculptural work exploring exhibitions and otherness / othering. The theme of the slaughterhouse is a powerful one, and it was treated by Dean in a subtle and powerful way. We also read Dean's book Bad Infinity: Selected Writings (Sternberg Press). It is a philosophical exploration of minimal and contemporary art through the lens of blackness and western thought. There is a theory of representation informed by what we learned to be called Afropessimism.  We go into all of this in this episode, although we may not have understood everything. Such is the magic of exhibitions and books! We go back, and back, and back again.

Here we are! Part 2 of our episode dedicated to Yoko Ono's retrospective exhibition at Tate Modern, Music of the Mind. We cannot believe we managed to talk about the exhibition but... we used our imagination, and so will you. Follow us virtually in this exploration of Ono's life and work, and, more importantly, her exhibition. We focus on the highlights (for us) as it would be near impossible to talk about everything. There are so many delightful details and pieces that will speak to everyone differently.  To find out more about it, go to: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/yoko-ono @yokoono Music: Sarturn. @exhibitionistas_podcast