Channel is Somerset House’s new curated online space for art, ideas and the artistic process.
New Studios residents include Laurel Halo, Keiken, World Music and Onyeka Igwe
New Worlds
Curated by Alice Bucknell
Artist and writer Alice Bucknell will present a new series of talks, screenings and performances titled New Worlds. The experimental series builds on New Mystics, Bucknell's digital platform merging magic and technology, to explore the interconnected topics of sound and ritual, myth-making, non-linear storytelling, ecological futures, and more-than-human narratives. Bringing together artists with interdisciplinary world-building practices, the series aims to help us envision the future worlds we want to inhabit. She’s invited writers Himali Singh Soin and Alex Quicho; artists Zadie Xa, Evan Ifekoya, Sammy Lee, Joey Holder, Bones Tan Jones; and art collective OMSK Social Club to present and contribute throughout the series.
New Worlds: Polysonic Worlds
26 May | 18.45 - 20.30 | £6 | River Rooms, New Wing
New Worlds: Machine Magic / Techno-Poetics
9 June | 18.45 - 20.30 | £6 | River Rooms, New Wing
New Worlds: Nonhuman Storytelling / Ecological Futures
23 June | 18.45 - 20.30 | £6 | River Rooms, New Wing
New Worlds: Rituals for a Queer Dystopia
7 July | 18.45 - 20.30 | £6 | River Rooms, New Wing
New Worlds: Memetic Fictioning / Circle Time
21 July | 18.45 - 20.30 | £10 | Lancaster Rooms, New Wing
Dead Cat Bounce: An Oratorio about Finance and Catastrophe
14 July |19.30 doors, 20.00 performance, 21.30 Q&A | Lancaster Rooms, New Wing | £12/£8 concessions
Dead Cat Bounce is a collaborative performance work by Somerset House Studios resident Gary Zhexi Zhang and Waste Paper Opera (Klara Kofen and James Oldham), telling tales of time, money and the unmaking of reality in the wake of catastrophe.
The live performance piece unfolds over five vignettes, blurring the lines between capitalism and ritual, finance and nature, belief and manifestation. In China, five hitmen arrive in court to discover that they have each subcontracted another to kill the same real estate developer. In Geneva, thirty virgins are having their teeth checked in order to secure the mounting debts of Louis XVI. In Miami, an insurance broker drafts a contract for apartments already halfway underwater. In Jerusalem, the prophet Jeremiah is weeping, again. In earthquake-struck Edo, workers pay tribute to the namazu, the catfish deity, as they survey the sunlit ruins of the city. The original score merges the Baroque music of Niccolò Jommelli and Johann Sebastian Bach with mimetic improvisation, choral rounds, synthpop and the textures of public speaking. Dead Cat Bounce takes the form of an oratorio, a medium of vocal performance used to deliver a sacred narrative.
Gallery 31: Swimmers Limb: Mani Kambo, Comuzi Lab (Yaa Addae and Saffi Mackenzie), Tai Shani
Curated by Taylor LeMelle
PV 28 July, 29 July – 20 Nov | Mon – Sun 10.00 – 18.00 | G31, New Wing | Free
Curator Talk w/ Taylor LeMelle | Tue 2 Aug | 18.45 - 20.30
Gallery 31, the Studio’s project space dedicated to its residency programmes and experimental practice more broadly, will welcome Taylor LeMelle as guest curator. Titled Swimmers Limb, this will be an exhibition without a theme. Instead, artists have been invited to speculate on a series of prompts: What would be the implications of connecting the two gardens on Victoria Embankment either side of Somerset House with organic forms and community infrastructure? What sort of framework would be generative for this? What might cause changes to the air quality? Who might be the workers to execute this alteration? What are their needs?
LeMelle’s curatorial approach is not thematic, but rather to make exhibitions based on a set of guiding principles for example: Pleasure, The Whole Self and Exhibition-As-Research. Swimmers Limb will incorporate works by Turner prize winner Tai Shani, design studio Comuzi Lab and artist Mani Kambo.
Supported by The Foyle Foundation.
Grounding Practice
Somerset House Studios’ Grounding Practice is a rolling programme of workshops, presentations, conversations, and peer-to-peer meetups, shaped by and for creative practitioners and critical thinkers. Following the success of his previous workshop, the Studios welcome back writer, director and moving image artist Akinola Davies Jr. for another creative show and tell on 1 June. Set in an informal, relaxed environment, the get together is aimed at a small group who are able to meet, socialise, exchange ideas, and provide discussion. Those wanting to present work to the group can express interest by contacting studios@somersethouse.org.uk, as slots are limited.
American-born, London and Beirut-based artist, educator, composer, and Studios resident Joe Namy will present The Starlight Frictions of Sub Bass, a workshop exploring the resonance, poetics, and healing effects of sub tass tones. Drawing from Dead Cat Bounce's themes, the aforementioned Gary Zhexi Zhang & Waste Paper Opera will host an interactive session employing collective singing, listening and discussion to explore world-making through instances of catastrophe.
Grounding Practice: Akinola Davies Jr.
Wed 1 June | 18.45 - 21.00 | £8 | Lancaster Rooms
Grounding Practice: Joe Namy
Thu 30 June | 18.45 - 21.00 | £8 | Lancaster Rooms
Grounding Practice: Gary Zhexi Zhang & Waste Paper Opera
Sat 16 July | 15.00 - 18.00 | £8 | Lancaster Rooms
New Studios Residents and Residencies
The Studios welcome American composer, producer, and performing artist Laurel Halo, expanded practitioner World Music, artist collective Keiken and artist-filmmaker and researcher Onyeka Igwe as new residents.
The new Jerwood Somerset House Studios Residency supporting early-career visual artists is now open for submissions. Running as two concurrent 18-month residencies for three artists each, the programme offers studio space in central London, a £3,000 bursary, mentoring support and a £3,000 project budget to develop a new work which will be presented as part of Somerset House Studio’s cultural programme. The selection panel includes Studios residents Jenn Nkiru and Imran Perretta.
Somerset House Studios and the UAL Creative Computing Institute, in partnership with The Alan Turing Institute, announced that Nouf Aljowaysir (USA), Juan Covelli (CO) and Morgan Quaintance (UK) are the three selected artists for the PATH AI residency programme until September and will explore the international landscape for AI ethics, governance, and regulation.
For more information, please contact Isis O’Regan - isis@tsf-pr.com
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