Exhibitionistas

We start this brand new year with an incursion into South Africa, with Zanele Muholi’s magnificent solo show at Tate Modern. 

Shockingly, Emily and I broke our own rules and actually visited the show together… which turned out to be quite productive. 

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.’

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

If you'd like to have visual content about the episodes, follow us on Instagram too: @exhibitionistas_podcast

You can support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/exhibitionistaspodcast/membership

Music by Sarturn. 

We’re wrapping up 2024 with a friends & family celebration.

And what a year it has been: Exhibitionistas was born.

So, to celebrate kinship of all kinds through art, we decided to invite a special guest who has been steeped in art since birth, Joana’s daughter, artist and dancer Constança Saturnino.

How does growing up with an artist and a curator influence your idea of art?

Follow us on Instagram: @exhibitionistas_podcast

You can also check out Constança's work on Instagram: @saturn.conch

Check out her handpoke tattoo Instagram: @field.trail

Or her website: https://www.constancasaturnino.com

Please remember to support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/exhibitionistaspodcast/membership

Music by Sarturn.

We are thrilled to welcome Stephen Ellcock to the podcast during his press tour for the book Elements, which completes a trilogy with The Cosmic Dance (2022) and Underworlds (2023), all published by Thames and Hudson. This time, he has gathered images around the ancestral notion of “the elements”, seen through the contemporary lens of sustainability and the impending climate tragedy.

Is the book an exhibition? And if so, what kind? There is a mystery underlying these questions  which is the statuts and power of images in their different spaces such as galleries or publications. However, this episode is also an opportunity to get to know the image alchemist Stephen Ellcock a bit more.

If you don't know Stephen Ellcock's instagram account yet, you should: @stephenellcock

Follow us for more images: @exhibitionistas_podcast

Support us on our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/c/exhibitionistaspodcast/membership

Music by Sarturn.

Believe it or not, this is the first episode dedicated to an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, a brutalist building Joana and Emily love so much.

And what better way to start than with the immersive experience of Haegue Yang’s solo show? Even the threshold between the hall and the exhibition space is a happening in “Leap Year”, the first survey of the South Korean artist in the UK, open from 9 October 2024 to 5 January 2025.

This episode was recorded during the week, late in the afternoon, rather than in our usual time (the early hours of a quiet Sunday) so it may be infused with a certain chaotic energy. Or was it the sensory fest of Yang’s art? Tune in to decide for yourself.

To know more about the exhibition: https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/haegue-yang-leap-year/

Follow Haegue yang on Instagram: @yanghaegue

To see images of the exhibition go to our Instagram account: @exhibitionistas_podcast

If you want to support us, go to: https://www.patreon.com/c/exhibitionistaspodcast/membership

Music by Sarturn.

This episode is dedicated to beloved and prematurely deceased American artist Mike Kelley. The Tate Modern has set up an impressive retrospective, those once-in-a-lifetime exhibitions that you cannot miss if you're in town. So we decided to dig in and bring it to you if you can't make it and enhance your experience if you did.

There are opinions, feelings, stories and a cacophonous experience that will leave no one indifferent.  Jack White finally makes an appearance again as we had once promised! 

Joana and Emily introduce you to the universe of Mike Kelley, of anarchist and punk teenage and young adult years, who ceaselessly poked at the overwhelming and overpowering world of entertainment. Then they move on to his academic life and career achievements, always marked by a rebellious streak consistently visible in his work about the traps of memory, the failings of education and psychology, and the fine line between fiction and reality.

For more about Ghost and Spirit @Tate Modern: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/mike-kelley-ghost-and-spirit

For more about Mike Kelley: https://mikekelleyfoundation.org/grants/overview

If you want to support us: https://www.patreon.com/c/exhibitionistaspodcast/membership

Instagram: @exhibitionistas_podcast

Music by: Sarturn

Yes! We have our first guest on the podcast, art advisor Liberté Nuti. As often happens in the art world, we are not always familiar with each other's jobs. And forget telling people you are a podcaster! (People think you are an influencer selling hair products online.) So let's start to dismantle some myths and find out more about what it is that us intermediaries of the art world do.

Joana goes on this quest on her own this time, as Emily is on sick leave, and it is Joana's expertise after all, to interview people and do talks about art topics.

Joana asks Liberté about all theses things and ends the conversation on the topic of dream exhibitions. What are they? How do they impact our lives and why?

To know more about Liberté Nuti: @libertenuti

To follow us: @exhibitionistas_podcast

Become a member of our podcast on Patreon and support us if you can: https://www.patreon.com/c/exhibitionistaspodcast/membership

Music by: @Sarturn

We go back to The Curve at the Barbican for the first institutional exhibition of Pamela Phatsimo’s work in the UK, titled It Will End in Tears.

And what an entrance Sunstrum’s work is having in London! The exhibition adapts to the demanding shape of The Curve, basically a curved corridor initially designed as a buffer between the auditoriums and the hall, and now a creative exhibition space that Joana and Emily have come to love.

Sunstrum involves the viewer in a revised film noir narrative, where the “femme” is perhaps even more “fatale” than usual.

To know more about the show: https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2024/event/pamela-phatsimo-sunstrum-it-will-end-in-tears

To follow Sunstrum on Instagram: @pamelaphatsimo

Support us on our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/c/ExhibitionistasPodcast

Follow the pod, subscribe, and review us! 

Follow us on Instagram: @exhibitionistas_podcast

Music by @Saturn

This is a real banger of an exhibition and episode!

We explore Tracey Emin's exhibition "I Followed You to the end" at White Cube Bermondsey, open from 19 September to 10 November 2024. But first we go back to the nineties, to the YBA, the Sensation exhibition, and a really hilarious Channel 4 program comically titled "Is Painting Dead?". Follow us on this fascinating journey through Emin's life and work. You will not be disappointed!

For more information on the show:

https://www.whitecube.com/gallery-exhibitions/tracey-emin-bermondsey-2024

You can follow Tracey Emin's wonderful residency in Margate here:

@tracey_emin_artist_residency

You can also follow us on Instagram: 

@exhibitionistas_podcast

And you can, more importantly, become a member of the podcast. We are doing this for free, so we need to step it up with you:

https://www.patreon.com/ExhibitionistasPodcast

Oh, and if you want to watch the Channel 4 episode Is Painting Dead, go here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKHJoLG2cEk

Music by Sarturn.

If this was a Friends episode, we would have titled it "The One Where Emily and Joana ask Each Other Questions". But it's not, so we decided to describe it as an origin story: we go back to the reasons why we decided to do this podcast and why it has such a distinctive format: an arts specialist and an exhibition goer candidly discussing solo exhibitions.

This intro is a way to ease into this new and promising second season, and to (re)introduce the podcast to our listeners. It's always good to go over the rules of the game. Believe me, you will be reminded that this is a feelings, research and thoughts podcast. (And if you think these don't go together, think again!)

Asking each other questions has allowed us to reveal to each other a few things we hadn't discussed, busy, as we were, with actually producing the episodes. There are a few revelations in there, self-explorations and we realise what the podcast brought us, and, by extension, our listeners. Or so we hope!

Music: Saturn.

Instagram: exhibitionistas_podcast.

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

[email protected]

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 

Enjoy this episode about Music for the Mind, a Yoko Ono retrospective exhibition curated by Juliet Bingham and Patrizia Dander, on show at Tate Modern until September 1rst 2024. It was organized by Tate Modern and Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfallen. 

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/yoko-ono

Instagram: @yokoono

Born in 1933, Yoko Ono lived between three continents, and explored experimental art and music all throughout her life. This exhibition presents us with a lot of her work from the 1950s to today and is extremely collaborative and free. At the ripe age of 91 Yoko Ono is still a creative force that remained, for a great part, uncelebrated. Infamous, even. We hope to deconstruct these biased views and to unfold a rich and bold energy, fully dedicated to art.

How did we navigate such a space? How did we connect to the work? What parts of her life touched us the most?

Tune in and find out!

Music: Sarturn.

In this episode, we dig into Gerhard Richter's lifetime of painting and his incursions in more conceptual works. We visited his first exhibition at David Zwirner, London, where we discovered drawings, paintings, mirror works and much more. 

Our research led us to his beginnings in Dresden and Düsseldorf, in post war GDR and Western Germany.  What is fascinating is how the photographic image is the guiding light in his relation to trauma, to history, to the present but most of all, to painting. Pop Art, Abstract Expressionism, Duchamp, all had an impact on Richter who nevertheless built his own path in the always menaced painting genre throughout the end of the century.  Indeed, how many times was painting declared dead in the 20th century?! Too many to count.

We kept our relation to Richter's work personal and fluid (Emily even got to do some reading), as there are so many sources out there for further information, amongst which: the catalogue raisonné published in 2022 by Hatjze Cantz; the Richter Interviews published in 2019 by Heni Publishing; and much more, which you can find here: https://gerhard-richter.com/en/literature

Info about the exhibition:

https://www.davidzwirner.com/exhibitions/2024/gerhard-richter

You can also explore Richter's website:

https://gerhard-richter.com/en/

Music: Sarturn

In this episode, we explore the medium of photography through the lens - pun intended - of Daidō Moriyama's life work. We visited his exhibition at the Photographer's Gallery and we had very different experiences! 

https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/daido-moriyama-retrospective

Curators: Thyago Nogueira and Claire Grafik

We chat a lot about what it means to look at street photography and what it might feel to be in the photograph itself. What if it was you who were on an exhibition poster? We discuss minimalist and maximalist exhibitions, but, mostly, Moriyama's unfussed and iconoclastic relation with the medium. He is just cool.

https://www.moriyamadaido.com/en/

@exhibitionistas_podcast

Music: Sarturn