Refigure

It's the 99th Refigure episode!

Chris and Rifa are still mooching around Berlin. They go to the Heroines Of Sound all-women experimental music festival and join a guided tour of the legendary Hansa Studios overlooking the Wall, where David Bowie wrote and recorded 'Heroes'. They're also joined by special guest Tim Everest (@TimCamMan) for a flying visit.

Thanks for listening. Back home to the UK next time.

Find us on Insta: @RefigureUK @Rifa and @cjthorpetracey

A Berlin Special, as Chris and Rifa dive into that great city's arts and culture worlds, starting with major exhibitions: Cassirer And The Breakthrough Of Impressionism at the Old National Gallery, and Building Community: Göbeklitepe, Taş Tepeler and life 12,000 years ago at the James Simon Gallerie.

We also join the 48 Hour Neukolln open houses weekend, visit the KINDL gallery group show An Intimacy With Strangers and chat about food (mostly cakes) we've eaten.

I can't remember what books we picked.

Thanks for listening. We love you.

Find us on Insta @RefigureUK @Rifa and @cjthorpetracey

This week's cover image is of wooden badges handmade by the great Sussex illustrator Holly Swain.

Chris and Rifa natter about the arts and culture. After abandoning Tip Toe, Chris and Rifa retreat to old episodes of Brighton-based detective series Grace. Then Rifa reports back from her trip to London's Bush Theatre to see The P Word.

Chris is reading Michael Bracewell's short, oddball new book 'The Smiths - A Novella', while Rifa is reading Ursula Le Guin's lesser known classic 'The Word For World Is Forest'.

Thanks for listening.

Find us on Insta @refigureUK or individually @rifa @cjthorpetracey.

Refigure episode 96.

Chris and Rifa watch two TV shows on the BBC iPlayer: the fourth season of Showtime's NYC-based reality show Couples Therapy with Dr Orna Guralnik, which gets as close as television can to the reality of a psychotherapist's process, and the hit BBC drama series built from James Graham's West End play Dear England, documenting Gareth Southgate's time as England men's football manager and his changes to the culture of the team, built on Joseph Fiennes' startlingly accurate portrayal of Southgate.

In 'what you reading for?' Chris is reading Steve Hanley's memoir of his time in the band The Fall, The Big Midweek, while Rifa is reading David Bramwell's psychedelic counter-culture adventure-slash-memoir The Haunted Moustache, which has recently been made into a film.

The lovely badges in this week's episode artwork were made by Holly Swain, we spotted them at her Brighton Open House exhibition, she was one of the most striking makers we saw, the whole month of Open Houses (we bought quite a bit of her stuff).

Thanks so much for listening, we hugely appreciate your ears. Find us on Insta @refigureUK.

This episode, we saw Joelle Taylor give an outstanding performed reading of her new book Maryville. We then watched a panel discussion with the rapper / singer-songwriter Ren and his business team.

Rifa is reading Samantha Harvey's Booker prizewinning novel Orbital, while Chris is reading John Grindrod's funny and thought provoking LGBTQ+ social history Tales Of The Suburbs.

Thanks so much for listening, supporting the podcast and telling your friends about us. It means a lot, we love you.

Find us on Insta: @RefigureUK

Chris and Rifa enjoy Kate Butch's drag cabaret show Choose Your Own Cabaret at The Old Market in Hove and watch Brazilian thriller The Secret Agent, which has just become available to stream via Mubi.

Rifa devotes her 'What You Reading For?' slot to some emails from guys who recommend women authors. Chris is reading Patrick Radden Keefe's new non-fiction thriller London Falling.

Thanks for listening, find us on Insta at @refigureUK.

Rifa and Chris go to Hammersmith Apollo to see the Brooklyn cult band Geese and watch Riz Ahmed's new dramedy TV series Bait.

Rifa is reading a short fiction compilation called Re:sisters, while Chris is reading Kate Kennedy's Cello (thanks for the loan, Jon Clayton).

Thanks for listening! Follow us on Insta @refigureUK

Chris and Rifa visit Tate Modern to check out the Tracey Emin retrospective Second Life and the major show of Nigerian Modernism. We also watch two art history docs on the BBC: Jim Moir's Gaga For Dada about Dadaism and the Irish film Iarsmaí (Remnants) about campaigns in Ireland to persuade museums and institutions to give back stolen artefacts.

Rifa is reading Tori Amos' book Resistance and Chris is reading Bettany Hughes' Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Thanks for listening, find us on Insta @refigureuk.

It's (accidentally) an episode about comedy in different artforms. Rifa and Chris go to a Q&A with David Shrigley for Penryn Art School on tour, hosted by Phoenix Gallery. Then we also watched Mackenzie Crook's offbeat new BBC comedy drama series Small Prophets, about a man growing Humunculi in jars in his shed, and we went to Sadlers Wells East for Chicos Mambo's 'Tutu' comedy dance show.

Rifa is reading Kate Bryan's How To Art, illustrated by Shrigley, while Chris is reading London Review of Books and Ursula Le Guin's late essay and talk collection Words Are My Matter.

Thanks for listening, follow us on Insta: @RefigureUK @Rifa @cjthorpetracey.

Long-running bitesize culture review show from Brighton, on the UK south coast, with Rifa and Chris. This episode we watch the BBC drama series Waiting For The Out, then flag up the major art exhibitions we're most looking forward to in 2026.

Rifa is reading The Story Of Art and Chris is reading Sophia Giovannitti's Working Girl.

Thanks for listening! Find us on Insta @refigureUK or personally @rifa and @cjthorpetracey.