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Somerset House Podcast
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- S6 Ep5: Mothership | Get Up, Stand Up NowCalling planet earth! Artist Yinka Shonibare CBE, acclaimed saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, fashion designer Mowalola Ogunlesi, and Get Up, Stand Up Now curator Zak Ové explore themes around Black futures and afro-futurism. Presented by spoken word artist Joshua Idehen.
Music by Shabaka Hutchings and GAIKA, excerpts from Sun Ra Arkestra BBC Radio 3 session courtesy of Somethin' Else and BBC Radio 3.
Producer: Mae-Li EvansThe series was produced by Reduced Listening and Somerset House
Yinka Shonibare CBEYinka Shonibare’s work explores issues of race and class through painting, sculpture, photography and film. Having described himself as a ‘post-colonial’ hybrid, Shonibare questions the meaning of cultural and national definitions. His trademark material is the brightly coloured ‘African’ batik fabric he buys at Brixton Market. The fabric was inspired by Indonesian design, mass-produced by the Dutch and eventually sold in British colonies in West Africa. In the 1960s, the material became a new sign of African identity and independence.Shabaka Hutchings constantly evaluates his music’s relationship to Caribbean and jazz traditions, and sees his role as pushing the boundaries of both. His trajectory started early when he moved to Barbados at the age of six, began studying classical clarinet aged nine, and graduated to tenor saxophone, which has been a regular part of his performances since his return to the UK aged 16. Hutchings has three primary projects – Shabaka and the Ancestors, Sons of Kemet and The Comet is Coming. Between them, Hutchings has gathered a substantial number of awards and nominations, including winning the 2013 MOBO Jazz Act ofthe Year.Mowalola Ogunlesi founded the menswear brand Mowalola in 2017 to celebrate the African male and culture, sexuality and desire. He was awarded Best New Designer at the 2018 Milan Fashion Film Festival. Mowalola had its London Fashion Week debut in January 2019 with Fashion East and their work has been featured in publications such as Vogue UK, Vogue US, i-D, Dazed & Confused, Surface Magazine, SHOWstudio and W Magazine.
GET UP, STAND UP NOWGENERATIONS OF BLACK CREATIVE PIONEERS12 Jun – 15 Sep 2019A major new exhibition celebrating the past 50 years of Black creativity in Britain and beyond.
Beginning with the radical Black filmmaker Horace Ové and his dynamic circle of Windrush generation creative peers and extending to today’s brilliant young Black talent globally, a group of around 100 interdisciplinary artists will showcase work together for the first time, exploring Black experience and influence, from the post-war era to the present day.
https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/get-up-stand-up-now31 min - S6 Ep4: Imaginary Landscapes | Get Up, Stand Up Now#4 Imaginary LandscapesWhat is the place of Black diasporic art in Britain today? How do artists use imaginary landscapes to look to the future, break ground and envisage a world beyond? Can you imagine this alternative future? Artist Barby Asante in conversation with curator Paul Goodwin; artist, activist and collector of diasporic art CCH Pounder, alongside Get Up, Stand Up Now curator Zak Ové reflect, 50 years on from Baldwin’s Nigger (Horace Ové, 1969) in which African-American writer James Baldwin discussed Black experience and identity in Britain and America. Presented by spoken word artist Joshua Idehen with music by GAIKA.
Featuring excerpts from Baldwin's Nigger, 1969 by Horace Ové, and an extract reading from Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Producer: Femi Oriogun-WilliamsThe series was produced by Reduced Listening and Somerset House
Barby AsanteBarby Asante is an artist, curator and researcher. Her work is concerned with the politics of place and the histories and legacies of colonialism, producing projects that are collaborative and performative to stimulate dialogue on what is unheard or missing from cultural archives. Through creating social rituals and re-enactments she interrogates dominant narratives to think about migration, safe spaces in hostile cities and the overlooked everyday contributions of people of colour to our social, political and cultural understandings.
Paul GoodwinWorking as a curator at Tate Britain from 2008 to 2012 Goodwin directed the pioneering Cross Cultural Programme that explored questions of migration and globalisation in contemporary British art through a programme of international conferences, workshops, talks and live art events. His curatorial projects include a number of internationally significant exhibitions including: Migrations: Journeys Into British Art, Tate Britain 2012; Thin Black Line(s), Tate Britain, 2011; Coming Ashore, 2011, Berardo Collection Museum in Lisbon, Portugal; Afro Modern: Journeys Through the Black Atlantic (consultant curator), Tate Liverpool, 2010; Underconstruction, Hospital Julius De Matos, Lisbon, Portugal, 2009. In 2013 he curated Charlie Phillips: The Urban Eye at New Art Exchange, Nottingham which was long-listed for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2014.
CCH PounderCCH Pounder’s diasporic collection includes approximately 500 works of art. It aims to capture the temperament of the times through which she has lived. With a career spanning over 40 years, the actress was first celebrated for her strong female roles in television shows such as ER, The Shield and Sons of Anarchy, as well as films including Avatar, Orphan and Baghdad Café. Pounder opened an art gallery in Los Angeles, the Pounder-Kone Art Space and founded with her late husband Boubacar Kone the Musée Boribana, the first privately owned contemporary art museum in Dakar, Senegal. It featured works by local artists and pieces from the African diaspora including the United States, Jamaica, Guadeloupe and Haiti.
GET UP, STAND UP NOWGENERATIONS OF BLACK CREATIVE PIONEERS12 Jun – 15 Sep 2019A major new exhibition celebrating the past 50 years of Black creativity in Britain and beyond.
Beginning with the radical Black filmmaker Horace Ové and his dynamic circle of Windrush generation creative peers and extending to today’s brilliant young Black talent globally, a group of around 100 interdisciplinary artists will showcase work together for the first time, exploring Black experience and influence, from the post-war era to the present day.
https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/get-up-stand-up-now32 min - S6 Ep3: Masquerade | Get Up, Stand Up Now#3 MasqueradeArtists Zoe Bedeaux and Rhea Storr, writer Margaret Busby and Get Up, Stand Up Now curator Zak Ové explore the concept of masquerade in Black diasporic creativity, reflecting upon the history of Trinidad carnival documented in Horace Ové’s 1973 documentary, King Carnival.
Music by Gaika. Excerpts from A Protest, A Celebration, A Mixed Message by Rhea Storr.
Zoe BedeauxMulti-disciplinary artist Zoe Bedeaux studied art and design at Harrow School of Art before working as a styling assistant to famous punk designer Judy Blame. Her work encompasses style curation, art direction, writing, photography, print-making, poetry, audio readings and cultural commentary. She has been featured as model, muse and contributing editor in publications and various online platforms such as Nowness, Another, SHOWstudio, The Face, i-D, Self-Service, 032C, Vogue and Vestoj.
Rhea StorrRhea Storr’s practice is concerned with producing images which refute stereotypes of Black identity. Working on 16mm film, but also making peripheral drawings, photographs and scores, she questions how a body performs and how other bodies react to it. Of Bahamian and English heritage, her interests centre around the inherent tensions in being between two cultures where oversimplified statements about racial identity have no meaning. Carnival is often the subject of her work, and her approach affirms Caribbean culture while subverting traditional power structures.Margaret Busby OBE, Hon. FRSL was born in Ghana and educated in the UK. Graduating from London University, she became Britain’s youngest and first Black woman publisher when she co-founded Allison & Busby in 1967, where she was editorial director for 20 years. Subsequently pursuing a career as editor, broadcaster and critic, she has contributed to many publications, written drama for radio and the stage, served as a judge for prestigious literary competitions, and campaigned for diversity in publishing since the 1980s. She compiled the ground-breaking international anthology Daughters of Africa (1992), and 2019’s follow-up, New Daughters of Africa (Myriad).
Zak OvéZak Ové shared his father’s passion for film and photography as he assisted him on film sets from a young age and eventually studied film at St. Martins School of Art. Influenced by Trinidad’s steel pan, Zak became an accomplished percussionist; music and art remained the backbone of his work when he moved to New York, as a music video director, shooting classic videos of that time. Extending his work into advertising, Zak directed a range of campaigns and worked with Lee Scratch Perry, whose freedom of creativity left its mark on Zak. Ultimately disillusioned with the commercial world, Zak returned to Trinidad to document Carnival and its old-time masquerade, which subsequently inspired him to create sculptural artworks.
Producers: Chris Elcombe, Eleanor Scott and Joby Waldman
The series was produced by Reduced Listening and Somerset House
GET UP, STAND UP NOWGENERATIONS OF BLACK CREATIVE PIONEERS12 Jun – 15 Sep 2019A major new exhibition celebrating the past 50 years of Black creativity in Britain and beyond.
Beginning with the radical Black filmmaker Horace Ové and his dynamic circle of Windrush generation creative peers and extending to today’s brilliant young Black talent globally, a group of around 100 interdisciplinary artists will showcase work together for the first time, exploring Black experience and influence, from the post-war era to the present day.
https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/get-up-stand-up-now21 min - S6 Ep2: Dream to Change the World | Get Up, Stand Up Now#2 Dream to Change the World
How do we imagine a better future? How do we imagine equality and how do we get there?
Horace Ové CBE is internationally renowned as one of the leading Black independent filmmakers to emerge in Britain since the post-war period. His 1976 film Pressure is cited in the Guinness Book of Records as the first feature-length film made by a Black British director. Get Up, Stand Up Now curator Zak Ové and Gaylene Gould, British Film Institute (Head of Cinema & Events) are in conversation exploring Pressure, its production and legacy. Artist Sonia Boyce OBE RA discusses her work as an artist and activist starting in the 1980’s with the Black Arts Movement. Spoken word artist Joshua Idehen creatively responds to the themes of activism, change and hope.
Zak OvéZak Ové shared his father’s passion for film and photography as he assisted him on films sets from a young age and eventually studied Film at St. Martins School of Art, London. Influenced by Trinidad’s steel pan, Zak became an accomplished percussionist; music and art remained the backbone of his work when he moved to New York, as a Music Video Director, shooting classic videos of that time. Extending his work into advertising Zak directed a range of campaigns and worked with Lee Scratch Perry, whose freedom of creativity left its mark on Zak. Ultimately disillusioned with the commercial world Zak returned to Trinidad to document Carnival and its old-time masquerade which subsequently inspired him to create sculptural artworks.
Today Zak’s multi-disciplinary practice focuses on sculpture but still includes film and photography. His work is informed in part through the history and lore carried through the African diaspora to the Caribbean, Britain and beyond, with particular focus on the traditions of masking and masquerade. His artworks explore interplay between old world mythology and what he posits as ‘potential futures’. Using modern materials, and ‘a sound clash of colour’, he blurs the edges between reality and possibility, flesh and spirit.
Sonia Boyce OBE RA Sonia Boyce OBE RA is a British African-Caribbean artist who gained prominence with Black Women Artists, as part of the Black British cultural renaissance of the 1980s. Her earlier works examined the issues of race and gender in the media and in daily life through large pastel drawings and photographic collages. Her work has since shifted to include a range of media, from prints and film to drawings, sound, installationand photographs.
Boyce has been working closely with other artists since 1990, which often involves improvisation and spontaneous performative actions on the part of her collaborators. She is represented in the permanent collections of Arts Council England and London’s Tate Modern. She is a Professor in Black Art & Design at University of the Arts London and in 2019, Boyce was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to the arts.
Music by GAIKA, with selected tracks from Trojan Records:East Of The River Nile - Augustus PabloIs it Because I'm Black - Ken BootheHang' em High - Richard AceThe Liquidator - The Harry J All Stars
Featuring excerpts from Pressure (1976), dir. Horace Ové. Courtesy of the British Film Institute (BFI)
Producer: Mae-Li Evans and Joby WaldmanThe series was produced by Reduced Listening and Somerset House
GET UP, STAND UP NOWGENERATIONS OF BLACK CREATIVE PIONEERS12 Jun – 15 Sep 2019A major new exhibition celebrating the past 50 years of Black creativity in Britain and beyond.
Beginning with the radical Black filmmaker Horace Ové and his dynamic circle of Windrush generation creative peers and extending to today’s brilliant young Black talent globally, a group of around 100 interdisciplinary artists will showcase work together for the first time, exploring Black experience and influence, from the post-war era to the present day.41 min - S6 Ep1: Motherland | Get Up, Stand Up Now#1 MotherlandLegendary musician Dennis Bovell, writer Margaret Busby, and photographer Normski come together with Get Up, Stand Up Now exhibition curator Zak Ové and spoken word artist Joshua Idehen to explore the notion of ‘motherland.’
Original music by Dennis Bovell and Gaika, with selected tracks from Trojan Records.Stalag 17 - King Tubby and the Technique Allstars (Trojan Records)After Tonight - Matumbi (Trojan Records)The Shadow of Your Smile - Tommy McCook and the Super Sonics (Trojan Records)
Excerpt from Andrea Levy's Small Island Producer: Femi Oriogun-Williams
The series was produced by Reduced Listening and Somerset House
Dennis Bovell An accomplished multi-instrumentalist, sound engineer, composer and producer, Dennis Bovell has earned himself the reputation of Britain’s reggae maestro. He moved from Barbados to south London at the age of 12 and whilst still at school joined his first band, Road Works Ahead. He later formed the group Matumbi which went on to become Britain’s foremost reggae band, at a time when the genre was spreading from Jamaica to an international audience.
Bovell also formed the Dub Band, beginning an enduring partnership with reggae poet Linton Kwesi Johnson which resulted in the production of numerous classic albums. The 1980s saw Bovell in great demand as a producer, working with bands as diverse as The Slits, Chalice, Orange Juice, The Thompson Twins and Bananarama. Bovell has also worked in television and film and continues to record, produce and play music live all over the world.Margaret Busby OBE, Hon. FRSL, was born in Ghana and educated in the UK. Graduating from London University, she became Britain’s youngest and first Black woman publisher when she co-founded Allison & Busby in 1967, where she was editorial director for 20 years. Subsequently pursuing a career as editor, broadcaster and critic, she has contributed to many publications, written drama for radio and the stage, served as a judge for prestigious literary competitions, and campaigned for diversity in publishing since the 1980s. She compiled the ground-breaking international anthology Daughters of Africa (1992), and 2019’s follow-up, New Daughters of Africa (Myriad).
NormskiNorman ‘Normski’ Anderson was bought his first camera by his Jamaican mother at an auction when he was nine years old. His interest in photography was partly inspired by Horace Ové, as he was childhood friends with Ové’s son Zak. Normski was part of the emerging hip hop music scene during the 1980s and his involvement in music culture led him to photograph hip hop artists and fashions for publications like The Face, i-D and Vogue. Normski harnesses his personal sensibilities to capture exquisite detail and memories that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. He also created publicity photographs for the musicians themselves. He has also worked as a DJ and television presenter.
GET UP, STAND UP NOW
GENERATIONS OF BLACK CREATIVE PIONEERS
12 Jun – 15 Sep 2019
A major new exhibition celebrating the past 50 years of Black creativity in Britain and beyond.
Beginning with the radical Black filmmaker Horace Ové and his dynamic circle of Windrush generation creative peers and extending to today’s brilliant young Black talent globally, a group of around 100 interdisciplinary artists will showcase work together for the first time, exploring Black experience and influence, from the post-war era to the present day.29 min - Trailer | Get Up, Stand Up Now PodcastA taster of the Get Up, Stand Up Now podcast series, celebrating generations of black creative pioneers.
A crafted sound odyssey over five episodes, guided by the voices of artists featured in the exhibition who explore the discourse around Black experience, activism, creativity and influence.
Coming up:
#1 MotherlandDennis Bovell, Margaret Busby, Normski, Zak Ové #2 Dream to Change the World Zak Ové in conversation with Gaylene Gould, BFI (Head of Cinema & Events), and Sonia Boyce OBE #3 Masquerade Zoe Bedeaux, Rhea Storr, Margaret Busby and Zak Ové #4 Imaginary LandscapesBarby Asante in conversation with Paul Goodwin, CCH Pounder, Zak Ové #5 MothershipYinka Shonibare CBE, Shabaka Hutchings, Mowalola Ogunlesi, Zak Ové Presented by spoken word artist Joshua IdehenOriginal music by GAIKA, Dennis Bovell, Shabaka Hutchings, with selected tracks from Trojan Records. The series was produced by Reduced Listening and Somerset HouseSenior Digital Producer, Somerset House: Eleanor ScottExec Producer: Joby WaldmanProducers: Chris Elcombe, Femi Oriogun-Williams, Mae-Li EvansResearcher: Erica McKoy
Get Up, Stand Up NowA major new exhibition celebrating the past 50 years of Black creativity in Britain and beyond, at Somerset House 12 June - 15 September 2019.
Beginning with the radical Black filmmaker Horace Ové and his dynamic circle of Windrush generation creative peers and extending to today’s brilliant young Black talent globally, a group of around 100 interdisciplinary artists will showcase work together for the first time, exploring Black experience and influence, from the post-war era to the present day.https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/get-up-stand-up-now3 min - S5 Ep1: Khaos Spirit by Serena Korda | Earth Day Season 2019
A new, site-responsive audio work exploring society’s relationship with the natural elements from award-winning artist Serena Korda.
Following her acclaimed installations at the National Trust’s Speke Hall and The Hepworth Wakefield, award-winning artist Serena Korda joins Somerset House’s Earth Day 2019 programme with a new, site-responsive work exploring our relationship with the natural elements. Inspired by the Greek primordial goddess of air and mother of birds, Khaos, Korda raises a new flag above the Somerset House courtyard, with the flag design paying homage to a history of maritime warning flags.
A flag will accompany the new audio piece which was formed using a handcrafted aeolian harp, a musical instrument named after the ancient Greek god of wind, Aeolus. Korda recorded the harp, which produces sound when a current of air passes through it, during an afternoon spent in and around the dome that holds Somerset House’s flag. Combined with additional field recordings of the flag, the resonance of the flagpole and wind data taken from an anenometer which records wind speed, the resulting audio installation captures the voice of the air.
Visit somersethouse.org.uk for more information on Earth Day Season 2019
10 min - S4 Ep2: London Design Biennale 2018: Emotional States
The second iteration the London Design Biennale brings the best in global design thinking to Somerset House.
This year it is devoted to the theme of Emotional States and explores big questions and ideas around sustainability, migration, pollution, energy, cities, and social equality. Each participating country or region has explored how design can be used to make a better, more sustainable environment for us all to live in through engaging and immersive installations, innovations, artworks and proposed design solutions.
In this podcast Sir John Sorrell, president of the London Design Biennale guides us though a selection of the installations and their designers, focussing on the work displayed by four countries: Latvia, Greece, Lebanon and Pakistan.
The London Design Biennale is at Somerset House until the 23rd October 2018. Book Now: http://bit.ly/LDB2018
32 min - S4 Ep1: Film4 Summer Screen: Interview with Bart Layton, writer/director of American Animals
An interview with writer/director Bart Layton ahead of the UK premiere of American Animals, a true-crime tale full of high tension, bold style, and black humour.
A group of four students come together in classic heist movie fashion (think Reservoir Dogs, because that's what they do) to steal some of the world's rarest books from the special collections room of their college library. Quite why they decided to do this, or why they these juvenile amateur criminals thought they were capable of pulling it off, are just some of the deeper currents that run through this irrepressible thriller that may ostensibly conform to crime film conventions but has a way of telling a story that is very much all its own.
American Animals asserts both that “This is” and “This is Not Based on a True Story” right from the opening titles, making it very clear that doubt is going to play a very big part in what's to come. Credit writer-director Bart Layton with the high-wire narrative risks, his skill as a documentarian providing an unexpected extra level to the film that really increases its emotional power.
What really gives the action its zest and freshness are the performances from the four young leads – mischievous looking star Evan Peters (Quicksilver in the X-Men franchise and a series regular in American Horror Story), the wonderful Irish actor Barry Keoghan (unforgettable in both Dunkirk and The Killing of a Sacred Deer), Blake Jenner (Supergirl and The Edge of Seventeen) and Jared Abrahamson. Each member of the group is distinctive in their own right, but the best scenes are when they come together as a perfectly imperfect gang of thieves.
The UK premiere of American Animals is at Film4 Summer Screen at Somerset House on 22 Aug 2018.
25 min - S3 Ep2: PROCESS! Evolving Technologies
In our rapidly evolving media landscape, how are projects that might previously have been confined to print media, manifesting online and through other technologies? Panellists explore what diversifying mediums mean for their message and the opportunities, limitations and challenges they pose. Speakers include Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarine Muhammad The White Pube, Andres Colemenares Internet Age Media, Daniel Caulfield Sriklad Communication Design UAL.
Part of PROCESS!, a two day festival celebrating independent media & making presented by Somerset House & Somerset House Studios residents OOMK, bringing together established & emerging designers, artists, activists & publishers to explore, interrogate & share approaches to creative & collaborative process. In the context of high speed media & access to infinite information, how do we create time, space & approaches that can enable us to process the social & political climate & create new media and outputs?
Image by Minute Books taken from live illustrations created in response to the talks and insights shared by the speakers.
1 hr 8 min
About Somerset House Podcast
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The Somerset House Podcast, shaped and sculpted by artists, explores original cultural ideas which connect listeners to the creative process. Each series goes behind the scenes at Somerset House to uncover the stories explored through our programme and creative community.
As the home of cultural innovators, Somerset House connects creativity and the artist with wider society to produce unexpected outcomes and unexplored futures, intensifying creativity and multiplying opportunity to drive artistic and social innovation.
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