In episode 4 of our mini series The London Open Live Podcast, we present 'Futurity - Ignorance is Bliss?' featuring Lois Weaver, Gigi Brathwaite, and Pianka Parna (host). In this conversation, we reflect on ideas of momentum, mapping out what we need from our audiences and each other as live art practitioners and artists. How do we nurture intergenerational and inter-experiential exchange? How can we begin to break out of scarcity mentalities and focus on solidarity building and resourcing sharing?

In episode 3 of our mini series The London Open Live Podcast, we present 'Community Building & Venues', featuring Lois Weaver, Joseph Morgan Schofield and Pianka Parna (host). We speak to experiences around hiring and accessing venues for Live Art performances, events, and festivals, as well as the changes to health and safety legislation and their impact on putting on this kind of work. The conversation explores DIY performance cultures, the difficulties and fallout following cuts to funding, and how art institutions and spaces can effectively advocate for Live Art practices.

In episode 2 in our mini series The London Open Live Podcast, we present "Live Art 101: what is it & why do we do it?" - a conversation between Joseph Morgan Schofield, Martin O’Brien, and Pianka Parna (host). Speaking to key concepts and ideas around piercing, blood practices, pain, and nudity, this episode interrogates ideas of 'braveness' and 'insanity' often associated with live art and forms of pain practice. What is the stigma and pathologisation around these ideas? How do we open the conversation to audiences who feel they need to 'understand' a performance while watching it? And why is 'understanding' important at all?

For the first episode in our mini series The London Open Live Podcast, we present "My First Live Art" - a conversation between Martin O’Brien, Gigi Brathwaite, and Pianka Parna (host). Diving into our first experiences of live art, the episode speaks to childhood memories, nostalgia, and routes to live art practices, as well as access to and the state of performance and live art education in the UK.

Hear from Professors Sara Crangle and Rod Mengham as they discuss the life and work of poet, writer, and artist, Anna Mendelssohn. Drawing on the material presented in the exhibition 'Speak, Poetess' (11 Oct 2023 – 21 Jan 2024), discover how Mendelssohn's powerful written and visual language give form to history and social experience.

For more information: www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/anna-mendelssohn-speak-poetess

Transcript available: www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Hear-Now-Mendelssohn-Transcript-PDF.pdf

Discover the inspiration behind artist Johanna Billing's film 'Each Moment Presents What Happens' (2022), as she discusses her ideas for the work with Whitechapel Gallery Director Gilane Tawadros and curator Judith Winter. The conversation touches on the legacy of Black Mountain College and approaches to collaborative art practice.

For more information: www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/johanna-billing

Transcript: www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Hear-Now-Johanna-Billing-Transcript-PDF.pdf

What should public space feel like? How do we find comfort, character and community in it? These questions underpin an immersive environment created by Duchamp & Sons, Whitechapel Gallery’s youth collective, and London-based artist Gaby Sahhar.

Hear members of Whitechapel Gallery's youth collective as the discuss their experiences and the process behind making this exhibition.

For more information and for a transcription of this episode please visit: www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/escape-the-slick

Giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the Life Is More Important Than Art summer season, which encompasses exhibitions, social spaces, live performances and listening experiences, award-winning journalist Stephen Smith speaks to the artists, curators and contributors that made it all happen.

Featuring interviews with Gallery Director Gilane Tawadros alongside artists Osman Yousefzada, Rana Begum, John Smith, Martin O'Brien, Sarah Davies and Stephanie Jefferies, and William Cobbing, the Life is More Important Than Art podcast takes a closer look at the contemporary relevance of the James Baldwin quote that informs the exhibition's title, and an opportunity to learn more about the artworks on display - directly from the artists.

For more information: www.whitechapelgallery.org/life-is-more-important-than-art

Has performance art become institutionalised or does it still hold the power to challenge the institution?

Drawing on two exhibitions, Moving Bodies, Moving Images and Out of the Margins: Performance in London’s Institutions 1990s – 2010s, this episode explores the relationship between performance art and the contexts in which it is shown. Guests featured in this episode include co-founder of Live Art Development Agency, Lois Keidan, artists Hetain Patel and Leah Clements, and curator Erin Li.

For more information about the exhibitions, visit:

www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/moving-bodies-moving-images/

www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/out-of-the-margins-performance-in-londons-institutions-from-the-1990s-2010s/

Transcript: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Performance-Now_Transcript.pdf

Episode 18 of Whitechapel Gallery’s Hear, Now podcast series delves deeper into the themes that underpin the exhibition Tracing Absence. Students graduating from the MA Curating Art and Public Programmes course, run by Whitechapel Gallery and London South Bank University, had the opportunity to curate this exhibition as part of their course, which confronts the different ways in which absence manifests in the world.

Tracing Absence features new sound art pieces by Joseph Sergi and Yiskāh (alias Jessica Beechy) and works from the Christen Sveaas Art Foundation. Student Cathy O ‘Sullivan presents and introduces fellow student Ada Egg Koskilouma who talks with Sunil Shah and Lou Mensah, to explore what absence means to them.

Sunil Shah is an artist and curator based in Oxford, UK. He is interested in the politics of photographic representation and conceptual post-documentary practices with relation to history, memory and identity.

Lou Mensah is a London based writer, photographer and the founder of Shade Podcast, a platform which hosts conversations with creative and radical thinkers on the politics of race and representation within the arts.

Please follow this link to view the publication that accompanies the exhibition and listen to the sound art works by Joseph Sergi and Yiskāh: https://linktr.ee/tracingabsence

For more information: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/tracing-absence/

Transcript: https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Tracing-absence_Transcript.pdf