Museums generally suspend objects from use, touch and interventions in order to freeze or hold things in a state of torpor, preventing interactions in order to preserve. Many Indigenous peoples challenge the idea of preservation as a greater good, instead affirming the right to renew and use, enliven and care for objects as part of human life.
The Prisoners of Love (PoL) project aims to connect UK collection items with their transnational home peoples and bring emerging artists from the UK, curators and researchers into conversation, to work responsively with complex histories and material processes.
Artists: Esi Eshun, Dawn Codex, Charles Nyiha, Ian Dawson, Deserae Tailfeathers, Adanma Nwankwo, Darby Herman, Louisa Minkin, Serene Weasel Traveller, Thomas Allison, Mame Afua Mensah, Helen Robertson, Joseph Ijoyemi, Rabiya Nagi, Rayya Khuri, Migueltzinta Solis, Walker English, Kylie Fineday, Raine Crandall, Rihanata Bigey, Fungai Marima.
From the CSM Archive & Study Collection: John James Audubon, Birds of America and Cornelia Parker, Mark Wallinger, Yinka Shonibare [Prints from Bugs: A portfolio, 2000].
A space for UAL staff and the public to connect via games and exercises, breaking down barriers between body and mind, the University and the public – thinking about art practice and its spatial contexts.
This food is for any exhibition visitors, especially students, to come and enjoy. Expect an abundance of gingham material, with performer Laura Bowels becoming the picnic blanket upon which visitors can chat and feast joined by the Gingham Gay Dolls Esme Godkin and Ewan Hindes providing entertainment for all visitors to enjoy!
With a performance by Jefford Horrigan
Zach Thompson Interactive durational, audio/visual performance in which participants are invited to experiment with different sound and image making apparatus.
Drop-in drawing workshop using handmade mushroom paper with Willow McKenzie, Eleanor Powell and James Harlow.
Observational and collaborative still life writing exercises with Alex Clarke All welcome
A workshop exploring the use of accessible AI tools within art practice, considering questions around dreaming, the internet and acts of collective creativity. Participants will be introduced to browser-based AI tools before producing a collective image work.
An open-format workshop where people can engage in conversations on the relationship between AI ethics and queer and feminist practice. Work produced in the workshops will be used to build a dataset to train a natural language processing model which will produce its own response to questions.
A live electronic performance that revitalises the ‘Maruza Imi Cde Chinx (1980) Dzapasi Camp (Buhera).mp3’ audio archive from the Pitt Rivers Museum. The performance transforms the original recording, inviting the audience to rethink the boundaries between sentience and insentience.