EMPIRE LINES

EMPIRE LINES
  • 5.0 (16)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated fortnightly

EMPIRE LINES uncovers the unexpected, often two-way, flows of empires through art. Interdisciplinary thinkers use individual artworks as artefacts of imperial exchange, revealing the how and why of the monolith ‘empire’. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Instagram: instagram.com/empirelinespodcast Read articles, and join talks, tours, events, and exhibitions: jelsofron.com/empire-lines Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines TRANSCRIPTS: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-pwfn4U_P1o2oT2Zfb7CoCWadZ3-pO4C?usp=sharing MUSIC: Combinación // The Dubbstyle PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic

  1. 13 hr ago

    ZED LOVE, Libita Sibungu (2026) (EMPIRE LINES Live at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange)

    In this special episode, contemporary artist Libita Sibungu joins EMPIRE LINES live, to explore the layers, energies, and geologies that connect people to place, and African diasporic, mixed and multi-racial, and working-class experiences in Cornwall, through their installation, ZED LOVE (2026). This episode was recorded live as part of the public programme for Libita Sibungu: ZED LOVE at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange in Penzance in July 2026. The exhibition continues until 31 October 2026: newlynartgallery.co.uk/activities/empire-lines-podcast-recording/ Find all the information in the first Instagam post: instagram.com/p/DZqDXwfFT22/?img_index=1 For more from Barby Asante, listen to the episode from her collective choral performance, Declaration of Independence (2023), at Stratford Station in London as part of Art on the Underground: pod.link/1533637675/episode/aa2803b68933ab974ca584cf6a18479c For more with Angeline Morrison, listen to Paul Gilroy live in conversation with EMPIRE LINES at the Black Atlantic Symposium in Plymouth, marking the 30th anniversary of his formative text in 2023: pod.link/1533637675/episode/90a9fc4efeef69e879b7b77e79659f3f And read into Library Obscura — a new publication from the AfroSea Collective (Libita Sibungu, Maria Christoforidou, Angeline Morrison, Caroline Deeds, and Catherine Lucktaylor)—supported by Exeter University and the Hypatia Trust in Penzance in April 2026. For more about the Diaspora Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2017, listen to artist Yinka Shonibare, in the episode on Decolonised Structures (Queen Victoria (2022-2023) at the Serpentine in London: pod.link/1533637675/episode/01fffb739a1bd9f84f930ce41ee31676 And listen to curator Sabina Desir with Anita, Mark, and Julie—three children of Black (and Indigenous) American airmen stationed at RAF Manston in the 1950s— on Richard Birch’s Children of the Manston US Air Force Servicemen Print Series (2023) at Turner Contemporary in Margate: pod.link/1533637675/episode/OTU0NmM1YzMtMTYwMi00NjdiLWI0ZDgtZWUzYmI5ODViOGY1 PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Instagram: ⁠⁠instagram.com/empirelinespodcast⁠⁠ Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: ⁠⁠patreon.com/empirelines EMPIRE LINES is a project within the ecosystem of Radical Ecology (2025-2026).

    ZED LOVE, Libita Sibungu (2026) (EMPIRE LINES Live at Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange)

  2. 16 Jul

    A Cutting: Songs of the Water, Kaajal Modi (2024) (EMPIRE LINES Live at If Trees Could Talk 2026, Eden Project)

    Find out more about Kaajal Modi’s collaborative work with audio, oral storytelling, and cultural preservation, through ⁠⁠Arts of Noticing⁠⁠, an independent symposium in Leeds, as part of If Trees Could Talk International Art Biennale 2026. The event, including Bo Olawoye, Joanne Armitage, Kaajal Modi, Helen Thornham, Kim Chin, and Tasnim Siddiqa Amin, is supported by the Critical Digital Practice Lab (CDPL), based at the University of Leeds. It is co-organised by Sijelo, a UK-based art collective of women and non-binary people organising, producing, and making at the intersection of climate justice, land rights, migration, and displacement: iftreescouldtalk.art/conversations/sijelo For more information and to participate in the event on 23 July 2026, visit (Eventbrite online): eventbrite.com/e/sijelo-collective-in-leeds-arts-of-noticing-tickets-1993920698484 🌳🌳🌳 This cutting comes from the EMPIRE LINES episode, House of Weaving Songs, Dhaqan Collective (2024), recorded live as part of Interweaving Threads of Migration and Climate Justice at the Eden Project in Cornwall, supported by Counterpoints Arts and Art Reach, in September 2024. Listen to the full episode, on the EMPIRE LINES podcast: pod.link/1533637675/episode/MDhjZTY3MDQtNTkwYS00YTI0LWI1Y2YtZDdhODk1Y2QwZGZi And find all the links in the first Instagram post: instagram.com/p/DA8ZfEeI6VX/?hl=en&img_index=1 PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Instagram: ⁠⁠instagram.com/empirelinespodcast⁠⁠ Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: ⁠⁠patreon.com/empirelines EMPIRE LINES is a project within the ecosystem of Radical Ecology (2025-2026).

    A Cutting: Songs of the Water, Kaajal Modi (2024) (EMPIRE LINES Live at If Trees Could Talk 2026, Eden Project)

  3. 2 Jul

    The Deployment of Art: The Imperial War Museum’s Artistic Records Committee, 1968-1982, Clare Carolin (2026) (EMPIRE LINES Live at King’s College London)

    In this special episode, author and contemporary art historian Clare Carolin joins EMPIRE LINES live, to discuss the British government’s deployment of art as an instrument of war in the North of Ireland and the Falklands (Malvinas) in the 20th century, and their research in the archives and collections of the Imperial War Museum (IWM) in London. This episode was recorded live as part of A Conversation about Art, Media, and the State, with Laleh Khalili, Munira Cheema, Asif Akhtar, and Jamie Hakim at Bush House, King’s College London in June 2026. Find all the information online: kcl.ac.uk/events/a-conversation-about-art-media-and-the-state The Deployment of Art: The Imperial War Museum’s Artistic Records Committee, 1968–1982 (2025) by Clare Carolin is published by Routledge. Dissenting Counter-Publics in Pakistani Social Media and Cafe Culture (2025) by Munira Cheema is published by Palgrave Macmillan. Both are available in all good bookshops and online. Read about Clare Carolin’s lecture-performance, How to Build a Decolonial Peace Museum (A Provocation in Three Parts), at On Radicalism, the Contemporary Art Society (CAS) Annual Conference 2025 in London: contemporaryartsociety.org/sites/default/files/attachments/On Radicalism (1 May 2025)%2C report by Jelena Sofronijevic.pdf For more about the Venice Biennale 2026, and EVA International in 2016, read this article for the Contemporary Art Society: contemporaryartsociety.org/explore/resources/minor-keys-view-61st-venice-biennale For more about the Kipling family and the National College of Arts (NCA Lahore), hear contemporary artist Suleman Aqeel Khilji on the painting Elevation (Chiltan) (2025-2026), recorded at White Cube Paris: pod.link/1533637675/episode/YWYwMDNkMTgtNmJjOC00ZGZhLTlhYmItZWUzZjUyY2Y4ZjEy PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Instagram: ⁠⁠instagram.com/empirelinespodcast⁠⁠ Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: ⁠⁠patreon.com/empirelines EMPIRE LINES is a project within the ecosystem of Radical Ecology (2025-2026).

    The Deployment of Art: The Imperial War Museum’s Artistic Records Committee, 1968-1982, Clare Carolin (2026) (EMPIRE LINES Live at King’s College London)

  4. 18 Jun

    Elevation (Chiltan), Suleman Aqeel Khilji (2025-2026) (EMPIRE LINES x White Cube Paris)

    Contemporary artist Suleman Aqeel Khilji recollects the landscapes of Balochistan, a mountainous region spanning present-stay Pakistan and Iran, and the influence of Urdu language and literatures on his painting practice, through Elevation (Chiltan) (2025-2026). Inside the White Cube: Suleman Aqeel Khilji: Transmission is at White Cube Paris until 25 July 2026. Suleman Aqeel Khilji’s painting Untitled (London Zoo) (2025) is on view as part of Close Encounters: Figuration, Painting and Landscape in the Arts Council Collection, at Christie’s in London until 23 June 2026. For more about artists Ali Kazim, Hamra Abbas, and Imran Qureshi, and the National College of Arts (NCA Lahore), hear curator Hammad Nasar on Did You Come Here To Find History?, Nusra Latif Qureshi (2009): pod.link/1533637675/episode/f6e05083a7ee933e33f15628b5f0f209 And read into the exhibition, Beyond the Page: South Asian Miniature Painting and Britain, 1600 to Now, at MK Gallery in Milton Keynes and The Box in Plymouth, in gowithYamo: gowithyamo.com/blog/small-and-mighty-south-asian-miniature-painting-and-britain-1600-to-now-at-mk-gallery Hear artist Nalini Malani in the EMPIRE LINES episodes: From The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975-1998, with Shanay Jhaveri and Anita Dube, at the Barbican in London in 2024: My Reality is Different (2022), at the Holburne Museum in Bath: pod.link/1533637675/episode/74b0d8cf8b99c15ab9c2d3a97733c8ed And with curator Priyesh Mistry, on The Experiment with the Bird in the Air Pump, Joseph Wright of Derby (1768) and Nalini Malani (2022) at the National Gallery in London: pod.link/1533637675/episode/f62cca1703b42347ce0ade0129cedd9b You can also read this article in gowithYamo: gowithyamo.com/blog/nalini-malani-my-reality-is-different-review Read about War rugs: Afghanistan's knotted history at the British Museum in London, in The Markaz Review: themarkaz.org/afghanistans-histories-of-conflict-resistance-desires/ And from White Cube Paris, hear artist Sylvia Snowden in the EMPIRE LINES episode on M Street (1978-1997): pod.link/1533637675/episode/8e803c218bc4238d8ffceb5877f4a541 PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Instagram: ⁠⁠instagram.com/empirelinespodcast⁠⁠ Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: ⁠⁠patreon.com/empirelines EMPIRE LINES is a project within the ecosystem of Radical Ecology (2025-2026).

    Elevation (Chiltan), Suleman Aqeel Khilji (2025-2026) (EMPIRE LINES x White Cube Paris)

  5. 4 Jun

    The Venice Lagoon, a legal person, Giovanni Pellegrini (2025) (EMPIRE LINES x Ocean Space, Venice Biennale 2026)

    Researcher, artist, and curator Pietro Consolandi traces the ‘wetland turn’ in art, ecology, and environmental justice, via Giovanni Pellegrini’s 2025 documentary film, The Venice Lagoon, a legal person. Nature Speaks: Listening for Rights of Nature in Venice and Europe is at Ocean Space in Venice until 11 October 2026. The Research Unit, curated by Pietro Consolandi and Amalia Rossi, is co-produced by TBA21–Academy and NICHE Centre for Environmental Humanities, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, in collaboration with IDRA (Initiative for the Rights of Water) and the Confluence of European Water Bodies. You can join the next Citizens' Assembly for the Rights of the Lagoon on 10 October 2026. The Venice Lagoon, a legal person (2025) is available to watch online. For more about water bodies in Europe, hear Klima Biennale Wien festival director Sithara Pathirana on climate justice, public space and the rights of the river Danube through Austria, Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, in the episode about Superflux’s sculptural installation, Nobody Told Me Rivers Dream (2025): pod.link/1533637675/episode/ZWQ4Mzg0Y2MtMWFkMy00ZmJkLWIyZjUtNGU3MmJmODM2ODEx On the flows between Wales and Venice, listen to artist ⁠Taloi Havini⁠, winner of Artes Mundi 10, on their film Habitat (2017) at Mostyn in Llandudno, and work with Ocean Space in Venice: pod.link/1533637675/episode/e30bd079e3b389a1d7e68f5e2937a797 On archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, hear Emilija Škarnulytė on their film installation, Burial (2022), part of Folkestone Triennial 2025: pod.link/1533637675/episode/ZmJmZTIzMGItOTg0OC00YjhhLThkMjMtMWQ3Y2E5ZDU5MDAz And for more about Southampton’s coastal connections to Europe, hear curators Ros Carter and Sofie Krogh Christensen on Pia Arke’s Camera Obscura (1990) at John Hansard Gallery in Southampton and KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin: pod.link/1533637675/episode/OWVhZjc3YWItNDRiYy00MTYyLTk0ZmItZmE5MmJlZDY1YmI1 PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Instagram: ⁠⁠instagram.com/empirelinespodcast⁠⁠ Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: ⁠⁠patreon.com/empirelines EMPIRE LINES is a project within the ecosystem of ⁠Radical Ecology⁠ (2025-2026).

    The Venice Lagoon, a legal person, Giovanni Pellegrini (2025) (EMPIRE LINES x Ocean Space, Venice Biennale 2026)

  6. 7 May

    Nobody Told Me Rivers Dream, Superflux (2025) (EMPIRE LINES x Klima Biennale Wien 2026)

    Festival director Sithara Pathirana considers climate justice and public space in Europe, tracing the rights of the river Danube through Austria, Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, via the Klima Biennale Wien (2026). Klima Biennale Wien 2026: Unspeakable Worlds continues in Vienna until 10 May 2026. Bürgerin Donau, Katja Schechtner, Alex Putzer, Vincent Wagner (2025), curated by Vienna Design Week, was presented at the Volkstheater Wien in Vienna on 11 April 2026. Join them with artist Amanda Piña at KunstHausWien on 9 May, the closing event for the Klima Biennale. Superflux: The Craftocene is at the Weltmuseum Wien in Vienna until 16 August 2026. The Donauinsel (Danube Island): 13 Miles of Freedom is at Wien Museum in Vienna until 30 August 2026. Seeds: Reclaiming Roots, Sowing Futures is at KunstHausWien in Vienna until 14 February 2027. Ndidi Dike: Rare Earth Rare Justice is at Secession in Vienna until 31 May 2026. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠instagram.com/empirelinespodcast⁠⁠⁠ Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/empirelines

    Nobody Told Me Rivers Dream, Superflux (2025) (EMPIRE LINES x Klima Biennale Wien 2026)

  7. 23 Apr

    The Erasure of Palestine, Ahmad Al-Bazz (2026) (EMPIRE LINES x MuseumsEtc, Ibraaz)

    Journalist, photographer, and filmmaker Ahmad Al-Bazz captures the depopulation and destruction of Palestinian villages and towns, and the continuation of colonial histories into the present, through their photography book, The Erasure of Palestine (2026). The Erasure of Palestine by Ahmad Al-Bazz is published by MuseumsEtc, and available in all good bookshops and online. Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine is at V&A Dundee until 26 April 2026. For more, you can read my article in The Markaz Review: themarkaz.org/artist-interview-corinne-silva-on-israeli-settlement-gardens-in-palestine/ The Lost Paintings: A Prelude to Return continues at P21 Gallery in London until 29 May 2026. For more about studio photography in Palestine through the Ottoman Empire and British Mandate, hear curator Rachel Dedman’s EMPIRE LINES episode about an UNRWA Dress from Ramallah, Palestine (1930s)⁠: pod.link/1533637675/episode/92c34d07be80fe43a8e328705a7d80cb And read into the exhibition, Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery, at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge and the Whitworth in Manchester, in gowithYamo: gowithyamo.com/blog/textiles-in-cambridge-palestinian-embroidery-at-kettles-yard For more from the current programme of Ibraaz in London, hear conceptual photographer Hrair Sarkissian on his video installation, Sweet & Sour (2021-2022), at Wolverhampton Art Gallery: pod.link/1533637675/episode/N2YyZjNhYzMtYWQwZC00ZmU2LThmNjYtMWIyZWU5OWJhZDU3 PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠instagram.com/empirelinespodcast⁠⁠⁠ Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/empirelines

    The Erasure of Palestine, Ahmad Al-Bazz (2026) (EMPIRE LINES x MuseumsEtc, Ibraaz)

  8. 9 Apr

    Human Being and Animals, Karel Appel (1949) (EMPIRE LINES x Galerie Max Hetzler)

    Curator Franz W. Kaiser considers the avant-garde paintings of Karel Appel, in relation to the historic CoBrA Movement and contemporary ecologies, via Human Being and Animals (1949). Karel Appel: Variations on a Theme is at Galerie Max Hetzler in London until 16 April 2026. Karel Appel’s Hip, Hip, Hoorah! (1949) is on view in the collection display In the Studio: The Disappearing Figure: Art after Catastrophe at Tate Modern in London. For more from curators Winnie Sze and Pim Arts, listen to the episode about Ernest Mancoba’s African Madonna (1939) a⁠t the Cobra Museum of Modern Art in Amstelveen: pod.link/1533637675/episode/68ec0da40322500dc1f9be4865ac19d9 You can also read my article about the exhibition, We Kiss the Earth: Danish Modern Art, 1934-1948⁠, and the CoBrA movement (Copenhagen, Brussels, and Amsterdam), in gowithYamo: gowithyamo.com/blog/a-triptych-of-danish-modernism-cobra-and-degenerate-art-in-denmark For more from the artist Sylvia Snowden, listen to the episode about M Street (1978-1997), recorded at White Cube Paris: pod.link/1533637675/episode/8e803c218bc4238d8ffceb5877f4a541 This episode was supported by Galerie Max Hetzler. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Instagram: ⁠⁠instagram.com/empirelinespodcast⁠⁠ Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: ⁠⁠patreon.com/empirelines

    Human Being and Animals, Karel Appel (1949) (EMPIRE LINES x Galerie Max Hetzler)
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5
out of 5
16 Ratings

About

EMPIRE LINES uncovers the unexpected, often two-way, flows of empires through art. Interdisciplinary thinkers use individual artworks as artefacts of imperial exchange, revealing the how and why of the monolith ‘empire’. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Instagram: instagram.com/empirelinespodcast Read articles, and join talks, tours, events, and exhibitions: jelsofron.com/empire-lines Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines TRANSCRIPTS: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-pwfn4U_P1o2oT2Zfb7CoCWadZ3-pO4C?usp=sharing MUSIC: Combinación // The Dubbstyle PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic

Information

  • Creator
    EMPIRE LINES
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    172
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 199170
  • Show Website
    EMPIRE LINES