EMPIRE LINES

EMPIRE LINES

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. The Foreign Invention of British Art: From Renaissance to Enlightenment, Leslie Primo (2025), with Miranda Kaufmann (EMPIRE LINES Live at the National Gallery, London)

    JAN 29

    The Foreign Invention of British Art: From Renaissance to Enlightenment, Leslie Primo (2025), with Miranda Kaufmann (EMPIRE LINES Live at the National Gallery, London)

    In this special episode, authors and historians Leslie Primo and Miranda Kaufmann join EMPIRE LINES live, to discuss migration, national identity, and the many heritages of Britain’s best-known artworks, drawing from the collections of the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery in London. This episode was recorded live at the Supporters’ House Salon at the National Gallery in London in October 2025. Find all the information in the first Instagram post: instagram.com/p/DPogN0mgvtF/ The Foreign Invention of British Art: From Renaissance to Enlightenment by Leslie Primo is published by Thames & Hudson. Heiresses: Marriage, Inheritance and Caribbean Slavery by Miranda Kaufmann is published by One World Publications. Both are available in all good bookshops and online. For more about National Trust properties, hear historian Corinne Fowler with visual artist and researcher Ingrid Pollard, linking rural British landscapes, buildings, and houses, to global histories of transatlantic slavery, through their book, Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain (2024): pod.link/1533637675/episode/9f4f72cb1624f1c5ee830c397993732e Watch the full video conversation online, via Radical Ecology: vimeo.com/995929731 And find all the links in the first Instagram post: instagram.com/p/C8cyHX2I28 For more about Ottobah Cugoano, hear contemporary artist Billy Gerard Frank on their film, Palimpsest: Tales Spun From Sea And Memories (2019), recorded live as part of PEACE FREQUENCIES, a 24 hour live radio broadcast to mark International Human Rights Day in December 2023, and 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: pod.link/1533637675/episode/ODVmOTQ5NzEtNjU1YS00N2ZkLWE5YjUtZDIwNmUyZTI5MzY2 For more about Barbara Walker’s Vanishing Point series, hear curators Jake Subryan Richards and Vicky Avery on Black Atlantic: Power, People, Resistance (2023) at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. Hear Ekow Eshun, curator of the touring exhibition, The Time is Always Now (2024) at the National Portrait Gallery in London and The Box in Plymouth: pod.link/1533637675/episode/df1d7edea120fdbbb20823a2acdb35cf Hear artist Kimathi Donkor on John Singer Sargent’s Madame X (1883-1884) and Study of Mme Gautreau (1884) at Tate Britain in London: tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/sargent-and-fashion/exhibition-guide/sargent-fashion-audio And hear artist Yinka Shonibare CBE RA on Decolonised Structures: Queen Victoria (2022) at the Serpentine in London: pod.link/1533637675/episode/NTE4MDVlYzItM2Q3NC00YzQ1LTgyNGItYTBlYjQ0Yjk3YmNj PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Instagram: instagram.com/empirelinespodcast Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines

    58 min
  2. The Water Diviners, Jumana Emil Abboud (2020-) (EMPIRE LINES x Artes Mundi 11, Mostyn)

    JAN 15

    The Water Diviners, Jumana Emil Abboud (2020-) (EMPIRE LINES x Artes Mundi 11, Mostyn)

    Contemporary artist Jumana Emil Abboud respirits water sources from Palestine to Wales, drawing on folklore, oral storytelling, and memories of dispossession and resistance, in her ongoing series of collaborative workshops and performances, The Water Diviners (2020-). Jumana Emil Abboud’s exhibition is at Mostyn in Llandudno until 22 February 2026. Artes Mundi 11 continues at venues across Wales until 1 March 2026, with the winner announced at the National Museum Cardiff on 15 January 2026. For more from Mostyn, hear artist ⁠Taloi Havini⁠, winner of Artes Mundi 10, on the connections between extractive industries in the Pacific Islands and Wales. and their work documenting the environmental damage caused by colonial, and patriarchal, relations with land, in Habitat (2017): pod.link/1533637675/episode/e30bd079e3b389a1d7e68f5e2937a797 And contemporary and performance artist ⁠Paul Maheke⁠, as he moves between France, Congo, and Canada, and explores the ‘archive of their body’ through drawing and dance, in Taboo Durag (2021): ⁠pod.link/1533637675/episode/56020e3b6ddd4b59c15296540a140bd1 ⁠ Read into Alia Farid’s embroidered tapestry series Elsewhere (2023), at Chisenhale in London, and the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Oslo, in recessed.space: recessed.space/00232-Alia-Farid-at-Henie-Onstad-Kunstsenter For more from curator Rachel Dedman, listen to the 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 Siren Songs: Water as told by Artists at the Villa Medici in Rome (2025), read about Yannis Maniatakos and Zeljko Kujundzic, in gowithYamo: gowithyamo.com/blog/men-at-sea-yannis-maniatakos-and-zeljko-kujundzic And on water as archive, history, and method, listen to curator Eleanor Nairne on Julianknxx’s Chorus in Rememory of Flight (2023) at the Barbican, and Professor Paul Gilroy, on The Black Atlantic (1993-Now) in Plymouth. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠instagram.com/empirelinespodcast⁠⁠⁠ Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/empirelines

    22 min
  3. Every Monument Will Fall, Dan Hicks (2025) (EMPIRE LINES Live at Common Ground, Oxford)

    12/18/2025

    Every Monument Will Fall, Dan Hicks (2025) (EMPIRE LINES Live at Common Ground, Oxford)

    In this special episode, author, curator, and archaeologist Dan Hicks joins EMPIRE LINES live, to trace the origins of contemporary conflicts over art, history, memory, and colonialism, through their book, Every Monument Will Fall (2025). This episode was recorded live at Curio at Common Ground in Oxford in October 2025. Find all the information in the first Instagram post: instagram.com/p/DN0R3hN2ExO Every Monument Will Fall: A Story of Remembering and Forgetting by Dan Hicks is published by Penguin, and available in all good bookshops and online. Hear artist Pio Abad on Giolo’s Lament (2023) at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford: pod.link/1533637675/episode/1e7df6b20f9c99aae3e4df96f50913cf Read about Ali Cherri’s 2025 exhibitions, How I Am Monument at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, and Vingt-quatre fantômes par seconde (Twenty-four Ghosts Per Second) at the Bourse de Commerce in Paris, in the Burlington Contemporary: contemporary.burlington.org.uk/articles/articles/ali-cherri For more about Octavia Butler, hear artist Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum on It Will End in Tears (2024), at the Barbican in London: pod.link/1533637675/episode/6e9a8b8725e8864bc4950f259ea89310 And read about the exhibition, in gowithYamo: gowithyamo.com/blog/pamela-phatsimo-sunstrum-barbican PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Instagram: ⁠⁠instagram.com/empirelinespodcast⁠⁠ Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: ⁠⁠patreon.com/empirelines

    1h 14m
  4. Introducing: Wormcasts, from the Chelsea Physic Garden

    12/08/2025

    Introducing: Wormcasts, from the Chelsea Physic Garden

    Wormcasts is a podcast from Chelsea Physic Garden, created by the Young Producers – a group of 16 – 24 year olds working to engage more young people with the garden.    This series explores the global histories of botanic gardens, deceptive plants, working in the garden, and plants in the context of health and wellbeing.  Wormcasts are the microbially rich and fertile clumps of soil that worms leave next to their burrows as they forage for food. The Young Producers hope you enjoy the arisings that come from this little patch of green in South West London.    This series was collaboratively produced by the Young Producers at Chelsea Physic Garden (Hwei-Linn Khoo, Amelie Rossati, Zachary Sukonkin, and Tymon Zgorzelski), coordinated by Richard Choksey. The lead producer is Jelena Sofronijevic. Editing and Sound Design by Tymon Zgorzelski.    The Young Producers are funded by generous charitable donations by the Garden’s supporters. Unearthing in January 2026 - listen and follow, wherever you get your podcasts.

    2 min
  5. Colorless Green Freedoms Sleep Furiously, Miloš Trakilović (2023), with Jelena Visković (EMPIRE LINES Live at Forma, Artists' Film International 2025)

    11/20/2025

    Colorless Green Freedoms Sleep Furiously, Miloš Trakilović (2023), with Jelena Visković (EMPIRE LINES Live at Forma, Artists' Film International 2025)

    In this special episode, contemporary artists and filmmakers Miloš Trakilović and Jelena Visković join EMPIRE LINES live, exloring narratives of war, displacement, and visual cultures in the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, through the video essay, Colorless Green Freedoms Sleep Furiously (2023). This episode was recorded live as part of the public programme for soft enclosures, co-curated by Old Mountain Assembly, Rebecca Edwards, and Rina Meta at Forma in London, in October 2025. soft enclosures is an auxiliary programme to Dream States, Artists’ Film International (AFI) 2025. For more information, visit: instagram.com/p/DMxKnjBtFf9/ Colorless Green Freedoms Sleep Furiously (2023) is currently on view as part of At the End of the Small Hours, curated by What, How and for Whom (WHW) and Ana Kovačić, at the Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb until 30 November 2025. For more about Miloš Trakilović’s 564 Tracks (Not a Love Song Is Usually a Love Song) (2024) at the KW Institute in Berlin, read my article in The New Internationalist: newint.org/art/2025/spotlight-milos-trakilovic Motonation (2024) is currently on view as part of Jelena Visković: HEAT: A Sci-Fi Spa Story at Tallinn Art Hall until 23 November 2025. Listen to artist and filmmaker Saodat Ismailova on Melted into the Sun (2024), on view as part of Nebula, produced by Fondazione In Between Art Film, at the Venice Biennale in April 2024: pod.link/1533637675/episode/Y2IxOWI2YTUtMTI4MS00NzdiLWEyZmUtYmMyYTQ0NmQxMTQ2 Saodat Ismailova: As We Fade is at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead until 7 June 2026. Read about Marina Abramović: Gates and Portals at the Pitt Rivers Museum and Modern Art Oxford, in gowithYamo: gowithyamo.com/blog/marina-abramovic-gates-and-portals-review For more about Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous (2019), hear contemporary artists Hoa Dung Clerget and Duong Thuy Nguyen, and gallerist Sarah Le Quang Sang, recorded live as part of the public programme for Only Your Name at SLQS Gallery in London, in July 2025: pod.link/1533637675/episode/NjZmOGE0MmQtZTk5Ni00NTQ1LWJjYjAtMmVjODYzNWMwYjdj For more from Artists’ Film International (AFI) 2025, read about Anca Benera and Arnold Estefán in this Letter from Timișoara, in Art Monthly: instagram.com/p/DFdBW0eoE55/⁠ And view Anca and Arnold’s Rehearsals for Peace (2023) in Seeds of Hate and Hope, curated by Jelena Sofronijevic and Tafadzwa Makwabarara as part of Can We Stop Killing Each Other? at the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich, from 28 November 2025. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Instagram: instagram.com/empirelinespodcast Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: patreon.com/empirelines

    44 min
  6. Voiceless Mass, Raven Chacon and Scottish Ensemble (2025) (EMPIRE LINES x Fruitmarket, Edinburgh Art Festival 2025)

    11/06/2025

    Voiceless Mass, Raven Chacon and Scottish Ensemble (2025) (EMPIRE LINES x Fruitmarket, Edinburgh Art Festival 2025)

    Composer and artist Raven Chacon amplifies the Catholic Church’s complicity in the suppression of Indigenous people in the Americas, through their composition for organ, Voiceless Mass (2021). Raven Chacon’s Voiceless Mass was performed at St. Giles’ Cathedral in August 2025, as part of Edinburgh Art Festival (EAF) 2025. Deep Time 2025: I See Red, curated by Raven Chacon, is at Fruitmarket in Edinburgh from 27 November 2025 to 29 November 2025. This edition of the annual festival of new music accompanies the exhibition of Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s work, Wilding, which continues at Fruitmarket in Edinburghuntil 1 February 2026. Raven Chacon’s Silent Choir (2017) is part of this edition of the Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (GIBCA), which continues until 30 November 2025. For more about GIBCA, you can read my article in Third Text. For more about the Sámi people and Sápmi region, 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

    19 min
  7. The Trembling Museum, Manthia Diawara and Terri Geis (2023-2024) (EMPIRE LINES Live at PEACE FREQUENCIES, The Hunterian)

    10/23/2025

    The Trembling Museum, Manthia Diawara and Terri Geis (2023-2024) (EMPIRE LINES Live at PEACE FREQUENCIES, The Hunterian)

    In this special episode, filmmaker, cultural theorist, and curator Manthia Diawara joins EMPIRE LINES live, to discuss Édouard Glissant’s relations with natural environmental disasters, connecting the islands of the Caribbean and Scotland, through the exhibition, The Trembling Museum (2023-2024). This episode was recorded live as part of PEACE FREQUENCIES, a 24 hour live radio broadcast to mark International Human Rights Day in December 2023, and 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Listen back to the recordings with Billy Gerard Frank and Sara Shamma, and find all the information in the first Instagram post: instagram.com/p/C0mAnSuodAZ The Trembling Museum, co-curated with Manthia Diawara and Terri Geis, was at the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery in Glasgow from 2 December 2023 to 19 May 2024. Manthia Diawara’s film, A Letter from Yene (2022), is part of The Earth, the Fire, the Water and the Winds: For a Museum of Errantry with Édouard Glissant at the Instituto Tomie Ohtake in São Paulo until 25 January 2026. You can join the conference on 25 and 26 November 2025. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Instagram: ⁠⁠instagram.com/empirelinespodcast⁠⁠ Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: ⁠⁠patreon.com/empirelines

    20 min
  8. Burial, Emilija Škarnulytė (2022) (EMPIRE LINES x Folkestone Triennial 2025, Tate St Ives)

    10/02/2025

    Burial, Emilija Škarnulytė (2022) (EMPIRE LINES x Folkestone Triennial 2025, Tate St Ives)

    Contemporary artist Emilija Škarnulytė snakes from the decaying control rooms of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in Lithuania, to Dungeness on the English Channel, exploring time and geology through the concept of future archaeology, via their film installation, Burial (2022). Folkestone Triennial 2025 continues until 19 October 2025. From Amber to the Stars. Together with M. K. Čiurlionis: Now and Then is at National M. K. Čiurlionis Art Museum in Kaunas until 12 October 2025. The MUNCH Triennale, Almost Unreal, opens at MUNCH in Oslo on 15 November 2025. A major solo exhibition of Emilija’s work opens at Tate St Ives in Cornwall on 6 December 2025. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Instagram: ⁠⁠instagram.com/empirelinespodcast⁠⁠ Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: ⁠⁠patreon.com/empirelines

    16 min
See All (160)

5
out of 5
7 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
    160
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 199170
  • Show Website
    EMPIRE LINES

You Might Also Like