Host Dr David Bellingham, Programme Director of the MA Art Business, Sotheby's Institute of Art, London, speaks with independent London curator and writer Maria Hinel about building a curatorial career outside commercial institutions and the philosophical threads that shape her exhibitions. They discuss her training (UCL, Courtauld), early work at Skarstedt Gallery, and independent projects at spaces including General Assembly, Shtager & Shch and Hypha Studios. The episode covers recurring themes in Hinel's practice: the relations between the human and the non-human; language; identity; gender; temporality; ecology and the agency of animals. They explore how these ideas informed exhibitions such as Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Timescapes, Carbon, Carbon Everywhere and The Middle Voice. Artists referenced include Susan Eyre, Amalia Pica & Rafael Ortega, Francis Alÿs, Jochen Lempert, Anne Marie Maes, Kat Lyons, Claudia Losi and Alina Zamanova. Key points: the dialogic process between curator and artist; staging multi-media shows across project spaces; making invisible forces (cosmic rays, magnetic vision) and animal perspectives visible; ethical and political questions around animal personhood, activism and visibility; and upcoming projects and ambitions, including a broader focus on contemporary Ukrainian art. Official / profile pages Website: mariahinel.com Hypha Studios bio: hyphastudios.com/maria-hinel-2-2/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/4b7b98b9/ Instagram: @mariahinel ArtRabbit curator profile: artrabbit.com/people/maria-hinel/curator Exhibitions (in episode order) Timescapes (Shtager & Shch, 2023) — covered on her FAD Magazine tag page The Middle Voice (Shtager & Shch, 2024) — listed on ArtRabbit Carbon, Carbon Everywhere (Hypha HQ, 2025) — artplugged.co.uk write-up The Pleasure of Misuse (Royal Society of Sculptors, 2025) — her own page or the institution's page Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (Hypha Gallery 1, 2026) — artplugged.co.uk write-up music ‘Baby, I Miss The Internet’ (Rama, Rama, Rama) by TOT TAYLOR is used by kind permission of the artist ©Tot Taylor/Songmatic Music (2020)