Somerset House Podcast

Somerset House
Somerset House Podcast

The Somerset House Podcast, shaped and sculpted by artists, explores original cultural ideas which connect listeners to the creative process. Each series goes behind the scenes at Somerset House to uncover the stories explored through our programme and creative community. As the home of cultural innovators, Somerset House connects creativity and the artist with wider society to produce unexpected outcomes and unexplored futures, intensifying creativity and multiplying opportunity to drive artistic and social innovation.

  1. Our Beginning | SOIL: COMMON GROUND

    22 JANV.

    Our Beginning | SOIL: COMMON GROUND

    Our entire existence is dependent on our relationship with soil. As awareness builds of the enormity of the ecological crisis that we are facing, a growing number of artists are engaging with soil as a material in their work.  This three part series responds to the Somerset House exhibition ‘Soil: The World at Our Feet’, unearthing soil's role in our future through the work of artists and thinkers working with it. Soil is the basis of many creation stories around the world. It is our beginning, and it is what we will return to. In Episode 1 of Common Ground we look at soil as the matter from which life emerges. Exploring growth, beginnings and the ways soil as a material offers unique opportunities for exploration.  We hear from artist Asad Raza who makes ‘neo-soil’ from scratch and covers the floor of galleries with it. Artist Eve Tagny’s work examines the cultivation of the Rose as a way to ask questions about the ways we interact with the world. Agroecologist Nicole Masters and farmer Abby Rose, lay out what soil is and why it holds the key to our survival.  The episode is set within the garden of our presenter Shenece Oretha. Working with soil has shaped her relationship to the place where she lives and informed her art practice.  SOIL: Common Ground is a three-part podcast series exploring what soil can teach us about being human, through the lens of art. Soil is unsung, and largely hidden from view. What if we were to put it in the foreground? To think of it as a collaborator?   The series launches off from the Somerset House exhibition SOIL: The World at Our Feet. Presented by Shenece Oretha Produced by Jo Barratt and Alannah Chance  Exec produced by Alannah Chance and Eleanor Ritter-Scott.  The series is mixed by Mike Woolley Original music by Andrew Pekler Episode Image: Asda Raza - credit Luca Guadagnini.

    31 min
  2. The Process: More Than a Space - The Club in Black Queer History

    05/12/2024

    The Process: More Than a Space - The Club in Black Queer History

    Why has the club been so pivotal to the history of black queer placemaking?  For artist and filmmaker Topher Campbell, growing up as a Black queer man in 1980s and 90s Britain, the club provided a sanctuary from the judgement and hostility of mainstream society. It became a space for community, self-discovery, and, as a care leaver, a sense of home. As co-founder of the rukus! archive and curator of the exhibition Making a rukus!: Black Queer Histories Through Love and Resistance, Campbell reflects on how the club scene reverberates through the archive, one of Europe's largest Black LGBTQIA+ collections, and its vital role in Black queer placemaking.  In this podcast, Campbell speaks with two pioneers of the Black queer club scene: DJ Biggy C (aka Calvin Dawkins) in London, who helped create space for Black music in the capital’s predominantly white gay clubs, and US based Madison Moore, academic, DJ, and author of Fabulous: The Rise of the Beautiful Eccentric. Madison discusses his mission to reclaim techno for the black femme community and how fabulousness can offer both mask and armour for Black queer club-goers.  Madison is an assistant professor at Brown University. For further support, we’d like to highlight the following resources:   UK Black Pride  BLKOUT  Black Beetle Health  Galop  Produced by: Alannah Chance  Presented by: Topher Campbell  Series presenter: Laurent John  Mixed by Mike Woolley  Theme Music: Ka Baird   Additional Music: Shaun J Wright and Alinka

    29 min
  3. The Process: What is the legacy of the 2011 riots?

    25/09/2024

    The Process: What is the legacy of the 2011 riots?

    What one site in Croydon can tell us about the biggest moment of civil unrest in Britain in a generation. Artist Imran Perretta was in his early 20s when the riots began in 2011. What started in London quickly spread across England, but it was the footage of a furniture shop set on fire in Croydon which stayed with Imran. Now, 13 years later, Imran revisits that moment in a new commission for Somerset House Studios which recreates Reeves Corner in the gallery space, accompanied by a new work for string quartet, entitled ‘A Requiem for the Dispossessed.’  In this episode of The Process, Imran heads back to Reeves Corner to reflect on its legacy today. We hear from Tim Newburn, professor of criminology and social policy at the LSE, about the history of civil unrest in Britain and the nature of riots.  Croydon-based community artist Natalie Mitchell shares how community art projects can transform the way we think about public space. We follow Imran as he records with the Manchester Camerata and hear insights from sound designer Rob Szeliga on the ways in which music can affect how we feel.   As the requiem builds to its crescendo and the site lies silent, we ask: what does this patch of land say about the legacy of social unrest in Britain? Why has such a monumental uprising been largely forgotten? And how can sound tell this story in new ways?  We’re sensitive to the fact that while this subject matter is important to explore, it may be triggering to some audiences.  For further support, we’d like to highlight the following resources:  Healing Justice https://healingjusticeldn.org  Resist and Renew https://resistrenew.com  Radical Therapist Network: https://www.radicaltherapistnetwork.com    The Black, African and Asian Network (BAATN): https://www.baatn.org.uk  Credits  Produced by Alannah Chance  Presented by Imran Perretta  Series presenter is Laurent John  Mixed by Mike Wooley  Theme Music by Ka Baird with additional music by Harry Murdoch  The Process: A Somerset House Podcast    An artist-led podcast series which explores the new ideas, big questions and surprising tangents which emerge from the artistic process.  Drawing on the creative community both on site at Somerset House and from the exhibition programme, each episode follows artists as they explore one idea they’re currently pursuing, to see where it ends up.  From financial astrology to the black renaissance, quantum listening to the transformative powers of cute, along the way we hear from a cross-section of thinkers who have inspired them to help shape where it might go next.

    34 min
  4. The Process: The Darker Side of Cute with Sean-Kierre Lyons

    12/04/2024

    The Process: The Darker Side of Cute with Sean-Kierre Lyons

    How can cuteness be used to sugar coat difficult messages?  In this episode we join another artist commissioned for the Somerset House exhibition CUTE, Brooklyn based Sean-Kierre Lyons, to explore how cute characters have been used to tackle sensitive ideas from the middle ages on.  In her practice, Sean-Kierre brings the grotesque and the cute together to approach challenging themes. Much of her work is inspired by cartoon animation, specifically its roots in racist caricature. For her Somerset House installation Sean-Kierre created a dragon-like gargoyle called Benevolence, one of nine protector gods she is developing, inspired by the 90s cartoon ‘Gargoyles’ Here Sean-Kierre exposes the double edged sword of cute, looking at how cute characters have been used to mask malicious intent, as in the case of the animated characters used in war propaganda, as well as to deliver moral reminders, as far back as medieval masonry. She talks to animator of the Big Blue, Gyimah Gariba about how he uses cuteness to demonstrate the vulnerability of earth’s climate and art historian Dr Janetta Rebold Benton explains how gargoyles could be thought to be a form of cartoons of the middle ages. Contains strong language from the start.  CUTE: An Exhibition Exploring the Irresistible Force of Cuteness in Contemporary Culture, at Somerset House, 25 Jan - 14 Apr 2024. Principal Partner: Sanrio Producer - Alannah Chance Exec Producer - Eleanor Ritter-Scott Series presenter - Laurent John

    27 min

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À propos

The Somerset House Podcast, shaped and sculpted by artists, explores original cultural ideas which connect listeners to the creative process. Each series goes behind the scenes at Somerset House to uncover the stories explored through our programme and creative community. As the home of cultural innovators, Somerset House connects creativity and the artist with wider society to produce unexpected outcomes and unexplored futures, intensifying creativity and multiplying opportunity to drive artistic and social innovation.

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