Out of SPACE | Care S1, E8: Community

Wed 3 Nov 2021

In this episode of Out of SPACE’s Care series we are going to be looking at ‘Community’ – that is, the support networks and groups of artists that come together in both formal and informal ways, as well as the idea of working with communities of people in a wider sense.

It’s notable that this year’s Turner Prize shortlist is made up entirely of artist collectives. Tate Britain Director and chair of the Turner Prize jury, Alex Farquharson, said, “After a year of lockdowns when very few artists have been able to exhibit publicly, the jury has selected five outstanding collectives whose work has not only continued through the pandemic but become even more relevant as a result.”

To talk about collectives, communities, artist-led and artist-initiated activities, and consider how being in an artist-gang can be empowering, we welcome two artists Serena Korda and Emma Cousin.

Listen to episode 8 here >

Further reading and references from this episode:

  • Listen to Emma Cousin’s podcast Chats With Artists in Lockdown here
  • Learn about making ceramic pieces through Serena Korda’s YouTube channel Serena Korda Ceramics here 

You can listen to the Out of SPACE podcast on Spotify, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts and your web browser. 

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Host
Cathy Lomax is a London-based artist, the founder of Transition Gallery and the editor of Arty and Garageland magazines. She is currently researching the role of makeup and artifice in the creation of the Hollywood female star image for a PhD at Queen Mary University of London. Cathy’s paintings and installations assimilate the seductive imagery of film, fame and fashion, juxtaposing it with personal narratives and the everyday. Her particular interests are femininity, masquerade and the way that popular culture is constructed, consumed and related to. In 2014 Cathy was an Abbey Painting Fellow at The British School at Rome and in 2016 she won The Contemporary British Painting Prize. Her 2017 solo exhibition The Blind Spot is profiled by Matt Price in The Anomie Review of Contemporary British Painting. Recent exhibitions include Star Bar, Broadway Cinema, Letchworth Garden City (ongoing), The Immaculate Dream, Collyer Bristow Gallery, London (2019) and Dear Christine, Vane Gallery, Newcastle (and touring) (2019).

Guests
Emma Cousin is a drawer and a painter. She was born in Yorkshire in 1986, graduated from Ruskin School of Art, Oxford in 2007, and is currently based in London with a SPACE studio at Haymerle Road in Peckham. Emma draws the things in front of her, things imagined and things felt, employing a darkly comic and irreverent parade of female characters. Her paintings, which explore ideas of support, mobility and progress, have a tension between the figurative meaning and the literal application. Emma’s recent solo exhibitions include Introductions at White Cube, London (2021) and New Dirt at Goldsmiths CCA Gallery, London (2020). Her work is held by museums and foundations in Latvia, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Malaysia and Italy. In 2015 she opened the project space, Bread and Jam, which she ran from her home in South London for two years and in 2020 she established the podcast Chats with Artists Under Lockdown.

Serena Korda works across performance, sound, sculpture and film, considering how communion, tradition and ritual shape our lives. Her interest in ancient cosmology, new age philosophy and theories of quantum physics have drawn her to the imperceptible connections between nature, plants and animals – all bound together by vibration, sound and energy. Giving the rational mind and the imagination equal weight, she strikes a balance between the scientific and spiritual realms by creating multi-sensory experiences that make invisible and inaudible forces palpable. Audiences are often encouraged to participate at some point in her process, creating collective experiences that focus on the forgotten and overlooked. Serena was the Norma Lipan/BALTIC Fellow in Ceramic Sculpture at Newcastle University 2016 – 2018. Her recent solo shows include, Missing Time at BALTIC Gateshead; Daughter’s of Necessity at The Hepworth Wakefield; The Bell Tree at Trust New Art and Bluecoat; and Missing Time a performance for The High Line in New York City, all of which were in 2018.

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Out of SPACE is a new podcast series featuring artists from across SPACE’s studios. Artists are in conversation with writers, critics and art professionals, offering a closer look into what happens behind closed studio doors. Out of SPACE is hosted by artist / curator Cathy Lomax. Over the next 8 episodes we will be exploring the theme of care from multiple viewpoints, ranging from artists and parenthood, to caring about the community and about the work itself.