Dates:
25 Jul 2023 - 12 Oct 2026
People:
Ain Bailey, Rebecca Bellantoni, Beverley Bennett, Joy Gregory, Anthea Hamilton, Jacob V Joyce, Roshini Kempadoo, Niki Kohandel, Gail Lewis, Rudy Loewe, Sekai Machache, Bernice Mulenga, Yewande YoYo Odunubi, Ingrid Pollard, Marlene Smith, Ebun Sodipo, Alia Syed, Jessica Taylor, Alberta Whittle, Dr Ajamu X.
Living Archives is an oral histories project co-produced by the Stuart Hall Foundation and International Curators Forum. The podcast consists of nine intergenerational conversations recorded over two seasons, foregrounding intimate, intergenerational conversations between UK-based diasporic artists.
Living Archives asks: What happens when two artists sit down together to talk? How might their conversations and artistic practices map a living archive of diasporic relations in Britain?
The pairings in each episode begin with an invitation from one artist to another. Together, they exchange insights into art-making, memory and the ideas and influences shaping their practices. Rooted in Stuart Hall’s vision of a ‘living archive’, the series is a record of creative dialogues that explore how histories, identities and artistic practice are considered in the present.
Season Two
Hosted by Yewande YoYo Odunubi
S2 E1: Niki Kohandel and Alia Syed reflect on the stories we inherit from our families and communities, the importance of bringing different histories into relation, and how cropping, translation and ambiguity can inform narration in film.
S2 E2: Ebun Sodipo and Ain Bailey consider the creative potential of archives and imagination within the current social and political landscape, collage and fragmentation in building meaning and art-making, and how sound and performance shape an audience’s experience.
S2 E3: Rebecca Bellantoni and Gail Lewis exchange ideas on home and belonging, the legacy of black cultural and social movements in pre-2000s Britain, and the ways everyday life shapes their work.
Launching 28 September 2028
Season One
Hosted by Jessica Taylor
S1 E1: Ingrid Pollard and Rudy Loewe discuss the links between their practices, the relationship between activism and art-making and playful storytelling. Read Transcript.
S1 E2: Marlene Smith and Beverley Bennett reflect on family, collectivity and memory. Read Transcript.
S1 E3: Roshini Kempadoo and Jacob V Joyce exchange ideas around Stuart Hall’s work and legacy, the relationship between the archive and artistic practice and finding allies in history. Read Transcript.
S1 E4: Ajamu and Bernice Mulenga bend time reflecting on their respective approaches to photography, intimacy and working with large institutions. Read Transcript.
S1 E5: Joy Gregory and Anthea Hamilton share the ways their experiences have influenced their practice, the relationship between education and art-making and what plant life can teach us about being in the world. Read Transcript.
S1 E6: Alberta Whittle and Sekai Machache think together about freedom, urgency and slowness, their many transnational and international collaborations, and their feelings about edges. Read transcript.
LISTEN NOW:
Podbean Spotify Apple Podcasts
“The very idea of a living archive contradicts this fantasy of completeness. As work is produced one is contributing to and extending the limits of that to which one is contributing. It cannot be complete because our present practice immediately adds to it, and our new interpretations inflect it differently.” – Stuart Hall, Constituting an Archive (2001)
Season One hosted by Jessica Taylor, Season Two hosted by Yewande YoYo Odunubi
Edited by Chris Browne
Original designs by Yolande Mutale, Season Two designs by Joanna Risvik
Music by LOX
Living Archives is co-produced by the Stuart Hall Foundation and International Curators Forum, supported by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the Hollick Family Foundation, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the Power of Pop Fund, Arts Council England and the Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE).
People:
Ain Bailey, Rebecca Bellantoni, Beverley Bennett, Joy Gregory, Anthea Hamilton, Jacob V Joyce, Roshini Kempadoo, Niki Kohandel, Gail Lewis, Rudy Loewe, Sekai Machache, Bernice Mulenga, Yewande YoYo Odunubi, Ingrid Pollard, Marlene Smith, Ebun Sodipo, Alia Syed, Jessica Taylor, Alberta Whittle, Dr Ajamu X.
Living Archives is an oral histories project co-produced by the Stuart Hall Foundation and International Curators Forum. The podcast consists of nine intergenerational conversations recorded over two seasons, foregrounding intimate, intergenerational conversations between UK-based diasporic artists.
Living Archives asks: What happens when two artists sit down together to talk? How might their conversations and artistic practices map a living archive of diasporic relations in Britain?
The pairings in each episode begin with an invitation from one artist to another. Together, they exchange insights into art-making, memory and the ideas and influences shaping their practices. Rooted in Stuart Hall’s vision of a ‘living archive’, the series is a record of creative dialogues that explore how histories, identities and artistic practice are considered in the present.
Season Two
Hosted by Yewande YoYo Odunubi
S2 E1: Niki Kohandel and Alia Syed reflect on the stories we inherit from our families and communities, the importance of bringing different histories into relation, and how cropping, translation and ambiguity can inform narration in film.
S2 E2: Ebun Sodipo and Ain Bailey consider the creative potential of archives and imagination within the current social and political landscape, collage and fragmentation in building meaning and art-making, and how sound and performance shape an audience’s experience.
S2 E3: Rebecca Bellantoni and Gail Lewis exchange ideas on home and belonging, the legacy of black cultural and social movements in pre-2000s Britain, and the ways everyday life shapes their work.
Launching 28 September 2028
Season One
Hosted by Jessica Taylor
S1 E1: Ingrid Pollard and Rudy Loewe discuss the links between their practices, the relationship between activism and art-making and playful storytelling. Read Transcript.
S1 E2: Marlene Smith and Beverley Bennett reflect on family, collectivity and memory. Read Transcript.
S1 E3: Roshini Kempadoo and Jacob V Joyce exchange ideas around Stuart Hall’s work and legacy, the relationship between the archive and artistic practice and finding allies in history. Read Transcript.
S1 E4: Ajamu and Bernice Mulenga bend time reflecting on their respective approaches to photography, intimacy and working with large institutions. Read Transcript.
S1 E5: Joy Gregory and Anthea Hamilton share the ways their experiences have influenced their practice, the relationship between education and art-making and what plant life can teach us about being in the world. Read Transcript.
S1 E6: Alberta Whittle and Sekai Machache think together about freedom, urgency and slowness, their many transnational and international collaborations, and their feelings about edges. Read transcript.
LISTEN NOW:
Podbean Spotify Apple Podcasts
“The very idea of a living archive contradicts this fantasy of completeness. As work is produced one is contributing to and extending the limits of that to which one is contributing. It cannot be complete because our present practice immediately adds to it, and our new interpretations inflect it differently.” – Stuart Hall, Constituting an Archive (2001)
Season One hosted by Jessica Taylor, Season Two hosted by Yewande YoYo Odunubi
Edited by Chris Browne
Original designs by Yolande Mutale, Season Two designs by Joanna Risvik
Music by LOX
Living Archives is co-produced by the Stuart Hall Foundation and International Curators Forum, supported by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the Hollick Family Foundation, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, the Power of Pop Fund, Arts Council England and the Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE).
Dates:
25 Jul 2023 - 12 Oct 2026
