The British School at Athens: Artist’s Talk by Returning Resident Joshua Whitaker

8 Feb 2024

Overview

A talk/performance by artist Joshua Whitaker presenting writing, photography, and film developed during his stay as Arts Researcher in Residence at The British School at Athens (BSA) in partnership with Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon Colleges of Arts at University of the Arts London.  

The talk will explore the BSA’s archive, library, and laboratory’s influence on Whitaker’s practice— each of which provided source material for a new set of photographic, film, and silkscreen works— as well as the concept of ‘Acid History’, developed during the residency, which has subsequently been presented as a paper at University of Exeter’s ‘Apocalyptic Times’ conference.   

Walter Benjamin’s ideation of ‘Left Melancholy’, religious icons, Amiri Baraka’s unpicking of time in his short story ‘Rhythm Travel’, Etel Adnan’s poetry, the Delphic Oracle, and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s script for ‘San Paolo’ will be drawn on to elaborate the concept of ‘Acid History’ as an experience of time shot through photographic and cinematic mediums. Film photography and music will be used to explore how to reimagine history as ‘Acid’ in nature and in doing so radically rethink the conditions of the past and produce a future which escapes neoliberal politics.

FREE, booking required.

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