About this episode
Alberta Whittle talks to Ben Luke about her influences in art, books, music and other media and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work. Over the last few years, Whittle has emerged as one of the most striking new voices in contemporary British art, especially with her collaborative film installations focusing on battling anti-blackness. Born in 1980 in Bridgetown on the Caribbean island of Barbados, Whittle moved to Birmingham in the UK as a teenager before studying at the Glasgow School of Art—she still lives in Glasgow today but spends some of her time in Barbados. This relationship between her native Caribbean and her Scottish hometown have informed her work from the start, in terms of exploring her own identity and its connection with the histories of colonialism, slavery and systemic racism. Whittle's acclaimed films are a collage of disparate moving images, including found archival material, footage shot on an iPhone and extraordinary performances filmed in beautiful high definition, among other things. In this conversation, she explains her instinct to collaborate with performers, artists and writers, reflects on her love of the art of Frida Kahlo and Hilma af Klint, among many others, and discusses the music she adores, by artists as diverse as Dancehall queen Patra and the late opera singer Jessye Norman. Plus, she answers our usual questions, including the ultimate one: what is art for? This episode is sponsored by ARTIKA . Links for this episode Alberta Whittle Shows: Alberta Whittle: Reset at Jupiter Artland business as usual: hostile environment at Glasgow Sculpture Studios Life Support at Glasgow Women’s Library Sonia Boyce’s exhibition In the Castle of My Skin at MIMA, Middlesborough British Art Show 9 Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s-Now at Tate Britain Sex Ecologies at Kunsthal Trondheim Scotland + Venice Discussed in the interview: The Guardian newspaper’s reporting on the Windrush scandal Frida Kahlo at Tate Modern, 2005—room guide Louise Bourgeois at The Easton Foundation Chris Ofili at David Zwirner Denzil Forrester at Stephen Friedman Gallery Hilma af Klint Foundation Tramway, Glasgow Fruitmarket, Edinburgh Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) Transmission, Glasgow Maryhill Integration Network Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg Cry Freedom on Amazon Prime Kamau Brathwaite at the Poetry Foundation Christina Sharpe’s In the Wake: On Blackness and Being Dionne Brand at Penguin Random House Edwidge Danticat’s Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work Jessye Norman’s Spirituals on Spotify and her Spotify page Tumi Mogorosi’s Project ELO on Spotify and his Spotify page Patra’s Spotify page Alberta Whittle’s blog about her Fresh Milk residency in Barbados, including the fete posters Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln perform Tears For Johannesburg & Triptych (Prayer, Protest) Constantin Brancusi’s Endless Column at the World Monuments Fund Alberta Whittle’s "accomplices": Sekai Machache Mele Broomes Matthew Arthur Williams Christian Noelle Charles Ama Josephine Budge Yves B Golden Anushka Naanayakkara Sabrina Henry Richy Carey Basharat Khan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.