Episode One
Vernon Ah Kee CantChant 2007
Themes: Decolonial Art, Text Art, Settler "Naturalisation"
Description: In this video I discuss the teaching of English as colonial violence and how Vernon Ah Kee uses English as a weapon to confront settlers. I discuss the removal of the spaces between words as a deliberate strategy to make English difficult for "native" speakers.
Educational Resource: A list of discussion questions, a studio activity, definition of key terms and artist quotes can be found here.
Episode Two
Map Kibera Trust Map Kibera 2009-ongoing
Themes: Mapping, Participant Art, Postmodernism, Globalisation
Description: In this video I discuss Map Kibera as a project that gives visibility and agency to the people of Kibera (Kenya’s largest slum). I compare this project with Google’s own map of the area, showing the failure of Google’s claim to have made a “perfect” map. I discuss the process of mapping as not documentary, but rather as producing what it maps. This idea is discussed as a key concept in postmodernism.
Educational Resource: A list of discussion questions, a studio activity, definition of key terms and artist quotes can be found here.
Episode Three
Wim Delvoye Cloaca 2000-2007
Themes: Capitalism and Art, Culture Industry, Shock Art
Description: In this video I discuss an artwork which produces shit as a way to think about mass culture. I demonstrate what happens when factory production is applied to culture. I argue that the artwork shows that capitalism changes the value of culture from something that is radical, original and difficult into something that exists to be easily consumed and discarded.
Educational Resource: A list of discussion questions, a studio activity, definition of key terms and artist quotes can be found here.
Episode Four
Sarah Lucas Two Fried Eggs and a Kabab 1992
Themes: Post-Feminist Art, Identity Politics, Gender Critique, Performativity
Description: In this video I discuss how Sarah Lucas uses simple jokes to make complex arguments about the construction of gender. Gender is defined as something that is repeated, not something that is “natural”. The formation of identity is revealed as the process of repeating external influences until they start to feel internal.
Educational Resource: A list of discussion questions, a studio activity, definition of key terms and artist quotes can be found here.
Episode Five
Adrian Piper Catalysis III 1970
Themes: Performance Art, Art/Life, Public Space, Male Gaze
Description: In this video I discuss how Adrian Piper uses public performances to reveal the complex interaction between looking and being looked at. I discuss how Piper refuses to be categorised by her audience or the artworld. She insists on being seen as an individual with the agency to consent to, reject or invite encounters.
Educational Resource: A list of discussion questions, a studio activity, definition of key terms and artist quotes can be found here.
Episode Six
Lily Cox-Richard She-Wolf 2019
Themes: Whiteness, Contemporary Sculpture, Eurocentrism, Civilized /Savage
Description: In this video I discuss how Lily Cox-Richard’s colourful copy of The Capitoline Wolf encourages us to think about whiteness not only as a colour, but as an ideology. The superiority of whiteness has been justified through the white ruins of Ancient Greek and Roman statues and architecture. However this is not accurate, as these were originally intensely coloured, but the paint has weathered away. Cox-Richard’s strangely accurate art shows the lie of this narrative, and shows us colour has always been at the heart of Western culture.
Educational Resource: A list of discussion questions, a studio activity, definition of key terms and artist quotes can be found here.