A brush with... Alberta Whittle

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 episodeAlberta WhittleShows:Alberta Whittle: Reset at Jupiter Artlandbusiness as usual: hostile environment at Glasgow Sculpture StudiosLife Support at Glasgow Women’s LibrarySonia Boyce’s exhibition In the Castle of My Skin at MIMA, Middlesborough British Art Show 9Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s-Now at Tate BritainSex Ecologies at Kunsthal TrondheimScotland + VeniceDiscussed in the interview:The Guardian newspaper’s reporting on the Windrush scandalFrida Kahlo at Tate Modern, 2005—room guideLouise Bourgeois at The Easton FoundationChris Ofili at David ZwirnerDenzil Forrester at Stephen Friedman GalleryHilma af Klint FoundationTramway, GlasgowFruitmarket, EdinburghDundee Contemporary Arts (DCA)Transmission, GlasgowMaryhill Integration NetworkApartheid Museum, JohannesburgCry Freedom on Amazon PrimeKamau Brathwaite at the Poetry FoundationChristina Sharpe’s In the Wake: On Blackness and BeingDionne Brand at Penguin Random HouseEdwidge Danticat’s Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at WorkJessye Norman’s Spirituals on Spotify and her Spotify pageTumi Mogorosi’s Project ELO on Spotify and his Spotify pagePatra’s Spotify pageAlberta Whittle’s blog about her Fresh Milk residency in Barbados, including the fete postersMax Roach and Abbey Lincoln perform Tears For Johannesburg & Triptych (Prayer, Protest)Constantin Brancusi’s Endless Column at the World Monuments FundAlberta Whittle’s "accomplices":Sekai MachacheMele BroomesMatthew Arthur WilliamsChristian Noelle CharlesAma Josephine BudgeYves B GoldenAnushka NaanayakkaraSabrina HenryRichy CareyBasharat Khan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.