Listen up again! This month we asked curator Jemima Burrill and the team at NOW Gallery to recommend some of their favourite podcasts.
After running a series last year, where we asked our artists to recommend their favourite podcasts, we decided to follow up on its popularity by running a second series. This time we’ve asked some of our clients and other friends what they listen to in their spare moments. This month our guests are the team at NOW Gallery at Greenwich Peninsula in south-east London.
NOW Gallery is a free gallery and exhibition space, hosting work from new and established artists in the realms of fashion, design, photography and contemporary art. In a normal year, they run three solo shows, and, in the past these have included fashion designers Richard Malone and Molly Goddard, artists Laura Aldridge and James Rigler, and designers Studio Morison and Camille Walala. They also present the annual photographic series Human Stories and NOW Gallery’s Young Artist exhibition.
We’ll hand over to Jemima Burrill, NOW Gallery’s Curator and Cultural Consultant for Greenwich Peninsula to introduce her team and their choices:
Alicia Ivezic, Events and Placemaking Associate
WSJ’s The Future of Everything
A great tech all-rounder podcast that discusses topics such as Artificial Intelligence and how it will impact us in the future, digital currencies, health and medicine, and deep dives into companies that are at the forefront of revolutionising the way we live (Uber, Amazon, etc.). All the episodes are about 15-30 minutes long, so it’s a quick and easy listen!
Magdalena Kaggwa, Event and Exhibitions Coordinator
The Way I See It – MoMA Podcast Series
This podcast series was developed during MoMA’s renovation as a way of keeping the public engaged with their collection during their closure and the format is eerily relevant in a Covid world. Leading creative thinkers are invited to discuss a piece from their collection, often offering personal insights into how the work has had a poignant impact on their life while listeners are encouraged to simultaneously view an image of the work in question on their chosen device. It’s a bit like going to a gallery with Es Devlin or Roxanne Gay.
Jemima Burrill, Curator
I was particularly struck by Emma Gannon’s description of “The Multi-Hyphen Life’, her book which she talked about on this podcast. As someone who wears many hats, as a consultant, I loved Emma’s description of how it is to have many income streams and juggling identities. I curate NOW Gallery, host talks for the Design District, sell lockdown watercolours of overfull bottles, have a gallery in Paris and have an edition of photographic prints being made with Marcel. Emma Gannon describes this kind of working as possible, natural and to be promoted. Finally, to be the jack-of-all-trades seems like a good idea and having many strings to your bow can satisfy an itch. She shows us how, in a matter of fact way, this way of working should be encouraged – you can ‘work less and create more’. She also interviews a fine collection of women. Check out Christine Armstrong on ‘The Truth of Working and Parenting’ and Emma Jane Unsworth on ‘Novel to Screenplay’. Smart woman talk.
This 48 mins of unadulterated beautiful language and thought makes your head spin – in a good way. It’s a collection of thoughts passed on from one writer to another, five writers from different parts of the globe reflecting on their experiences in lockdown. I was touched by William Fiennes talking about spring and the description of how the strength of a genie comes from his confinement in a bottle, the limitation makes the power. There is Claire-Louise Bennett swimming in Galway, Thomas Lynch’s flirtations, Akash Kapur reminding us never to forget this moment and asking us to question what is the message that nature is sending us today.
Camden Arts Centre The Botanical Mind Online
The way that Camden Arts Centre are dealing with their new show’s postponement is to explore The Botanic Mind exhibition using the digital medium in as many ways as possible. This includes the podcast I listened to: Plant Sentience – A new model for Intelligent Life. Monica Gagliano talks about plants as a living, conscious, interacting phenomenon. She describes the need for us to create a new way of thinking around plant intelligence, philosophy and cultural theory. I came away thinking differently about the green around me.
It is always interesting to see what other galleries are doing at this time. How they are turning their current exhibitions in to a virtual experience. There are many good examples. Frith Street Gallery is streaming artist films, so worth checking out, including Dorothy Cross: Stabat Mater, 2004. Simon Lee Gallery’s Artist in Focus delves into their artists’ studio practice as a snapshot beyond the gallery. And Tea with Julia Peyton Jones sees her interviewing friends and colleagues on Instagram Live @thaddaeusropac. It’s a refreshing mix of art personalities chatting in a relaxed fashion with the high priestess of the art world. Great to hear her talking with my other hero Alice Rawsthorn. Plus, John Bock’s latest film, Hell’s Bells, a highlight, is being shown by Sadie Coles. So much to catch up with.
Lastly, for the kids:
If you’re looking for more podcast inspiration, take a look at the recommendations by Jennifer Higgie, editor-at-large at Frieze, here.