Autumn Art Lectures Art in the Time of COVID-19: Artists in Practice

This series of lectures brings together contemporary artists, scholars and museum professionals to reflect on the impact of pandemics – both in the past and in the present – on the ways in which we create, engage with, and think about art and art-making. During the series, we will consider the longer history of art and diseases, the ways in which contemporary artists have reckoned with and worked through the COVID-19 pandemic, and the implications and new possibilities that opened up as we were forced to reimagine the form and function of our public collections amid lockdowns and enforced closures. We will look to the past – from the Black Death to the Third Plague – to provide context to our present as we begin to imagine what the future might look like for artists, collections and the publics that they serve.

In the final session of our series, contemporary artists Jade Montserrat and Abbas Zahedi will reflect on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on art and art-making and the broader themes of care, health, community and wellbeing that are woven through their practices.

Due to ongoing industrial action, it is currently unclear whether or not this event will be able to go ahead. We will keep you informed and confirm as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding.

Jade Montserrat was the recipient of the Stuart Hall Foundation Scholarship supporting her PhD (via MPhil) at IBAR, UCLan (‘Race and Representation in Northern Britain in the context of the Black Atlantic: A Creative Practice Project’) and the development of her work from her Black diasporic perspective in the North of England. She was also awarded one of two Jerwood Student Drawing Prizes in 2017 for ‘No Need for Clothing’, a documentary photograph of a drawing installation at Cooper Gallery DJCAD by Jacquetta Clark. Jade’s ‘Rainbow Tribe’ project – a combination of historical and contemporary manifestations of Black Culture from the perspective of the Black Diaspora – is central to the ways she is producing a body of work, including ‘No Need For Clothing’ and its iterations, as well as her performance work ‘Revue’. Jade was commissioned to present ‘Revue’ as a 24-hour live performance at SPILL Festival of Performance in October 2018, a solo exhibition at The Bluecoat, Liverpool (November to March 2019), which toured to Humber Street Gallery (July to September 2019), and was commissioned by Art on the Underground to create the 2018 Winter Night Tube cover. Iniva and Manchester Art Gallery have commissioned Jade as the first artist for the Future Collect project (2020). As of 2021, Jade participated in a group exhibition titled ‘An Infinity of Traces’ at Lisson Gallery, and opened a solo exhibition titled ‘In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens’ at Bosse & Baum Gallery, both in London.

Abbas Zahedi’s interdisciplinary practice blends contemporary philosophy, poetics, and social dynamics with sound, sculpture, and other performative media. With an emphasis on how personal and collective histories interweave, Zahedi makes connections whenever possible with those around, in proximity to, or involved with the particular situations upon which he focuses. Through a non-approximate approach, one foregrounding the multiple specificities of a cite/site and those beyond sight, Zahedi invites others into an ongoing conversation. It is through careful gestures that Zahedi’s practice is enunciated.

Booking Information

Due to ongoing industrial action, it is currently unclear whether or not this event will be able to go ahead. We will keep you informed and confirm as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding.

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