Blog / Watch Back

What is next? How do we turn intentions into actions through social justice?

POSTED: 26 January 2023

Watch back a conversation between artists and curators as they discuss their own practice and ways to work collaboratively towards social justice







ABOUT THE Event

If we stepped outside of organisational structures and constraints, what could we create if we all came together?

Watch back the event, in which a panel of artists and curators discuss their own practice and ways to work collaboratively towards social justice. Organised by Hannah Gedes at London College of Communication, with support from British Art Network.

Speakers

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Dr Maggie Matić

is a curator, writer and researcher with a specialism in contemporary feminist and queer visual culture. Maggie is currently Curator (Studios & Residencies) at Studio Voltaire, and has previously worked at Tate, FACT (Foundation for Art & Creative Technology), The University of Liverpool and The Royal Standard.

At Studio Voltaire, Maggie oversees all aspects of the studio and residency programmes, including the LOEWE FOUNDATION / Studio Voltaire Award, the Syllabus programme, Open House and the rolling artist residency and professional development programme.

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Marie Smith

is a visual artist and writer born, living and working in London. Smith graduated in 2017 with a MA in History in Art with Photography at Birkbeck, University of London. Her practice incorporates text and digital and analogue photography as a form of visual language that addresses identity, nature, environmentalism, mental health, and wellbeing. Marie utilises low-toxic plant or herb-based developers to process her analog film. Due to this methodology not being transferable to colour film processes, Marie now only works with black and white and camera-less film processes.

Marie is a member of Women Photograph and an Associate Lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London, London College of Communication and Kingston University London.

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Becky Warnock

is a London based artist and organiser whose work engages with the politics of representation and questions of identity. Interested in authorship, her practice is rooted in participation and community engagement.

She is particularly interested in language, its insufficiencies and nuances when describing complex personal experiences such as mental health difficulties. Alongside her practice, Becky currently lectures at the London College of Communication.

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Heather Agyepong

is a visual artist, performer/actor and maker who lives and works in London. Heather’s art practice is concerned with mental health and wellbeing, invisibility, the diaspora and the archive. She uses both lens-based practices and performance with an aim to culminate a cathartic experience for both herself and the viewer. She adopts the technique of re-imagination to engage with communities of interest and the self as a central focus within the image.

She has been nominated for Prix Pictet & Paul Huf Award in both 2016, 2018 & 2021 . Her work exists in a number of collections including Autograph ABP, Centre national des arts plastiques, Hyman Collection, New Orleans Museum of Art, Bristol Museum & Art Gallery and Mead Art Museum. She has been commissioned by a number of organisations including the Mayor of London, Photoworks, Artichoke & Tate Exchange.

Heather was nominated for the South Bank Sky Arts Breakthrough Award 2018, awarded the Firecracker Photographic Grant 2020 and have recently been selected as part of Foam Talent 2021, Jerwood/Photoworks Award 2022, Photo London x Nikon Emerging Photographer Award 2021 and The Photographers Gallery New Talent Award 2021. She was recently announced as a Nikon European Ambassador.

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Angela YT Chan

is an independent researcher, curator and artist specialising in climate change. Her work explores power in relation to the inequity throughout the history of the climate crisis, through self-archiving, rethinking geographies and speculative fiction. Her recent research-art commissions focus on water scarcity, conflict and everyday experiences through climate framings and communications. Since 2014, Angela has produced curatorial projects and workshops as Worm: art + ecology, collaborating with artists, activists and youth groups.

She co-directs the London Science Fiction Research Community and is trained as a data engineer. Angela is also a research consultant, having worked in international climate and cultural policy and on climate and sustainability projects for major cultural institutions.

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chaired by

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Mark Sealy

Professor Mark Sealy OBE is interested in the relationship between photography and social change, identity politics, race, and human rights. He has been director of Autograph (London) since 1991 and in his role as director has produced artist publications, curated exhibitions, and commissioned photographers and filmmakers worldwide. Mark is Professor of Photography Rights and Representation and a core member of UAL's Photography and the Archive Research Centre (PARC).

Organised By

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Hannah Geddes

is a curator, researcher and writer based in London. Specialising in contemporary photography, she is currently a doctoral researcher at UAL, and Curator at Tate and Splash and Grab photography magazine.

Her thesis ‘Curating the self: photographic self-portraiture as visual activism’ is looking at artists making work on the self as a form of visual activism and will also explore how curatorial practice can better support long-term engagement and participation with social justice practice.

Hannah has written for a number of publications including Splash and Grab, Ardesia Projects and Twin Magazine. She has worked on a number of exhibitions and displays at Tate including 'Ima-Abasi Okon', 'Zanele Muholi', 'Performing Genders, Performing Selves' and 'Liz Johnson Artur'. She curates the online platform for Splash and Grab and has curated a number of exhibitions including ‘Construction’, featuring the work of Suzie Howell and Marguerite Bornhauser.

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Images on page: 1) Courtesy of Maggie Matić. 2) Courtesy of Marie Smith. 3) Courtesy of Becky Warnock. 4) Heather Agyepong, photo: Hydar Dewachi. 5) Courtesy Angela YT Chan. 6) Mark Sealy, photo: Steve Pyke. 7) Courtesy Hannah Geddes.

Discover more images: 1) Sasha Huber, courtesy of Holding Up the Ladder. 2) Sasha Huber, Tailoring Freedom – Renty [detail], 2021. Metal staples on photograph on wood, 97 x 69 cm. Courtesy the artist and Tamara Lanier. Original images courtesy the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University (Renty, 35-5-10/53037). 3) Zanele Muholi, Bayephi III, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, 2017 [detail]. Commissioned by Autograph © and courtesy Zanele Muholi.