0
- 0
0
Initiated during the first months of lockdown in 2020, Autograph commissioned ten UK-based creative practitioners - Mohini Chandra, Poulomi Desai, Joy Gregory, Othello De’Souza-Hartley, Sonal Kantaria, Ope Lori, Dexter McLean, Karl Ohiri, Silvia Rosi and Aida Silvestri - to create new work in response to the wider contexts of the Covid-19 crisis.
The interdisciplinary artworks they produced represent thoughtful reflections on changing conditions of existence: generous invitations for us to think about what it means to be human and to care for one another. Using primarily photography and video, the artists reflect both carefully and critically – and often very personally – on the impact of the pandemic, exploring ideas of loss, family, home, belonging and diaspora while considering different lived experiences, and the inevitability of change.
Autograph's curatorial team Mark Sealy, Renée Mussai and Bindi Vora spent a year working closely with the artists to support the creation of new work. We also invited ten writers – each paired with one of the artists – to produce a short essay reflecting on these artworks, and conducted a series of interviews with each artist about their practice. The project has since been shared online, published in a new book, and presented as a group exhibition at Autograph's gallery in London and at Impressions Gallery in Bradford.
The artist commissions reflect Autograph’s long-standing mission advocating for photography and film to address visual politics of rights, race and representation.
Ten artists were commissioned to create new work during this critical time
Photography, film and more
Ten writers were commissioned to produce texts as part of the project
Autograph has published an accompanying anthology, featuring all artist commissions and texts
A group exhibition of this work was first held at Autograph's gallery in London and is now on tour to Impressions Gallery in Bradford
Contextualising the work and practices of a diverse cohort of UK-based artists
In March 2021, we launched the artist commissions and texts online to mark one year since the first national lockdown
Artworks from the commissions are now part of Autograph's collection of photography
We collaborated with Photo Australia on PHOTO LIVE, featuring five artists from the project
Mohini Chandra's work deals with articulations of identity and globalised spaces, and the role of the photographic in relation to memory and migration. Her research-led practice is fuelled by a sustained interest in photographic histories and the processes of visual culture within colonial, anthropological and ethnographic discourses. In her commissioned film Belated, Chandra offers a visual mediation on ideas of place and belonging during the global pandemic. View the commission.
I let the pitcher drift away
Curator Dr Sushma Jansari reflects on the poetics of Belated and how the pandemic may shape our understanding of the past, present and future
When Everything Fell Silent: In Conversation with Mohini Chandra
The artist speaks with Autograph's curatorial project manager Bindi Vora about the commission
Poulomi Desai
is a multimedia artist whose activist community-based practice often utilises performance, language, photography, and sound to create art advocacy projects.
For Care | Contagion | Community — Self & Other, Poulomi Desai created a series of images inoculated with bacteria, considering how we might attempt to control the uncontrollable. View the commission.
Life, Death and Everything in Between
Curator Tarini Malik responds to Desai's new commission
Our Cultures are the Portals: In Conversation with Poulomi Desai
Autograph's director Mark Sealy speaks with the artist about her practice, and the metaphor of the petri dish in the context of control, nurture and care
Joy Gregory
is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice explores the wider cultural politics of identity, race and gender. Her practice employs photographic media – both analogue and digital – from still to moving image and camera-less photography alongside installation, objects and sound.
Gregory created Madam Photo for the commission, a diary-like series of photographic and textual fragments drawn from her daily walks and encounters during lockdown. View the commission.
Breathing Space
Curator and writer Anne McNeill responds to Madam Photo and the importance of creative acts of self-care and seeking respite in a global pandemic
Isolation, Distance, Encounters, Invention: In Conversation with Joy Gregory
Autograph's director Mark Sealy speaks with the artist
Othello De'Souza-Hartley is a visual artist whose artistic vocabulary encompasses photography, film, performance, sound, drawing and painting. Working across multiple interdisciplinary platforms, his practice is concerned with ideas around the human body as a site of embodiment, often engaging with self-portraiture, masculinity and vulnerability as visually performed ideas.
For Care | Contagion | Community — Self & Other, De’Souza-Hartley reflected on the notion of stillness, loss and how to navigate grief. View the commission.
In That Green
Poet Raymond Antrobus reflects on De'Souza-Hartley's commission with a personal reflection on how grief may shape our sense of time, and being
In Search of Stillness: In Conversation with Othello De'Souza-Hartley
The artist speaks with Autograph’s senior curator Renée Mussai about the artist’s creative practice and the process of making Blind, but I can See
Sonal Kantaria
is a British Indian visual artist whose practice explores themes of movement, settlement, representation, and cultural identity. Her interdisciplinary research-led practice is concerned with history, trauma, and memory, investigating different forms of resistance through photography, video and text.
Kantaria's commission Ghar considers what 'home' might mean during a global pandemic and how it relates to her cultural heritage. View the commission.
City, Country, City
Lola Young weaves together ideas and memories of 'home' in her personal response to Kantaria’s Ghar
On Care, Memory and Place: In Conversation with Sonal Kantaria
Kantaria speaks with Autograph's director Mark Sealy
Ope Lori works across visual arts, activism, and academia, using lens-based media to investigate politics of difference, often in relation to cultural and sexual identity. Her research-led practice, which includes writing as well as image-making, invites viewers to question power dynamics in both private and public spheres, routinely challenging societal stereotypes, and myths. Lori created two performative film works for the commission that explore a shared lineage of philosophy between father and daughter inspired by Paolo Freire’s seminal book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. View the commission.
Transformations: In My Father’s House
Autograph's senior curator Renée Mussai reflects on Lori’s transgressive double performance in her new films
Notions of Becoming: In Conversation with Ope Lori
Artist and filmmaker Campbell X speaks with Ope Lori about the politics of sexual and cultural difference in Lori's artistic practice
Dexter McLean
is a photographer whose socially engaged practice is concerned with the representation of black and disabled communities. Drawing from his own lived experiences, he creates photographic portraits that emphasise the challenges and societal myths disabled people face in contemporary society. For this commission, McLean reflected on the every-day impact of Covid-19 within his community of close family and friends. View the commission.
On Photographer and Activist Dexter McLean
Artist and educator Dave Lewis reflects on McLean's commission, considering politics of representation, disability and the black body
Photography and Parity: In Conversation with Dexter McLean
Autograph's director Mark Sealy speaks with the artist
Karl Ohiri is a British Nigerian artist whose multifaceted practice focuses on the human condition and explores different social functions of art. Notions of self/other are central to his work, which routinely incorporate photography, video, text and everyday. For Care | Contagion | Community — Self & Other, Ohiri developed a conceptual artwork that proposes a sociological equation for humanity. View the commission.
The Oneness of Things
Curator Loren Hansi Gordon's reflects on Ohiri's new commission
What it Means to Be Human: In Conversation with Karl Ohiri
The artist speaks with Autograph’s curatorial project manager Bindi Vora about the process of producing his new commission, and the importance of care and community
Silvia Rosi
works with photography, text and moving image to explore ideas of memory, migration and diaspora. Inspired by West African studio photography, Rosi’s practice explores personal history through self-portraiture, drawing on her Togolese heritage and family traditions, especially matrilineality, and women’s labour.
In her commission, Rosi reflected on the different structures we build to protect ourselves and how the absence of touch can affect our social behaviour. View the commission.
Performing a Lockdown: The Self and the Camera
Writer and educator Krasimira Butseva reflects on how actions performed in isolation become rituals for survival in Rosi's new commission
On Structural Isolation: In Conversation with Silvia Rosi
Autograph's curatorial project manager Bindi Vora speaks with the artist
Aida Silvestri creates mixed-media artworks that challenge the status quo of stigma, prejudice and social injustice in relation to issues of race, class, identity and health – often combining text, image and experimental techniques to manipulate the photographic surface. For Care | Contagion | Community — Self & Other, Silvestri created a multifaceted body of work that explores the devastating impact of Covid-19 on frontline workers of colour, linking the present with the past. View the commission.
The Rhetorical Fallacy of Inclusion
Scholar Anthony Downey reflects on structural inequalities, and the imperial nature of the pandemic's rhetoric of inclusion as addressed in Silvestri's commission
If We Care Enough [To Look]: In Conversation with Aida Silvestri
Autograph's senior curator Renée Mussai speaks with the artist
The ten artists’ work was brought together for the first time in a group exhibition at Autograph’s gallery in Hackney, which was on display 23 September 2021 - 12 February 2022. The exhibition, which is curated by Renée Mussai, Mark Sealy and Bindi Vora, is now on tour to Impressions Gallery in Bradford where you can catch it from 12 April - 9 July 2022.
We worked with local design studio Fraser Muggeridge to publish a new anthology of the project, featuring all ten artist commissions and twenty-two texts. Available from Autograph's gallery and our online shop.
Shop 
Mohini Chandra
Silvia Rosi
Othello De'Souza-Hartley
Dexter McLean
Joy Gregory
Poulomi Desai
Aida Silvestri
Ope Lori
Karl Ohiri
Sonal Kantaria
Raymond Antrobus
Lola Young
Anthony Downey
Renée Mussai
Sushma Jansari
Krasimira Butseva
Loren Hansi Gordon
Campbell X
Mark Sealy
Dave Lewis
Tarini Malik
Anne McNeill
Bindi Vora
The exhibition is now on tour - catch it at Impressions Gallery, in Bradford until 9 July 2022.
Find out moreAutograph's commission by Aida Silvestri has been selected to illustrate the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights annual report, highlighting how art and human rights can illuminate one another.
Read the report
Bringing Autograph's gallery straight to you: virtually visit the Care | Contagion | Community — Self & Other exhibition
See moreRead Frieze Week London And Beyond: 5 Essential Exhibitions To See
Highlighting the importance of centring black, Indigenous, feminist, queer and other marginalised voices and storytelling in photography. With talks by project artists Ope Lori, Silvia Rosi, Sonal Kantaria, Mohini Chandra and Othello De'Souza-hartley.
Watch on our blog Can you spare a few moments? Autograph is carrying out a survey to better understand who our digital audiences are. The survey should take no longer than five minutes to complete. Anything you tell us will be kept confidential, is anonymous and will only be used for research purposes.
The information you provide will be held by Autograph and The Audience Agency, who are running the survey on our behalf. In compliance with GDPR, your data will be stored securely and will only be used for the purposes it was given.
You can take the survey here. Thank you!
Banner image: Poulomi Desai, from the commission Our cultures are the portals - the gateways between one world and the next, 2020. © and courtesy the artist, commissioned by Autograph for Care | Contagion | Community – Self & Other.
Other page images: 1) Mohini Chandra, film still [detail] from the commission Belated, 2020 Film. © and courtesy the artist, commissioned by Autograph for Care | Contagion | Community – Self & Other. 2) Poulomi Desai, [detail] from the commission Our cultures are the portals - the gateways between one world and the next, 2020. © and courtesy the artist, commissioned by Autograph for Care | Contagion | Community – Self & Other. 3) Joy Gregory, [detail] from the commission Madam Photo, 2020. © and courtesy the artist, commissioned by Autograph for Care | Contagion | Community — Self & Other. 4) Othello De'Souza-Hartley, from Absence (triptych) [detail]. From the commission Blind, but I can See, 2020. © and courtesy the artist, commissioned by Autograph for Care | Contagion | Community – Self & Other. 5) Sonal Kantaria, Ghar I [detail]. Film; 1 minute 16 seconds. From the commission Ghar, 2020, © and courtesy the artist, commissioned by Autograph for Care | Contagion | Community — Self & Other. 6) Ope Lori, film still [detail] from the commission The Lines Between Us, 2020. Film, © and courtesy the artist, commissioned by Autograph for Care | Contagion | Community – Self & Other. 7) Dexter McLean, Kamahl [detail]. From the commission Untitled, 2020. © and courtesy the artist, commissioned by Autograph for Care | Contagion| Community — Self & Other. 8) Karl Ohiri, = [detail]. From the commission Equation for Humanity, 2020. Digital Black & White Fiber-Based Gloss Prints, each 12 x 16 in. © and courtesy the artist, commissioned by Autograph for Care | Contagion | Community – Self & Other. 9) Silvia Rosi, [detail], from the commission Neither Could Exist Alone, 2020. Archival giclée prints, each 8 x 8 inches. © and courtesy the artist, commissioned by Autograph for Care | Contagion | Community — Self & Other. 10) Aida Silvestri, A Great Leveller [detail]. From the commission Contagion: Colour on the Front Line, 2020. © and courtesy the artist, commissioned by Autograph for Care | Contagion | Community — Self & Other. 17) Cover of Autograph's exhibition anthology Care | Contagion | Community — Self & Other. 18) Courtesy Mohini Chandra. 19) Dexter McLean. Photograph by William Gillingham-Sutton. 20) Courtesy Ope Lori. 21) Silvia Rosi, Self Portrait as my Mother in School Uniform [detail]. From the series Encounter, 2019-20. Commissioned by Jerwood / Photoworks Award © and courtesy the artist. 22) Joy Gregory, 2021. Photograph by Sunil Gupta. 23) Karl Ohiri. Photograph by Riikka Kassinen. 24) Othello De'Souza-Hartley. Photograph by Nico Froechlich. 25) Courtesy Poulomi Desai. 26) Courtesy Sonal Kantaria. 27) Courtesy Aida Silvestri. 28) Courtesy Raymond Antrobus. 29) Courtesy Dr Sushma Jansari. 30) Dave Lewis. Photograph by Franklyn Rodgers. 31) Courtesy Baroness Lola Young. 32) Courtesy Krasimira Butseva. 33) Courtesy Tarini Malik. 34) Courtesy of Anthony Downey. 35) Courtesy Loren Hansi Gordon. 36) Courtesy Anne McNeill. 37) Renée Mussai, with Zaki by Zanele Muholi, 2021. Courtesy Renée Mussai. 38) Courtesy Campbell X. 39) Portrait of Bindi Vora: Photograph by Laura Hensser for iheartwomen.co.uk. 40) Mark Sealy. Photograph courtesy of Steve Pyke. 41) Care | Contagion | Community — Self & Other exhibition at Autograph, London [detail]. 23 Sep 2021 – 12 Feb 2022. Curated by Renée Mussai, Mark Sealy and Bindi Vora. Photograph by Zoë Maxwell.
Exhibition images: Care | Contagion | Community — Self & Other exhibition at Autograph, London. 23 Sep 2021 – 12 Feb 2022. Curated by Renée Mussai, Mark Sealy and Bindi Vora. Photograph by Zoë Maxwell.
Autograph is a place to see things differently. Since 1988, we have championed photography that explores issues of race, identity, representation, human rights and social justice, sharing how photographs reflect lived experiences and shape our understanding of ourselves and others.
Donate
Join our mailing list
