Guides  -   -  Share

Somerset House Studios is a new experimental workspace in the centre of London connecting artists, makers and thinkers with audiences. The studios are a platform for the development of new creative projects and collaboration, promoting work that pushes bold ideas, engages with urgent issues and pioneers new technologies. Over 100 resident artists will be supported to develop their practice inside the refurbished spaces of the former Inland Revenue building, responding to the changing ways in which artists are working and the acute rent increases in the capital. The studios are also home to Makerversity and a number of groups working with critical design and emerging technologies – collectively a dynamic community of over 300 artists, makers and thinkers.

Marc Quinn: Frozen Waves, Broken Sublimes at Somerset House (via Somerset House)
Marc Quinn, Frozen Waves, Broken Sublimes at Somerset House (via Somerset House)

Somerset House Studios builds on the success of recent projects such as PJ Harvey: Recording In Progress, Big Bang Data and Björk Digital in redefining the cultural centre as a place where cross-disciplinary work is imagined, made and presented. From 26 October 2016, applications will open to recruit up to 25 new artist residents to join the community. Artists may apply to occupy a studio for a fixed period, with rents subsidised by Somerset House in order to keep them low. The studios will also offer residents a growing programme of development, employment and prospective commissions, alongside the opportunity to present work within its curated public programme.

.

Running from 27 October to 6 November, the venue will host a free exhibition featuring work by some of the first Studio residents. The show, entitled Studio 01, includes artist avatar LaTurbo Avedon’s virtual nightclub, and fashion designer Gareth Pugh’s sculptural installation of The Tempest’s Sycorax to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. Inés Cámara Leret, an artist who turns DNA into tangible objects, will show her work Memory Stone imprinted with participants’ breathes, and design practice Superflux will present a fictional court case Dynamic Genetics vs. Mann, whose suite of evidence set in a laboratory imagines the implications posed by a world of mandatory health insurance, genetic risk profiling and backstreet gene-fixing.

Björk Digital (Photography: Santiago Felipe)
Björk Digital, Photography: Santiago Felipe (via Somerset House)

Current residents: Aisha Zia | Anna Meredith | Buckley Williams | Caroline Williams | Charles Jeffrey | Chloe Lamford | Christian Marclay | Deborah Pearson | Eloise Hawser | Erica Scourti | Estela Oliva | Gareth Pugh | Graham Dunning | Inés Camara Leret | Jennifer Walshe | Jessica Sarah Rinland | Juliet Jacques | Katie Paterson | Laturbo Avedon | Larry Achiampong | Lonelady | Makerversity | Matthew Plummer-Fernandez | Mel Brimfield | Memo Akten | Mind The Film | Minimaforms | Paul Purgas | Phoebe Boswell | Project O | Strange Telemetry | Superflux | Unmade | Werkflow

Stay up to date with Something Curated