From 5 October 2024, the Barbican will host The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975-1998, the world’s first exhibition to explore and chart this period of significant cultural and political change in South Asia. Ahead of the exhibition, Something Curated sat down with Shanay Jhaveri, Head of Visual Arts at the Barbican, to learn more…
Based between Zurich and London, filmmaker and visual artist Wu Tsang’s work traverses genres and disciplines, oscillating and blurring the lines between narrative and documentary film, live performance, and video installation. A MacArthur ‘Genius’ Fellow, Tsang’s projects have been exhibited worldwide, including at New York’s Guggenheim Museum, Gropius Bau in Berlin, Tate Modern in London,…
Kenji Ide’s sculptural works, meticulously crafted from materials as varied as wood, paper, wax, stone, and concrete, alongside personal ephemera collected over the years, can be thought of as material poetry — odes to events in the artist’s life. Each component shapes the poem’s form, while their spatial arrangement establishes a rhythm. Appearing almost like…
Nestled in the Colonia del Carmen neighbourhood of Coyoacán, Mexico City, the Frida Kahlo Museum — known as La Casa Azul owing to its striking cobalt blue walls — stands as a testament to the life and artistry of the iconic Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo. This historic home was not only her birthplace but also…
An extraordinary example of indigenous engineering, the traditional architecture of the Musgum or Mulwi people — an ethnic group from Chad and Cameroon — has for centuries provided inhabitants with pragmatic and beautiful living solutions. Mostly found in the plains of Cameroon, where wood and stone are relatively scarce, these housing complexes are made from…
Mostly self-taught, Filipino-American artist Pacita Abad is best known for her trapuntos, quilted paintings made by stitching and stuffing her canvases. After moving to the United States in 1970 to escape political persecution from the authoritarian Marcos regime, Abad sought to give visibility to political refugees and oppressed peoples through her work. Born in Batanes,…
Established in the northwest London borough of Brent by filmmakers Turab Shah and Arwa Aburawa, Other Cinemas is a project born from the need for more equitable approaches to filmmaking, sharing, and education. Recognising these three elements as closely connected, Shah and Aburawa’s work aims to forge a vital and inclusive alternative to the existing landscape…
Laila Tara H deconstructs the aesthetic framework of the Persian miniature tradition, hybridising historical painting methods with radically contemporary compositions and ideas. Her works interrogate the quiet politics of the domestic sphere and the tension that exists between the personal and public realm. Drawing from her Iranian heritage and peripatetic upbringing, her paintings manage to…