Benjamin Sebastian in conversation with Tamsin Hong
as part of ‘Holding The Shadow While Calling Back The Light’ at CT20, Folkestone.
CT20 and Benjamin Sebastian warmly invite you to attend an in person conversation between Benjamin and Serpentine Galleries Exhibitions Curator; Tamsin Hong.
On Saturday the 16th of November at 3pm, the duo will discuss Benjamin's new touring exhibition; Holding The Shadow While Calling Back The light (CT20, 1st of November - 29th of November) - exploring the intersections of decoloniality, neurodivergence & queerness.
The event will last approximately 60 minutes, including a post conversation Q&A. Capacity is limited, so book now to avoid disappointment.
- You can find out more about Holding The Shadow While Calling Back The light - HERE
- And read Benjamin's recent interview with ArtVerge - HERE
About Benjamin:
Benjamin Sebastian (1980 AUS/GB) is a trans-disciplinary visual artist and curator living in London (U.K.). Their work spans performance, sculpture, curation, video, text, installation, drawing, textiles & new media - rooted in processes of bricolage, assemblage, collage, ritual & D.I.Y. cultural production. Through harmonizing nonbinary perspectives, neurodivergent cognition and decolonial practices, Sebastian weaves nascent narratives into existence, offering alternative ways of remebering, being here-and-now, and charting pathways to futures yet formed. Sebastian proposes their work might be imagined as: “... a constellation of mirrors; reflecting aspects of the body, times, spaces & relationships I (have) inhabit(ed) - or - as world-making experiments, manifested through intuitive, erotic and esoteric methodologies.”
Sebastian is a champion of the artist-led sector having co-founded both ]performance s p a c e [ (nurturing the prime conditions for performance art[ists] in the UK) - and - VSSL Studio (a place of gathering, creation & development for queer, artistic practice). They hold a BA Fine Art HONS (1st Class) from the University of Lincoln and MA Curating Art and Public Programmes through Whitechapel Gallery/London Southbank University - Sebastian’s continued research interests include; Artificial Intelligence, Occult Practices, Queer Ecologies, Decolonialism, Transhumanism, Contemporary Performance & Visual Art. Sebastian and their affiliated projects have recieved funding from Arts Council England, the British Council, Greater London Authority, Creative Folkestone, Kent County Council, Inspire Lewisham, Roger De Haan Charitable Trust and Live Art U.K. as well as other charities and local authorities.
About Tamsin:
Tamsin Hong is a contemporary international art curator based in London. Born on unceded Ngunnawal Country, in the Bush outside of Canberra, Hong’s curatorial practice is shaped by the ongoing colonial complexities in the place now known as Australia. This informs her curatorial approach, drawing from her experience working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and cultures for 16 years. Rooted in these experiences, Hong is particularly interested in embodied practices, women’s knowledge systems, and our responsibility to nature and all living beings.
Hong is currently Exhibitions Curator at Serpentine in Kensington Gardens, collaborating with living artists to develop solo exhibitions providing new insights into contemporary visual arts practices. Her projects include Yinka Shonibare CBE: Suspended States and the upcoming Arpita Singh exhibition. She was formerly Assistant Curator at Tate Modern, specialising in performance and working on African and Australian acquisitions. There she co-curated the land-rights exhibition, A Year in Art: Australia 1992 and performances including Lee Mingwei’s Our Labyrinth, Ei Arakawa’s Mega Please Draw Freely and the 2020 Live Exhibition, Our Bodies, Our Archives. Hong also worked on the Tate Frieze Fund 2020-22 which included negotiating the custodianship of Edgar Calel’s The Echo of an Ancient Form of Knowledge (Ru k’ ox k’ob’el jun ojer etemab’el).
About CT20:
CT20 is a contemporary visual arts & culture platform championing high quality & diverse contemporary art from the margins, led by Nina Shen.
An independent non-profit BAME-led visual arts & community organisation based in Folkestone; CT20 delivers high-impact contemporary arts & heritage programmes to diverse ‘non-art’ audiences & marginalised communities in Kent, championing outstanding talents from the margins.
Unique in the region, we use radical & pioneering methods that break the mould & engage a wide audience, colliding high quality international art with hyper-local heritage projects, opening up ‘normal’ Britain in non-traditional & unprecedented ways.