as part of ‘Holding The Shadow While Calling Back The Light’ at VSSL Studio, London.
VSSL Studio and Benjamin Sebastian warmly invite you to attend an in person conversation between Benjamin and VSSL Studio co-founding director; Joseph Morgan Schofield.
On Thursday the 13th of February at 7pm, the duo will discuss Benjamin's touring exhibition; Holding The Shadow While Calling Back The light (on display at VSSL Studio from the 31st of January to the 28th of February) - exploring themes of decoloniality, settler-colonialism, neurodivergence & queerness.
The event will last approximately 60 minutes, including a post conversation Q&A. Capacity is limited (20 places), 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 Joseph:
Joseph Morgan Schofield is an artist, curator & creative producer based in London, working on local, national and international projects. Their specialisms are in contemporary performance and embodied practice (performance art, Live Art, contemporary dance), artist development and public programming. Operating across institutional contexts and independent artist-led initiatives, Joseph works to curate, faciliate and support spaces which foreground complexity, sensitivity, risk and attunement. As an artist, Joseph makes queer ritual action, typically expressed through performance art, moving image and text. The sweating sensate body is at the heart of this practice and their work often involves practices of channeling, divination, exhaustion and the crossing of thresholds. Joseph draws upon an expansive material, physical and poetic vocabulary he has developed across the last decade in dialogue with a host of agents and collaborators, human and otherwise. Joseph’s art practice is informed by their work as a curator and organiser and by their extensive collaborations, including those with the Anam Cara Collective, Anne Bean, Fenia Kotsopoulou, Ash McNaughton, zack mennell, Martin O’Brien, Marcel Sparmann, Baiba Sprance and Marco Berardi, kane stonestreet, and VestAndPage.
For much of the last 10 years, Joseph’s work has been preoccupied with anticipatory and, eventually, realised grief. Alongside the personal resonance of these psychomagical actions, he has sought to hold a non-didactic space for those witnessing the works to confront their own emotions, memories and processes. In this new time, after life/s, Joseph is reflecting on how to continue making, sharing and witnessing this work. They remain open to invitations from all those who feel a resonance with this work. Joseph’s research interests into belief, mystery, land and death are most clearly expressed through Future Ritual, a long term curatorial, research and organising practice initiated in 2017. Early iterations of Future Ritual intentionally shifted shape, emerging as a touring platform, festival, season and intensive workshop, borrowing and activating contexts including the ICA (London), Arnolfini and SPACE Studios.
About VSSL:
VSSL is a container for contemporary, queer, interdisciplinary visual art practice(s). We believe in the boundless potential of art, akin to the expansiveness of queerness, striving to ensure that the transformative power of art can benefit and is accessible to all within our diverse communities. As a queer, disabled, artist-led, not-for-profit gallery/studio, we provide a welcoming space for gathering, creation, collaboration and development for queer individuals and their extended communities. Through our dedication to nurturing contemporary, queer, interdisciplinary art and practitioners, we continue to forge meaningful mutually-supportive partnerships with organisations to further platform and elevate members of our communities and the artworks that they produce. Our mission is simple: we create space and share resources to enable queer people to make art that reflects queer experience, transforming themselves and the world(s) we live in the process.