This Thursday offers a broad selection of events! You can choose to join the BAXSAN takeover at Whitechapel Gallery or be inspired by the usual itinerary of First Thursdays. It is recommended to use public transport for tonight’s self-led tour.
Tonight’s special event at Whitechapel Gallery is the exciting Gallery Takeover: BAXSAN and Friends happening between 6 and 9 pm. BAXSAN are a group of artists and community facilitators who have been meeting regularly at Whitechapel Gallery for four years, born out of shared frustrations amongst the founding members about the lack of support for Black and/or Muslim LGBTQI+ people in London, later expanding to the UK. It was born with the intention to build a support system for very much neglected groups; to create connection, community and art through shared lived experiences. The Somali word BAXSAN translates to ‘the emancipated one’; it is a symbol of freedom. Freedom from the confines of societal expectation and homogenous experiences.
The BAXSAN and Friends Takeover is an invitation to all to celebrate [re]birth and reclamation in an evening of multi-sensorial, multimedia artistic practices.
For everyone who will plan to leave Whitechapel Gallery for continuing the First Thursdays itinerary, the next stop is Studio 1.1 for the exhibition by Daniel Pasteiner ‘Daemon Waves’. The show presents a series of interesting works (paintings and sculpture) meticulously made using a process of sandblasting and painting onto salvaged glass solar panels. Through this particular technique, the artist produces a thin paint membrane covering the jet-black void of the glass of the panels resembling sky-scapes, clouds-like surfaces and pools.
The following destination is at Kupfer for an artist talk (it starts at 6 pm and finishes at 7:30 pm) by Dominic Myatt and one of their mentors during the residency period; Chief Curator at Avant Arte, writer, lecturer and advisor, Gemma Rolls-Bentley. The talk will be a great opportunity for learning more about Dominic’s making processes, active questions within their practice and how exchange, feedback and reflection are vital parts of creative production.
From here, the walking route heads to Nunnery Gallery forVisions Programme 1 led by Patrick Goddard. The gallery invites you into the abandoned English garden, across an untended lawn and into decrepit sheds, in which lurk films exploring nostalgia, ecology, our relationship with animals and surreal imagination. Led by invited artist Patrick Goddard, his satirical art focuses on urban change, gentrification and ecology with works that are often politically charged and narrative-based. His characteristic immersive installations are an intrinsic part of his practice with films shown within their own encompassing viewing enviroments. For Visions Goddard has created a unique installation, houseing 20 international artists’ films together with a new work of his own, a continuation of his celebrated Animal Antics.
The last stop of today is Black White Gallery. The gallery is opening the open-call group exhibition Accessible Art Show with works by over 20 artists united under the theme: fabricating form. In a bid to support emerging artists, and encourage art investment beyond the institutionalised art market, all exhibited artworks are priced between £50 – £600.
