New display from the Gallery’s youth forum Duchamp & Sons and artist Seth Pimlott

Alone Together: Youth Forum with Seth Pimlott
15 May – 12 August 2018
Media View: 16 May 2018, 10-11am
Galleries 5 & 6
Free Entry

3 May 2018 – This display features two new films created by Whitechapel Gallery’s youth forum Duchamp & Sons and the artist Seth Pimlott (b.1990 UK).

Thirty local young people from across London form Duchamp & Sons. These 15–21 year olds advertised an open call for an artist residency and selected Royal College of Art graduate Seth Pimlott from 53 artist submissions. Pimlott makes experimental films with groups of collaborators, placing faith in the power of the imagination to master one’s own narrative.

The residency took place over four months, during which the group explored the theme of ‘transition and turnings’ with the artist. Through yoga sessions, performance workshops and explorations of memory and sensation they considered the relationship between mind and body.

Their collaboration inspired the creation of two films. The first features a mysterious figure that evolves into a breathing, speaking portrait of the group – a body becoming aware of itself. In the second, the group are shown in action with the performance artist Nando Messias, taking their own bodies on a journey of self-discovery and expression. A chorus of mumbling words and sounds from rhythms of the body provides the soundtrack for the installation.

Alone Together invites the viewer to reimagine the body as a dynamic centre for change and its potential to inspire and create art.

Initiated in 2009, the Whitechapel Gallery’s youth forum provides a platform to share, discuss and experiment with new ideas. It aims to give young people practical experience, skills and behind-the-scenes insight into the Gallery, while working alongside artists and creative practitioners.

Notes to Editors

-Duchamp & Sons is a collaborative programme for young people aged 15-21 from across London. Initiated in 2009, the Whitechapel Gallery’s youth forum provides a platform to share, discuss and experiment with new ideas. It aims to give young people practical experience, skills and behind-the-scenes insight into the Gallery, while working alongside artists and creative practitioners. Their choice of name combines a reference to artist Marcel Duchamp, and to the shop Albert & Son on Whitechapel High Street.

-Programmed by our Education team since 2009, Galleries 5 & 6 at Whitechapel Gallery are dedicated to showing three new exhibitions per year that provide opportunities for young local people to collaborate with artists.

-Duchamp & Sons 2017-18: Aisha Bozonga, Akraam Ahammed, Alyssa Erspamer, Amabel Barlow, Camille de Guzman, Dan Martinico, Dwaynica Greaves, Edward Prenderville, Ettie Youngs Smith, Hafsah Mohammed, Hannah Aissa, Iarla Prendergast Knight, Isidora Bethell, James Bruin, Jannelle Williams, Jemima Thompson-Vidal, Joshua von Uexkull, Juliette Hills, Larisse Mongaba, Leia Spurdle, Max Barr, Mohammed Adel, Rafiqur Rahman, Rubia Southcott, Sammara Abbasi, Sara Ismail, Saskia Dakin-Chery, Sonam Tobgyal, Mahfuza Sumaiya Khanom, Tsz Wai Pun

-Seth Pimlott (b.1990) is a London based artist and filmmaker, and the current Participation Artist in Residence at Gasworks, London. He studied at Royal College of Art, London (MA Fine Art, 2014-2016). He was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2017/18, which exhibited at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead and Block 336, London. He won the Pete Lloyd Lewis Award at Chisenhale Art Place in 2016, and has made films supported by the BFI, Wellcome Trust, Mute Records and ATP Records. Recent exhibitions include A Concatenation of Rhythms, Gasworks, London (2017); Bloomberg New Contemporaries, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead and Block 336, London (2017-18); The Wind From Nowhere, Chisenhale Arts Place, London (2016); Camden Garden Centre (Screening), Camden Arts Centre, London (2016); 200 Acres’, Pumphouse Gallery, London (2015); We Cannot Unsee, BFI, London (2015).

-This display has been curated by Renee Odjidja, Swarovski Foundation Curator: Youth Programmes, Whitechapel Gallery and Mercedes Vicente, Daskaloplous Director of Education and Public Programmes, Whitechapel Gallery.

-Generously supported by The Swarovski Foundation

-With special thanks to Nando Messias, performance artist and Head of Movement at Theo Adams Dance Company; yoga instructor Lucy Swan; musician and composer Edgar Smith; Pearl Doughty-White; Roddy Canas and the Royal College of Art, London for the use of facilities.

Event Highlights

Exhibition talk: Thursday 31 May 6:30pm, Free, booking required
Duchamp & Sons and Seth Pimlott will give an insight to the themes and processes behind the exhibition.

Family Day: Saturday 2 June, 12–4pm, Free
The Families Programme joins forces with the Gallery’s Youth Forum to create activities that celebrate the new exhibition by Duchamp & Sons and artist Seth Pimlott.

Visitor Information

Admission: Free
Opening times: Tuesday – Sunday, 11am – 6pm; Thursdays, 11am – 9pm
Whitechapel Gallery, 77 – 82 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX
Nearest London Underground Stations: Aldgate East, Liverpool Street, Tower Gateway DLR
T + 44 (0) 20 7522 7888 | E info@whitechapelgallery.org | W whitechapelgallery.org

Press Information

For more information, interviews and images, contact:

Bridie Hindle, Media Relations Assistant
T + 44 (0)20 7539 3360 | E bridiehindle@whitechapelgallery.org

Lucy Hawes, Senior Media Relations Manager
T +44 (0)20 7522 7871 | E lucyhawes@whitechapelgallery.org

Press Release - Alone Together: Youth Forum with Seth Pimlott (PDF)