Image credit: B.O.S.S. (clockwise from top): Kiera Coward-Deyell, Adedamola Bajomo, Evan Ifekoya, group shot, Gin Wilson, Phoebe Collings-James, Marcus Macdonald and Onyeka Igwe. Photo credit: (clockwise from top): 1,2,3,4,6,7,8 by Yasmine Akim, image 5 by N. Armani.
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The Whitechapel Gallery is committed to making all of our events as accessible as possible for every audience member. Please contact access@whitechapelgallery.org if you would like to discuss a particular request and we will gladly discuss with you the best way to accommodate it.
Information about access on site at the gallery is available here https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/visit/access/
This includes information about Lift access; Borrowing wheelchairs & seating; Assistance Animals; Parking; Toilets and baby care facilities; Blind & Partially Sighted Visitors; Subtitles and transcripts; British Sign Language (BSL) and hearing induction loops; Deaf Messaging Service (DMS).
About This Event
This event takes place across all public spaces at Whitechapel Gallery, across multiple floors (all spaces have lift and stair access)
This event lasts approximately 3.5 hours and will finish at 9.30pm
This event is free of charge, but you must RSVP using the link on the page
Our spaces have limited capacities – we recommend arriving early to avoid disappointment. Depending on numbers, we may operate a one in-one out policy as well as sign-up sheets and waiting lists in selected areas of the gallery
Smaller workshops during this Late are limited capacity – you must register online in advance. We will operate a limited waitlist on the day for any no shows
This event is suitable for those over the age of 16
We are unable to provide British Sign Language interpretation for this event
We are unable to provide live closed captioning or CART for this event.
Transport
To the best of our knowledge, there are no planned disruptions to local transport on the date of the event.
Our nearest train station – Aldgate East Underground (1 min) is not wheelchair accessible. The closest wheelchair accessible stations are Whitechapel (15 min), Shoreditch High Street (15 min) or Liverpool Street (15 min).
Free parking for Blue Badge holders is available at the top of Osborn Street in the pay and display booths for an unlimited period. Spaces are available on a first come, first served basis.
For the first of our once-a-season specially curated Lates, join artist collective and Black-led sound system Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S.) for a free, after-hours programme of live DJs, performances, audio experiences, and workshops.
B.O.S.S. were stablished with the intention of bringing together a community of queer, trans, and non-binary Black people and people of colour involved in art, sound, and radical activism. Following and paying homage to the long legacies of sound system culture, they are learning, building, and sustaining a resource for our collective struggles.
Entry is free, but please RSVP using the booking link to let us know you’re coming!
Please note: our spaces have limited capacities, so we recommend arriving early to avoid disappointment. Depending on numbers, we may operate a one in-one out policy as well as sign-up sheets and waiting lists in selected areas of the gallery.
Smaller workshops during this Late are limited capacity – you must register online in advance using the links in the programme drop downs. We will operate a small waitlist on the day for any no shows.
This specially curated Late accompanies our current exhibition Donald Rodney: Visceral Canker.
All activity in Gallery 2 is drop in, with no booking required
6 – 6.45pm Performance: Shenece Oretha
Shenece Oretha will make a sonic invitation into her ongoing research The Black Whole. The set will be a meditation on Black avant garde, queer poetry and music, inviting whole and embodied listening.
7.20 – 7.30pm Film screening: Collective Hum – B.O.S.S.
A short film exploring the polyphony of collectivity in the desires, motivations and stories that foreground the histories and present(s) of Black British sound. Collective Hum documents a collective in practice through the operation of B.O.S.S using multiple narration, overlapping voices and the sound of group interviews, meetings and events to create a polyphonic score to soundtrack images of the ‘collective bodies, kinaesthetic experience and gestural language’ of sound system culture.
7.30 – 8pm Performance: Kobi Essah Ayensuo
In Honour of my Body, Spirit and Worlds to come
A journey bookmarked by chapters exploring a Black Trans disabled Coming of Age story, exploring the life with a Chronic illness, denial, grief, generational trauma, the connectivity in our struggles, Spirituality and dreaming up a better world.
In this story the body remembers, connects to Source and Dreams.
Content warning: this performance contains references to sexual assault, medical negligence, and death.
8.30 – 9.25pm DJ set: DJ Xzan
Known for their hyperactive and genre-defying sets, DJ Xzan will be sound tracking the Late with a set journeying from alté/afro house to baile and other sounds from the diaspora – expect bootlegs, mashups and all your party faves seamlessly blended for your listening pleasure.
9.25 – 9.30pm Pop-up performance: Mr Blaque
To close the Late, neo-boylesque performer Mr Blaque will deliver a burlesque-inspired, high-energy strip tease, moving to the rhythm of contemporary hip-hop and dancehall. Packing a sultry punch with boxing-themed choreography, acrobatics, and crowd work, this closing performance is not one to miss!
6 – 9pm B.O.S.S. Barbershop with Kellonkutz
Booking required – book your slot using the link here.
Paying homage to the sounds and communion within the barbershop, Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S.) invite Kellon Bubb aka. Kellonkutz into the heart of the gallery to be their Barber-in-residence for the evening, offering free cuts sound tracked by a history lesson of your choice.
Here we consider the barbershop as a point of musical discovery and political discussion.
A place where the rhythm and percussion
of clippers and conversation,
or the predictable nature of your barber’s favourite radio station,
Soundtrack transformation.
Please, pick a station to accompany your participation.
Content warning: please note that some episodes may contain mentions of violent histories.
For those not getting a cut, we invite you to sit down, relax, and listen along with us in the barbershop.
Each haircut will be allocated 30 minutes. Available appointments are 6pm, 6.30pm, 7pm, 7.30pm, 8pm, and 8.30pm.
There are only 6 appointments during this Late which you must book online in advance. If you are no longer able to attend your cut, please cancel your ticket. We will operate a small waitlist on the day for any no shows.
Booking required – book your slot using the link here.
6 – 9pm Sensing the Studio with Ajamu X
Booking required – find out more and book your place here.
Too often, black and LGBTQI+ photographers’ work is appraised largely based on its subject matter. Identity thinking and a socio-political framing is privileged above the photographic ‘act’, even though the two are intimately entwined.
This photographic ‘play-shop’ with Ajamu X will encourage participants to approach their image making through an emphasis on process and production. By foregrounding aesthetics, experimentation, risk taking, sensuality and pleasure, participants will develop a more embodied and nuanced dialogue in relation to the sensual-material attributes of their photographic practice.
This is a hands-on and participatory workshop, which will include discussions, a pop-up photographic studio, and a professional model (for both portraiture and nude photography).
PLEASE NOTE: part of the workshop will involve nude photography, so there will be a professional nude model present for this section. This workshop is catered towards folks with an existing photographic practice or interest in photography.
Booking required – find out more and book your place here.
7 – 8.30pm – Building a DIY mini speaker with Xana
Booking required – find out more and book your place here.
Join composer, spatial sound artist, music supervisor and haptic specialist sound designer Xana in this hands-on workshop where we will learn how to build our own DIY mini speakers from scratch.
In this low-stakes, intimate session, you will be supported step-by-step as we build out our mini speakers piece by piece, learning how to connect tech with the art of play.
No experience needed – just a love of music and tinkering.
PLEASE NOTE: this workshop is open to adults aged 18+ only and involves some light soldering.
Booking required – find out more and book your place here.
6 – 9pm Home as Sanctuary as Body in a State of Siege
Drop-in, no booking required
Accompanying the exhibition Donald Rodney: Visceral Canker, a free hour-long programme of contemporary artists’ film invites us to reflect on the concerns within Rodney’s work and its relevance and influence today. Taking its title from a statement in one of Rodney’s sketchbooks, the programme explores the politics of the body, particularly as it is impacted by modern technologies and mediated by constructs of race, gender and disability.
Contributing artists include: Larry Achiampong & David Blandy, Hannah Black, James Gregory Atkinson, Yazan Khalili, Carolyn Lazard, Zinzi Minott, Shahryar Nashat and Camara Taylor.
The programme is curated by Richard Birkett, author of Donald Rodney: Autoicon (Afterall, 2023).
6 – 9pm Donald Rodney: Visceral Canker
Drop-in, no booking required
Following acclaimed presentations at both Spike Island (Bristol) and Nottingham Contemporary (Nottingham), Whitechapel Gallery brings this major survey exhibition of the late British multi-media artist Donald Rodney (b.1961, West Bromwich; d.1998, London) to London.
Visceral Canker encompasses the majority of Rodney’s surviving works from 1982 to 1997 including large-scale oil pastels on X-rays, kinetic and animatronic sculptures as well as his sketchbooks and rare archival materials. The exhibition showcases the extraordinary breadth and influence of Rodney’s work, confirming him as a vital figure in British art, and introducing him to a new generation of audiences.
Rodney experimented with new materials and technologies throughout his all too brief career. Working across sculpture, installation, drawing, painting and digital media, Rodney’s wide-ranging practice resists simple categorisation both thematically and materially, due to his innovative approach to both mediums and technical processes.
Rodney lived with sickle cell anaemia and harnessed the condition to confront the prejudices and injustices surrounding racial identity, Black masculinity, chronic illness and Britain’s colonial past. At his untimely death in 1998 from complications arising from sickle cell, Rodney left a multifaceted and influential body of work which has influenced artists, writers and filmmakers on both sides of the Atlantic.
6 – 9pm Moving Grounds: 15 years of Duchamp & Sons
Drop-in, no booking required
Moving Grounds: 15 Years of Duchamp & Sons is an original exhibition curated by Whitechapel Gallery’s youth collective Duchamp & Sons, with artist Holly Graham, and Amelia Oakley (Curator: Youth Programmes, Whitechapel Gallery).
The exhibition marks the collective’s 15-year anniversary, and with it a generation of artistic experimentation during a period of unprecedented pressure on arts education, funding, and young people.
Founded in its current form in 2010, Duchamp & Sons is a collective of young people aged 15-24 from in and around East London who meet regularly at Whitechapel Gallery to collaborate with each other and guest contemporary artists on creative projects. Prioritising those from backgrounds underrepresented in the arts, the group aims to offer a supportive and participatory space for members to connect with their creative and critical voice, and to discover more about possible pathways in visual art.
This new exhibition is a celebration of Duchamp & Sons far-reaching and ever-evolving artistic collaborations, past and present, and a timely reminder of the crucial need for young people’s voices in gallery spaces.
Playful re-imaginings of archival materials combine with new audio experiments and an invitation to participate – offering a space for everyone to gather, reflect and collaborate on a manifesto for the future.
Ajamu X (FRPS) is a darkroom/fine art photographic artist. His practice places the sensual -material attributes of production, making and process at the centre of the work and whose subject matter is similarly focused on sensuality.
His highly crafted images privilege those tangible/tactile sensuous elements of a socially engaged photographic practice which literally/metaphorically rubs up against the flattening out of black queer photographic practices to simple and staid notions of identity – thinking and a socio-political framing.
His work has been exhibited in many prestigious museums, galleries worldwide and alternative spaces worldwide. In 2022, he was canonised by The Trans Pennine Travelling Sisters as the Patron Saint of Darkrooms and received an honorary fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society.
His work sits within many private and public collections including: The Rose Art Museum, GOMA, Autograph, Tate Britain, Arts Council of England, and the Victoria & Albert Museum.
A neo-boylesque performer from Wales, made in Manchester, Mr Blaque is a queer fantasy that packs a sultry punch. Specialities include various styles of dance and acrobatics, alongside a signature striptease.
DJ Xzan (he/they) is an open-format DJ and co-founder of @galpalsclub, the LGBTQ+ club night centering queer women, trans and non-binary people. Known for their hyperactive, genre-defying sets – expect bootlegs, mashups and all your party faves seamlessly blended for your listening pleasure. Stay tuned on @xzandj for Xzan’s next high-energy takeover!
I am Kellonkutz. Born and raised off humble beginnings in the beautiful Caribbean Island of Grenada where I discovered my love and passion for Barbering.
Relocating to England I decided to embark on this journey and further my skill set at a local collage obtaining qualifications; NVQ levels 1 & 2 in hairdressing, without realising how much this would change my life. It has now been over 20 years working as a professional barber and over 10 years working with the LGBTQ+ Community as I continue to grow and master my skills.
My dedication and ambition towards barbering landed me some amazing opportunities working for some well-known influencers and famous person’s on-sets for theatres, TV shows, advertisements and with athletes.
Barbering is not just a job for me it’s a way of life, it’s my passion, it’s beautifying. It’s a craft, it’s the joy I feel enhancing and putting a smile on the faces of my clients everyday, because we all know that a fresh haircut/hairstyle can and will change your whole mood. So I take pride and joy making sure I deliver exceptional haircuts/hairstyles, services and sometimes your very own personal therapist to each and every one of my clients making sure they look exceptional and leaving with a smile every-time.
Kobi Essah Ayensuo is a London based poet, musician, playwright, mover and creative of many hats. Their work often explores their black queer, trans identity and coming-of-age, black queer ancestry, their Ghanaian heritage; navigating relationships and reimagining/decolonising the lens with which black history, black present and black future is told. Kobi’s work is also a reminder that growing into our skin happens when we listen in to our spirit and look to the ones who came before us.
Musically, their sound is soulful, alternative and harmonic. Their work often is soundtracked with vocals, harmonic soundscapes and music interweaving with several art forms such as poetry and theatre.
Kobi Essah Ayensuo has been published with Ink Sweat and Tears, South London Gallery, Flipped Eye and Marques Almeida for London Fashion Week 2020. They have performed at several venues and festivals across the UK such as Brainchild Festival, Wilderness Festival, Mighty Hoopla Festival, the Roundhouse, the Barbican, Disturbance at Ugly Duck and the Southbank Centre.
They are also a BBC Words First finalist and an alumnus of Barbican Young Poets, The Writing Room, the Roundhouse Resident Artist programme, Soho Writers Lab 23/24 and the Obsidian Foundation. They recently debuted their Live Art performance ‘In Honour of My Body Spirit and Of Worlds to Come’ receiving a standing ovation at Disturbance, at Ugly Duck. They’re currently, working on their debut EP.
Shenece Oretha (b. Montserrat) is a multidisciplinary artist currently listening from London. Her practice is invested in the mobilising potential of sound enacted through her sound sculptures, multi-channel installations, poetry, workshops and print
Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S.) was established in the summer of 2018 with the intention of bringing together a community of queer, trans and non-binary Black people and people of colour involved in art, sound and radical activism. Following in the legacies of sound system culture they wanted to learn, build and sustain a resource for our collective struggles. The black-led system, based in London, is available to use or rent by community groups and others with the purpose of amplifying and connecting them.
B.O.S.S’s work includes renting the system to the community at subsidised rates or for free, technical workshops, live performance events, club nights, art installations and various creative commissions including a short film ‘Collective Hum’ (2019) for LUX & the ICO and ‘The Only Good System is a Sound System’ for Liverpool Biennial (2020). In 2021 B.O.S.S was shortlisted for the Turner Prize and presented an exhibition at Herbert Museum and Gallery Coventry.
Members of the collective include: Adedamola Bajomo, Kiera Coward Deyell, Phoebe Collings-James, Evan Ifekoya, Onyeka Igwe, Marcus Macdonald and Virginia Wilson.
