First Thursdays is finally back with an exciting series of free events scheduled from 6 to 9 pm in East London. The walking route will be approximately one hour and fifty minutes long.

The first stop will be at Chisenhale Gallery for hygrosummons (iter.01). The exhibition marks the first UK solo exhibition by South African, Amsterdam-based artist Simnikiwe Buhlungu. Comprising installation, sculpture, and sound, Buhlungu’s new commission summons water to reveal the ways knowledge, history, and ecology circulate and pool. Conspiring with the conditions of the gallery and materials that hold and release water – pine, clay, paper, and bamboo – Buhlungu transforms Chisenhale Gallery into a porous and changeable site. Departing from the hygrometer, a scientific instrument used to measure humidity, the commission turns away from accuracy and control, and towards convening, sensing, and misbehaving with water.

Afterwards, the route heads to The Approach. John Stezaker‘s Spell exhibition presents two new bodies of work, the Spell and Life Room series, alongside his ongoing Mask series. Created during the post-lockdown period, the Spell series draws inspiration from Classical mythology and fairytales, focusing on themes of enchantment and metamorphosis. Stezaker uses 1950s film star portraits, cutting silhouettes and overlaying them on natural history illustrations, to explore the instability of human identity through interspecies hybrids and gender fluidity. The Life Room series, on the other hand, intertwines male and female silhouettes from an artist’s anatomy book, creating figures in stark, Platonic landscapes that evoke otherworldly associations. In the Mask series, Stezaker obscures the faces of 1950s film stars with vintage postcards, blending human features with natural landscapes to create ambiguous, mask-like images that challenge our perception and invite a poetic reinterpretation of the everyday.

The third stop will be at Sarabande Foundation for their closing event of the exhibition A Place, which is divided into two distinct parts, highlighting the work of 20 resident artists from Sarabande’s studios in Haggerston and Tottenham. Over six weeks, the artists presented their interpretations of A Place, reflecting their time and growth at the Foundation. The first exhibition, “Can I just…”, run from August 1st to August 16th, featuring works by Stephen Akpo, Noah Berrie, Matija Čop, Emmely Elgersma, Dean JF Hoy, John Hui, Sophie Lloyd, Banita Mistry, Daniel The Gardener, and Lulu Wang. The second part, “…stay longer”, has been on from August 21st to September 6th, showcasing pieces by Darcey Fleming, Jo Grogan, Leyman Lahcine, Malgorzata Lisiecka, Kuniko Maeda, Koby Martin, Electric Adam, Anna Nicolò, George Richardson, and Almudena Romero.

The final destination will be the opening of the Palm* Photo Prize Exhibition at 1014 Gallery. Palm* Photo Prize is a biennial submission based exhibition for a new generation of photographers. Its aim is to support, elevate and showcase the best of the new wave of image-makers. The prize continues to support photographers both emerging and established and to encourage conversations on human engagement, artistic development, community and their representation through the printed image.