Past Event
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 in Gallery 2 at Whitechapel Gallery
– You must purchase a ticket to attend the event. Concession tickets are available. If you require a Personal Assistant to support your attendance, we can offer them a seat free of charge, but it must be arranged in advance.
– 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.
– This event last approximately 1.5 hours. There are no rest breaks currently scheduled during this event.
– An audio recording of the event can be obtained by emailing publicprogrammes@whitechapelgallery.org following the 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.
Live Recording
Please note: we audio record all events for the Whitechapel Gallery Archive. This audio material may also be used for our Hear, Now podcast series.
Thursday 22 June | 7pm | £5
Whitechapel Gallery Director Gilane Tawadros chairs a discussion with artists Janette Parris, Matthew Krishanu and Sarah Dobai exploring key themes from the exhibition Life is More Important than Art. In the work of featured artists – spanning film, painting, photography and installation – past and present histories are interwoven and personal stories are entangled with global events.
This discussion opens up these stories and explores threads across artistic practices, to reflect on the critical role of art during challenging times.
Sarah Dobai is an artist based in photography, film & text. Her recent work has re-enacted & re-purposed historical works of literature or cinema to animate present day concerns. Recent solo exhibitions/ projects include The Donkey Field at Danielle Arnaud/ Imperial War Museum, CAST (Helston), Glassyard Gallery (Budapest), Principles & Deception at Or Gallery (Vancouver) & FILET (Hoxton) and The Overcoat bookwork, published by Four Corners Books. In Bees in a Hive of Glass, she collaborated with novelist Tom McCarthy, iterations of which appeared in TANK Magazine & at Whitstable Biennale. She lives and works in London and is Reader in Photography, Text and Film-based Practice at University of the Arts London.
Matthew Krishanu’s paintings explore topics including childhood, race, religion, grief, and the legacies of empire. Group exhibitions include: Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka (2023); Prophecy, Mead Gallery, Coventry (2022); Mixing It Up: Painting Today’, Hayward Gallery, London (2021); ‘Coventry Biennial’, Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum (2021). Recent solo exhibitions: ‘Playground’, Niru Ratnam, London (2022); ‘Undercurrents’, LGDR, New York (2022); ‘Arrow and Pulpit’, Tanya Leighton, Berlin (2021); ‘House of Crows’, Matt’s Gallery, London (2019); ‘The Sun Never Sets’, Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham, (2019). Collections include: the Arts Council Collection; Government Art Collection; Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery; Huddersfield Art Gallery; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi.
Janette Parris (b.1962, UK) is a contemporary artist who uses everyday people as the basis for much of her work, often reflecting the pathos behind an individual’s desire to become successful and well known. She works across different media including drawing, animation, and performance (musical and theatre) to reflect a dry and self-effacing look at the world and how we are all performers within it. Parris captures the humorous essence of life but always notes the sharp melancholic edge that goes with it.
In 2016 Peckham Platform commissioned Parris for Peckham Promenade. The resulting body of work takes inspiration from the characters, lives and daily interactions of the people living, working in and visiting Peckham’s bustling Rye Lane. Her work was also part of the 2016 Peckham Platform Retrospective exhibition, a timeline of all 20 artists commissions realised by Peckham Platform between 2010 – 2016
Gilane Tawadros is the Director of the Whitechapel Gallery. She was formerly Chief Executive of DACS and Co-Director of the Art360 Foundation. She was the founding Director of the Institute of International Visual Arts (Iniva) in London which achieved an international reputation as a ground-breaking cultural agency at the leading edge of artistic and cultural debates nationally and internationally. She has written extensively on contemporary art and curated a number of international exhibitions. She is Chair of the Stuart Hall Foundation and Trustee of the Stuart Croft Foundation. Her anthology The Sphinx Contemplating Napoleon: Global Perspectives on Contemporary Art and Difference is published by Bloomsbury.
