Thu 11 Dec, 6.30 - 8pm
| Monday | Closed |
| Tuesday | 11am–6pm |
| Wednesday | 11am–6pm |
| Thursday | 11am–9pm |
| Friday | 11am–6pm |
| Saturday | 11am–6pm |
| Sunday | 11am–6pm |
Access requirements
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 Assembly Room at Whitechapel Gallery, located on the ground floor.
This event lasts approximately 1.5 hours. Attendees are encouraged to take as many breaks as they need during the event.
You must book a ticket to attend the event.
If the ticket price affects your attendance, please email tickets@whitechapelgallery.org to be added to the guest list (no questions asked, but dependent on availability).
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.
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.
Celebrating the work of artists Onyeka Igwe and Morgan Quaintance, joint winners of the Film London Jarman Award 2025, we present a special discussion moderated by Erika Balsom.
London-born and based, Onyeka Igwe uses film, sound, text and performance to explore complex historical and political questions about how we live together. Igwe draws on in-depth research to investigate overlooked moments in history, telling stories of protest and community through a combination of archival material, performance and a cinematic engagement with space. Engaging with the politics of anti-colonial resistance and her own family history, Igwe’s practice has often explored the connections between Britain and Nigeria, with a particular focus on the propaganda work of the Colonial Film Unit.
Artist, writer and musician Morgan Quaintance works across multiple media in an expanded art practice to produce richly layered films with an intense sensory impact. Bringing together the visual language of experimental film with a deft handling of sound and music, his practice is guided by the artistry of the edit, working with disparate material to guide the viewer into unexpected places. While his subject matter is constantly changing, his films are unified by an abstract style, which loops, breaks, jolts and refuses a linear narrative, drawing the viewer into a flow of restless images that tap into the subliminal.
Onyeka Igwe and Morgan Quaintance were chosen from a distinguished shortlist of artists including Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah, Karimah Ashadu, George Finlay Ramsay and Hope Pearl Strickland. You can view works by all the artists in the Film London Jarman Award 2025 shortlist exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery from Tue 18 Nov – Sun 14 Dec 2025, which this event accompanies.
Onyeka Igwe has shown work at Peer, London; Bonington Gallery, Nottingham (2024); MoMA PS1, New York (2023); Highline, New York (2022); LUX, London; Mercer Union, Toronto (2021) and Jerwood Arts, London (2019). Recent group exhibitions have been held at Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; Nigeria Pavilion, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice; Lagos Biennial, (2024); The Common Guild, Glasgow (2023); South London Gallery (2023). In 2018, Onyeka Igwe joined Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S.), a QTIBIPOC sound system based in South London. Notably, B.O.S.S. received a nomination for the Turner Prize in 2021. Igwe’s works are part of the British Film Institute Collection, along with major public collections including Arts Council Collection (UK). Onyeka will present a solo exhibition for Art Now, Tate Britain in September 2025 . She was nominated for MaxMara Artist Prize for Women 2022-24, awarded the 2021 Foundwork Artist Prize, 2020 Arts Foundation Futures Award for Experimental Short Film and was the recipient of the Berwick New Cinema Award in 2019.
Morgan Quaintance has shown work at festivals and institutions including: MOMA, New York; Konsthall C, Sweden; David Dale, Glasgow; European Media Art Festival, Germany; Alchemy Film and Arts Festival, Scotland; Images Festival, Toronto; International Film Festival Rotterdam; and Third Horizon Film Festival, Miami. He was a 2024 MacDowell Fellow. He was the 2023 IFFR Short Film Nominee for the European Film Awards; the recipient of the 2022 ARTE Award at Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg; in 2021, the Best Documentary Short Film Award at Tacoma Film Festival, USA; the Explora Award at Curtocircuito International Film Festival, Santiago de Compostela; the UK Short Film Award at Open City Documentary Film Festival, London, the Jean Vigo Prize for Best Director at Punto de Vista, Spain, and the Best Experimental Film Award at Curtas Vila do Conde, Portugal; in 2020, the New Vision Award at CPH:DOX, Denmark and the Best Experimental Film award at Curtas Vila Do Conde, Portugal.
Erika Balsom is a reader in film and media studies at King’s College London. She is the author of four books, including After Uniqueness: A History of Film and Video Art in Circulation (2017, Columbia University Press) and TEN SKIES (Fireflies Press, 2021). Her writing has appeared in venues such as Cahiers du cinéma, e-flux, Grey Room, New Left Review, and Screen, she written catalogue essays on artists including Aria Dean, Ed Atkins, Amar Kanwar, and Jeff Wall. With Hila Peleg, she is the co-editor of Documentary Across Disciplines (MIT Press, 2016) and Feminist Worldmaking and the Moving Image (MIT Press, 2022) and the co-curator of “No Master Territories: Feminist Worldmaking and the Moving Image,” which originated at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, in 2022 before traveling to the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2023), and Kunsternes Hus, Oslo (2026). Her research has been supported by organisations including the Mellon Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Ford Foundation, Fogo Island Arts, and the British School in Rome.
Inspired by visionary British filmmaker Derek Jarman, the Award recognises and supports artists working with the moving image. The shortlisted artists illustrate the spirit of inventiveness within moving image, highlighting the breadth of creativity and craftsmanship the medium has to offer, as well as its powerful ability to engage and provoke audiences. The Award comes with a £10,000 prize.
