Past Event
Access information here
This venue is wheelchair accessible.
The performance will be seated.
All interpretation panels will be available in large print format.
A script for the video is available here, in the exhibition space and also in large print format here.
We are unable to provide British Sign Language interpretation or audio descriptions for live performances. We are unable to provide live closed captioning or CART for this event.
All events will be live streamed in turn on the gallery’s instagram account throughout the course of the evening.
Film: 6-9pm, 10.30-11.00pm book Main Gallery
Performance: 9pm, 9.30pm, 10pm, book tickets here
Whitechapel Gallery
Gallery 2
The act of breathing is politically and socially charged in 2021, for Julianknxx, “The air is different now, we need to think about how we breathe.” Alternating video, spoken word and live music, Black Corporeal (Between This Air) examines the physical and metaphysical aspects of breathing, and calls to deconstruct dominant perspectives on African art, history and culture, in order to allow new black structures and realities to breathe, freely.
With his critical engagement with art history and philosophy, Julianknxx uses his personal history as a prism through which to deconstruct the relationship between materiality, and the black psyche. Exploring the idea that our ability to breathe – an act that is continuously challenged by everything, from air pollution, stress and anxiety, to societal prejudice – is more than our lungs’ ability to take in air, but a reflection of the way we live individually and together. Black Corporeal (Between This Air) engages with both the physical and metaphysical aspects of breathing and explores how we can experience the fullness of our lives through our bodies.
Julianknxx
Black Corporeal (Between This Air) (2021)
HD video, 13:06 mins, continuous
Commissioned by WePresent, the digital arts platform of WeTransfer.
Performers: Sheila Maurice-Grey, Thabo Mkwananzi, JP Thwaites
Julianknxx (b. 1987 Freetown, Sierra Leone) graduated in 2012 from Coventry University. He is an interdisciplinary poet, visual artist, and filmmaker whose practice crosses the boundaries of written word, music, visual art, and installation. He often works with a range of collaborators. Through his practice, Julianknxx explores themes of inheritance, loss, and belonging, and their effects on personal and interpersonal narratives.
Selected exhibitions include: 108 The Strand (2021), The View from There, Sadie Coles HQ (2021), Lux London (2021), Contra La Raza [Against Race], Matadero, Madrid (2021), Roots & Roads, Franklin Street Works,
Stamford CT, USA (2020), Now Gallery, London (2019). Performances include: Fact Magazine (Online Residency) (2021), OT301 Amsterdam
(2020), ICA London, Southbank Centre (2019), Jazz Cafe, BBC Radio 5, London Literature Festival at Southbank Centre (2018).
