Episodes

  • S3 Ep3: Breaking down Iconoclasm with Stacy Boldrick
    Jun 17 2024
    Martina Borghi talks to Dr Stacy Boldrick from the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester about iconoclasm - the destruction of art! She tells us how museums approach this subject and discusses how to present the history of objects that have undergone various forms of damage. Stacy's bio: https://le.ac.uk/people/stacy-boldrick Artworks and artists’ projects mentioned: Diego Velázquez, The Toilet of Venus (The Rokeby Venus), oil on canvas, 1647-51 - https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/diego-velazquez-the-toilet-of-venus-the-rokeby-venus John Cassidy and others, Edward Colston statue,1895/2020. Bronze, mixed media M shed (Bristol Museums) display, 2021 - https://exhibitions.bristolmuseums.org.uk/the-colston-statue/ Kate Davis, Reversibility (Militant Methods), 2011. Framed pencil drawing and silkscreen print on paper, 135 x 80cm - https://katedavisartist.co.uk/peace-at-last-2/ Sonia Boyce, Black artists and Modernism (2015-2018) - https://www.arts.ac.uk/ual-decolonising-arts-institute/ual-related-activities/black-artists-and-modernism Hew Locke, Patriots series (2018) - http://www.hewlocke.net/patriots.html Titus Kaphar, Impressions of Liberty, Wood (American sycamore and plywood), etched glass, sculpting foam, graphite and LED lights, 2017 - https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/132361?lat=40.349209&lon=-74.660278 Francisco Goya, Disasters of War (Los Desastres de la Guerra), series of prints, 1810, Etching, drypoint, burin, burnisher - https://www.parkwestgallery.com/francisco-goya-disasters-of-war/ Steve McQueen, Bass, 2024 (Dia Beacon) - https://www.diaart.org/exhibition/exhibitions-projects/steve-mcqueen-exhibition Raqs Media Collective, Coronation Park (2015) - https://works.raqsmediacollective.net/index.php/2015/12/05/coronation-park/ Exhibitions mentioned: Iconoclash (2002), ZKM Medienmuseum (Karlsruhe Germany). - https://zkm.de/en/exhibition/2002/05/iconoclash Books and articles mentioned in the Podcast: - David Freedberg, The Power of Images (Yale University Press, 1989) - David Freedberg, Iconoclasm (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021) - Dario Gamboni, The Destruction of Art: Iconoclasm and Vandalism since the French Revolution, 2nd edn (London: Reaktion, 2018) - Stacy Boldrick and Richard Clay (eds.), Iconoclasm: Contested Objects, Contested Terms (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007) - Stacy Boldrick, Iconoclasm and the museum (Oxon: Routledge, 2020) - Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel (eds), Iconoclash: Beyond the Image Wars in Science, Religion, and Art, ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe (Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 2002) - Margaret Aston, Broken Idols of the English Reformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016) - James Simpson, Under the Hammer: Iconoclasm in the Anglo-American Tradition (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2010) - Ramon Sarró, The Politics of Religious Change on the Upper Guinea Coast Iconoclasm Done and Undone (London: Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute, 2009) - James Noyes, The Politics of Iconoclasm: Religion, Violence and the Culture of Image-Breaking in Christianity and Islam (London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2013) - Robert Bevan, The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at war (London: Reaktion, 2007) - Henry Chapman, Iconoclasm and Later Prehistory (London: Routledge, 2018) - Fabio Rambelli, Eric Reinders, Buddhism and Iconoclasm in East Asia (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012) - Christoph Brumann and David Berliner (eds), World Heritage on the Ground. Etnographic prospective (New York and Oxford: Berghahn, 2016) - José Antonio Gonzalez Zarandona, ‘Heritage destruction in Myanmar’s Rakhine state: legal and illegal iconoclasm’ in International Journal of Heritage Studies, 5 (2020), pp. 519-538
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    48 mins
  • S3 Ep2: Curating Contemporary Art with Sandy Saad-Smith
    Mar 6 2024
    This episode's guest is Sandy Saad-Smith, curator of the Doris McCarthy Gallery, a professional public art gallery within the University of Toronto Scarborough.

    In conversation with CVC's Anissa Talahite-Moodley, Sandy talks us through the process of curating it’s because of the shimmer, the verge, and the yet, a solo exhibition of works by the artist Erika DeFreitas, whose practice reflects on loss, post-memory, legacy, and objecthood. DeFreitas' artwork addresses historical and archival absences, offering a rich, poetic reimagining of an alternate text that attests to the complex lives of women, including Maud Sulter, Jeanne Duval, Gertrude Stein, and Agnes Martin.

    Sandy also tells us about a new exhibition in the gallery by the Waard Ward collective in collaboration with Anne Campbell, Nicolas Fleming, Reza Nik, Darren Rigo & Alize Zorlutuna. Featuring photography, ceramics, florals, and a site-specific garden installation, A rose gives its fragrance even to the hand that crushes it evokes the memory of the Nanaa family’s garden, courtyard, and home, lost in the Syrian war. The exhibition explores the colonial history of flowers, the legacy of war on land, the imagined landscape, the displacement of people, and the longing for home.

    Find out more about the gallery and the exhibitions Sandy has worked on:

    Doris McCarthy Gallery

    A rose gives its fragrance even to the hand that crushes it

    it’s because of the shimmer, the verge, and the yet

    The Yet

    See Sandy's website here

    CVC website
    Email: centreforvisualcultures@rhul.ac.uk
    X / Twitter: @RHUL_CVC
    Instagram: @rhul_cvc
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    43 mins
  • S3 Ep1: Exhibiting Eco-poetry with Words from the Wild
    Feb 14 2024
    Royal Holloway doctoral researchers Caroline Harris and Briony Hughes tell us how they curated Words from the Wild: the Nature of Poetry, a new exhibition which explores many different forms of poetry, all of which respond to the natural world. They talk about their eco-poetic practice, the challenges of putting together a multi-sensory poetry exhibition, and the importance of bringing poets into the conversation on questions of biodiversity, sustainability, and climate crisis.

    More info on Words from the Wild: https://royalholloway.ac.uk/about-us/the-library/the-exhibition-space-at-the-emily-wilding-davison-building/words-from-the-wild/

    You can find out more about Joan Retallack, ‘procedural ecologies’ and Mandelbrot’s fractal geometry in this article by A. J. Carruthers.

    Jonathan Skinner on ecopoetics: https://jacket2.org/commentary/jonathan-skinner

    CVC website: https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/research-and-teaching/departments-and-schools/languages-literatures-and-cultures/research/our-research-areas/centre-for-visual-cultures/
    centreforvisualcultures@rhul.ac.uk
    @rhul_cvc
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    49 mins
  • S2 Ep3: (un)touched with Vasuki Shanmuganathan
    Oct 9 2023
    (un)touched delves into the themes of touch, tangibility and intangibility in the world of art and visual culture. In this episode, Anissa Talahite-Moodley, Assistant Professor at University of Toronto and Honorary Research Associate at Royal Holloway, speaks to Dr Vasuki Shanmuganathan, an artist, researcher and educator.

    For more information on Vasuki's work and the projects mentioned in this podcast, see here:

     www.forallicare.ca 
    https://thepublicstudio.ca/gallery/tamil-aavana-kaappaka-tittam-தமிழ்-ஆர்கைவ்-ப்ரொஜெக்ட் 
    www.tamilarchive.ca 
    www.instagram.com/tamilarchive 
    https://www.instagram.com/inclusivetamilarts 
    https://femmeartreview.com/2022/09/29/seeds-and-dyes-queer-tamil-lineages-scarborough/ 

    More information on us, the Centre for Visual Cultures, can be found here, you can email us at: centreforvisualcultures@rhul.ac.uk and tweet us at: @RHUL_CVC.

    Thank you for listening to this episode!
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    34 mins
  • S2 Ep2: (un)touched with The Liminal Space
    Jun 30 2023
    (un)touched delves into the themes of touch, tangibility and intangibility in the world of art and visual culture. In this episode, Gareth Hughes, Doctoral Researcher and member of the CVC, speaks to Sarah Douglas, director of The Liminal Space, about their work translating complex ideas to interactive experiences and how visual culture can bring social issues to a wider public audience.

    For more information on please see here:

    The Liminal Space - https://www.the-liminal-space.com/

    Cut + Paste at The Francis Crick Institute - https://www.crick.ac.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/cut-paste/cut-paste-exhibition

    William Kentridge's The Head and the Load -   https://www.theheadandtheload.com/

    More information on us, the Centre for Visual Cultures, can be found here, you can email us at: centreforvisualcultures@rhul.ac.uk and tweet us at: @RHUL_CVC.

    Thank you for listening to this episode!
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    41 mins
  • S2 Ep1: (un)touched with Julie Sanders
    Mar 16 2023
    (un)touched delves into the themes of touch, tangibility and intangibility in the world of art and visual culture. In this episode, Anna Price, Research Centre Associate at the CVC, speaks to Julie Sanders, Principal of Royal Holloway, about her research on early modern drama and adaptation, what live performance means and how we engage with the tangible aspects of theatre.

    Thank you for listening to this episode!

    More information on us, the Centre for Visual Cultures, can be found here, you can email us at: centreforvisualcultures@rhul.ac.uk and tweet us at: @RHUL_CVC.
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    30 mins
  • S1 Ep4: (un)touched in the Digital Humanities
    Aug 26 2022
    (un)touched delves into the themes of touch, tangibility and intangibility in the world of art and visual culture. In this episode, Dr Carlotta Paltrinieri, Lecturer in Italian Studies, speaks to Prof Hannah Thompson, Professor of French and Critical Disability Studies, and Dr Hannah Platts, Lecturer in Ancient History and Archeology.

    Carlotta, Hannah and Hannah discuss the benefits, and potential limitations, of applying digital and computational to the study of visual culture and the humanities. They explore how digital methods can explore new research pathways that are more inclusive, accessible and sustainable.

    Please see the links below for more information on elements discussed in this episode:

    The Royal Holloway Picture Gallery
    Multisensory Museums and New Modes of Access
    Tudors Augmented
    The Photographer's Gallery
    Sensational Books at the Weston Library, Oxford
    Sm[art]ify
    Time Detectives: The Mystery of the Mary Rose Augmented Reality App

    Thank you for listening to this episode!

    More information on us, the Centre for Visual Cultures, can be found here, you can email us at: centreforvisualcultures@rhul.ac.uk and tweet us at: @RHUL_CVC.
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    43 mins
  • S1 Ep3: (un)touched with Anne-Marie Purcell
    Jul 29 2022
    (un)touched delves into the themes of touch, tangibility and intangibility in the world of art and visual culture. In this episode, Judith Meddick, Honorary Research Associate at the CVC, speaks to Anne-Marie Purcell, Archives and Special Collections Curator at Royal Holloway.

    Judith and Anne-Marie discuss the contents of the RHUL Archive and Special Collections, what accessing and physically touching the materials can bring to research and the curatorial plans for the future.

    Thank you for listening to this episode!

    More information on us, the Centre for Visual Cultures, can be found here, you can email us at: centreforvisualcultures@rhul.ac.uk and tweet us at: @RHUL_CVC.

    Please find a list below of the key links from this Podcast:
    Chard Theatre Group -
    http://185.121.204.135/archives/#/home 
    Bomb Damage Maps at the LMA - https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/history-and-heritage/london-metropolitan-archives/collections/london-county-council-bomb-damage-maps
    RHUL Archives and Special Collections - royalholloway.ac.uk/about-us/the-library/our-archives/
    RHUL Archive Catalogue - http://185.121.204.135/archives/#/home
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    30 mins