Zoë Buckman

06/23/22 • 66 min

2 Listeners

We meet leading artist Zoë Buckman from her studio in Brooklyn, NY!!! We discuss grief, trauma, her precise textile artworks and a powerful, new film titled 'Show Me Your Bruises, Then' (2021-2022) - a 3 channel video installation, written, performed and directed by Zoë Buckman, and featuring actors Cush Jumbo and Sienna Miller.

Zoë Buckman’s multidisciplinary practice incorporates sculpture, textiles, ceramics, photography, and large-scale public installations. Adopting an explicitly feminist approach, her work explores identity, trauma, and gendered violence, subverting preconceived notions of vulnerability and strength.

The artist regularly chooses to work with objects symbolically associated with gender. Whilst her oft-adopted boxing gloves hint at a bellicose masculinity, Buckman also incorporates vintage fabrics into her work, from lingerie to dishcloths and table linen. These textiles, traditionally used and decorated by women, recall an intimacy with the body and a proximity to the domestic space. Bearing traces of their past, vintage fabrics point to a history of patriarchal subjugation, but also to the necessity and comfort of intergenerational dialogue between women.

Indeed, both verbal and non-verbal dialogue is an integral part of Buckman’s practice. Buckman’s eclectic choice of source material, the snatches of conversation, stained tablecloths, hip-hop lyrics, and, especially, lines from her late playwright mother’s scripts, all represent mnemonic totems which, when taken together, establish a deeply personal constellation of the artist’s lived experience.

'Show Me Your Bruises, Then' is the first filmic work of London-born, Brooklyn-based artist, Zoë Buckman. The 17-minute long, 3-channel, video installation builds a portrait of the multigenerational experience of domestic violence, and explores the shame and stigma prescribed to the female body in a patriarchal society. The film depicts three women, each seated at the end of the table, reciting Buckman’s own free flowing poem by the same name that she started writing in 2018. Although excerpts of the poem have appeared as text within Buckman’s embroidery works and in the titles of pieces, this is the first time it is presented in its entirety.

In tandem with both the sculptural and wall-based works that have formed the basis of Buckman’s artistic practice to date, Show Me Your Bruises, Then, seeks to foster nuanced conversation around consent, power, and violence, as well as highlighting the intrinsic joy, pleasure, and resilience that abounds the female experience. The rhythmic pattern of the poem and the three screen visuals build this notion of the power in sharing one’s voice and story.

Visit: https://www.zoebuckman.com/ and her page at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London: https://www.houldsworth.co.uk/artists/57-zoe-buckman/overview/

Follow: @ZoeBuckman and @PippyHouldsworthGallery

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Visit: https://www.zoebuckman.com/ and her page at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London: https://www.houldsworth.co.uk/artists/57-zoe-buckman/overview/

Follow: @ZoeBuckman and @PippyHouldsworthGallery

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Previous Episode

Queercircle, Ashley Joiner

We meet Ashley Joiner, Founder & Director of QUEERCIRCLE a new public gallery space, library and home for LGBTQ+ Arts, Culture and Social Change.

QUEERCIRCLE seeks to develop an ecology of artists, curators, writers, thinkers, community organisers, grassroots organisations and charities who collectively work together to strengthen links between culture, health and wellbeing.

Set in the pioneering Design District in North Greenwich, their new gallery, library and project spaces enable us to action our ground-breaking community focused programme of exhibition commissions, collaborative artists residencies and year-long learning and participation opportunities. With the support of Greater London Authority, Outset's Studiomakers Initiative, and the generous contributions of private patrons, Queercircle is within a new site designed by award-winning David Kohn Architects.

Since 2016, QUEERCIRCLE has hosted exploratory workshops and events with artists, curators, writers and community organisers to develop a programme that is befitting to the needs and aspirations of the LGBTQ+ community. Their new home first opened its door in June 2022, providing a holistic environment which celebrates queer identity, champions arts and culture, and supports the wellbeing of our community.

Follow: @Queercircle on Instagram

Visit https://Queercircle.org/

Current show: MICHAELA YEARWOOD-DAN’S “LET ME HOLD YOU”

Queercircle's INAUGURAL EXHIBITION runs from JUNE 8 - SEPTEMBER 8 2022

Michaela Yearwood-Dan’s “Let Me Hold You” sets the tone for our new home as we move forward - a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community. A sweeping curved mural embraces visitors, creating a sanctuary for visitors to confront their own true selves in a safe and holistic environment. Ceramic sculptures and furniture encourage visitors to rest, contemplate, and connect with others. We interviewed Michaela on Season 12 of Talk Art, so do check out her episode also!!!

Utilising flora and fauna motifs, Yearwood-Dan refutes the concept that LGBTQ+ people are “unnatural”. Instead she visualises the interconnectedness of the human and non-human experience, all the while expanding our understanding of what it means to be queer and to love.

“The moment we choose to love we begin to move against domination, against oppression. The moment we choose to love we begin to move toward freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others. That action is the testimony of love as the practice of freedom.” - bell hooks

As nature and marginalised communities continue to be exploited around the world - compounded by the effects of climate change disproportionately impacting marginalised communities - Michaela Yearwood-Dan provides a vital tonic; encouraging us to adopt love as an action against societal and ecological injustice.

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Next Episode

Andrew Moncrief, supported by Gucci

Talk Art special episode!!! We meet Andrew Moncrief (b.1987), a visual artist from Comox Valley, Canada. We speak on the eve of Gucci presenting his first exhibition in France at their Saint-Germain boutique, during the men's fashion shows in Paris.

Influenced at an early age by a rigid and immobile interpretation of masculinity, Andrew’s work explores depictions of the male identity, questioning idealism, queerness, and representation. The Canadian artist, now based in Berlin, questions masculinity and the representation of queer bodies in his surreal and powerful canvases inspired by existing images, reworked as collages where colours and shapes intermingle.

For this exhibition, Andrew Moncrief has chosen to create his 5 new paintings inspired by images photographed for this occasion. In collaboration with photographer Julien Barbès, the Canadian artist created a fashion series around five queer Berlin personalities wearing pieces from the Gucci Love Parade collection and offering a diversity of approaches to masculinity. These images, in which bodies move in soft and sensual choreographies, served as the original material for the collages in preparation for the paintings presented this summer in Paris.

”My work deals with my identity as a gay and queer man”, explains the artist. “To compose my collage-like paintings, I usually use existing nude images, but here, everything was built from fashion photos made for the occasion. I am sensitive to clothed bodies, classical drapery and Renaissance painting. Clothes generate tension and folds, as a metaphor for the body and the tensions it is capable of feeling."

In Andrew Moncrief's paintings, the male body seems to be in perpetual metamorphosis. Dislocated and intertwined, he melts into his environment and dialogues with other bodies as much as with colours, textures and clothes. The fluid and hybrid body thus escapes all the categories and norms that society imposes on it. The artist's painting forms an act of freedom and canvases are queer safe spaces where all attitudes and representations become possible. The liberated and phantasmagorical body is celebrated through a palette of delightful colours that explode across the canvas. This new work is also a reference to the famous painter Francis Bacon, and more particularly to his representation of the body crossed as much by the beauty as by the grotesque.

Since graduating with a BFA in Painting & Drawing from Concordia University in 2013, Andrew Moncrief has presented his work internationally in Canada, the U.S.A., and Europe, where he currently lives and works. He has been featured in numerous international publications, is part of respected private collections, and has received a Professional Development Grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to pursue a full-time mentorship with Justin Ogilvie to study classical techniques and anatomy in 2019. Andrew has two upcoming shows at New Art Projects and Beers, both in London, UK, as well as a collaboration with GUCCI and Numero Art Magazine, all taking place in the first half of 2022.

Visit Andrew's website: http://andrewmoncrief.com/

Follow on Instagram: @an_drew_moncrief

Special thanks to GUCCI and Alex Malgouyres for supporting this episode.

Follow: @Gucci @GucciEquilibrium

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