BCA launches Digital Artist Residences, its new exploration in collaboration with Languid Hands

For October’s Black Futures Month, we opened our archives to early-career curators and gave them the opportunity to explore and create new projects based on what they discovered.

Curators-in-residence Pelumi Odubanjo and Languid Hands (a collaboration between Rabz Lansiquot and Imani Robinson) - under the mentorship of Barby Asante - took their own unique approaches to the practice of curation and interaction with the archives inviting artists and creators to respond.

In our first project, Pelumi Odubanjo curated a series of interviews, Re-imagining Care , which focused on artists’ reflections on their own understanding and practice of recording, acknowledging, archiving and curation, considering these acts as acts of care.

Continuing this dialogue between artist and archive, curatorial and artistic duo Languid Hands selected seven UK-based artists to undertake a four-week digital research residency with BCA; Ufuoma Essi, Rhea Dillon, Anisa Nuh-Ali, Zinzi Minott, Shamica Ruddock, Samra Mayanja and Felix Taylor.

We are now presenting the results of these residencies. The seven selected artists have produced reflections on their research, activating and re-animating the archive through their relative practices. The scope and approach of their research has been broad, whether exploring collections of antique maps or looking into the legacies of pioneering Black composers, the artists have interrogated the archive in unique ways, making links across different forms of Black cultural production. This project centres on how archival research can be undertaken creatively, recognising the importance of having a place to engage in this work collaboratively.

This exploration of our collections is now complete, although we hope it’s also just the beginning, and that more people will be inspired to engage with the archives in different ways. You can read Languid Hands perspective on this project here. Each exploration will be available to view from Monday 23 November when we’ll be presenting the outcomes of these residencies in our new online exhibition space.

Languid Hands will also extend their curation for the BCA to Instagram, where you’ll see one of the seven artists featured each day for the next week, from 23rd to 29th November, to share more about the process of this research and the work they have made.

You can experience Digital Artist Residencies and our other online exhibitions now.

These digital artist residencies are Black Cultural Archives’ Black Futures Month Commission in 2020.
Made possible with support from Arts Council England.