Discussion with Mihaela Brebenel, Bonnie Camplin, Annie Goh and Daria Khan, moderated by Sarah Shin.
Panel discussion on the occasion of our exhibition Cosmic Mothers, with artists and curator from the show and special guests gathered together to explore how their artistic processes speak to a queer universe. Inspired by Soviet artist Galina Konopatskaya’s painting ‘Cosmic Mother’ (1971) which depicts a mother and a child in astronaut suits and floating in outer space, the exhibition examines the way alternative knowledge and radical imaginations overlap across cultures and geographies.
In opposition to the accumulation of skills and learned techniques, Bonnie Camplin turns to deep, inner knowing, where knowing the universe can be achieved through knowing oneself. Drawing on the research on archaeoacoustics and what she calls ‘sonic cyberfeminism’, Annie Goh questions the relationship between sound, gender and technology. Could we view the Cosmic Mother through the empowering prism of cyberfeminism and queer science-fiction? How can we build an alternative system of knowledge around it?
About the Guest Speakers
Mihaela Brebenel
Miha is a Lecturer in Digital Culture at Winchester School of Art. They are a researcher and curator interested in investigating the histories of Internationalism and solidarity, as well as historical and current intersections with gender, herbalism and critical plant studies, law, social and healing justice. They are co-Programme Leader (with Dr. Megen de Bruin-Molé) for MA Global Media Management and run an MA option module in Digital Cultures.
Bonnie Camplin
Camplin is an artist whose work spans drawing, film, performance, music and writing, as well as immaterial and situational research. Refusing typical knowledge paradigms, Camplin draws from subjective experiences to explore the way we relate to and perceive our material, human, and non-human entities.
Annie Goh
Goh is an artist, researcher and performer working primarily with sound, space, electronic media and generative processes within their social and cultural contexts. Her PhD thesis at Goldsmiths University entitled “Sonic Knowledge Production in Archaeoacoustics: Echoes of Elsewhere?” focused on the myth of echo in archaeoacoustics, a field that investigates the acoustic properties of archaeological sites to provide clues in understanding past human behaviour. Combining theoretical reflection and creative processes, Goh’s practice draws on intersectional feminist praxis to question the presumable neutrality of science and philosophy.
Daria Khan
Khan is the founder and curator of Mimosa House, a non-profit gallery in London. She holds an MA in curating contemporary art from the Royal College of Art. Her recent projects include exhibitions at Austrian Cultural Forum, London; MAST, Bologna; the Moscow Biennial, Moscow; and Photographers Gallery, London. Khan was a curator in residence at MuseumsQuartier, Vienna; and a participant of the EUNIC program at Palais de Tokyo, Paris.
Sarah Shin
Sarah Shin is a publisher, editor, writer and curator. She is a co-founder and director of Ignota Books, a publishing and curatorial platform exploring technology, myth-making and magic, and Silver Press, a small feminist publisher. Her independent curatorial work includes New Suns, which began as a literary festival at the Barbican Centre and includes projects at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and Somerset House Studios in London.
This event is co-organised with Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.