Isaac Julien’s Tate retrospective: multi-screens, ‘sonic tapestries’ and moments of joy
Artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien’s Tate Britain retrospective ‘What Freedom Is to Me’ questions histories, explores activism, but is also full of joy and beauty
Artist Isaac Julien’ first Tate retrospective covers 40 years of work specialising in film, photography and installation exploring activism, selfhood, how we make histories, knowledge and Black and queer identity.
The first thing you see in the exhibition, which takes its title from a Nina Simone quote, is a timeline of events that most affected the artist throughout his life, starting with his parents’ migration from Saint Lucia to the UK in the 1950s. This chronology – which sits opposite one of the earliest works in the show, Territories (1984), and This is Not an AIDS Advertisement (1987) – serves as a baseline for the exhibition, in which we see Julien’s work address these same issues as his practice evolves.
Isaac Julien at Tate Britain: ‘What Freedom Is to Me’
The show then opens with the artist’s most recent work, an inventive multi-channel piece about the life of writer and critic Alain Locke, Once Again… (Statues Never Die) (2022).
‘The [curation] has been in close dialogue with Isaac Julien from the outset, and that was something very important to us as curators, that we execute the vision as he conceived it, and I think it happened very organically,’ co-curator Isabella Maidment tells Wallpaper*.
Julien’s work is so aesthetically rewarding, its beauty is often what dominates your initial experience of it. So the starting and ending of the exhibition with these early works reminds us of the origins of his practice and of the socio-political context in which it was forged.
‘Even though I go on to make other works, which perhaps are concerned with different themes […] connected to art and modernism, or migration movements, or the museum itself, they’re still connected to these kinds of early works which, for me, have become foundational,’ Julien explains.
The exhibition design by Adjaye Associates encourages the viewer to explore the space and walk in and out of the film works, which total about 4.5 hours (Tate also allows re-entry to the exhibition). The approach is in line with a theory of a mobile spectator that the artist has been developing in his practice, pushing the boundaries of how audiences engage with film and installation art. Another dimension to Julien’s work is sound, which he says is ‘50 per cent of the work’. Music plays a huge role in his films, as does the sound design, which adds to their transcendental quality.
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
‘I think we’ve tried to create this sort of sonic tapestry, which whether it’s early work like Territories (1984) emulating scratch music… [or] Lina Bo Bardi - A Marvellous Entanglement (2019), which is about the influence that the Italian architect had on Brazilian and Afro Brazilian culture [but also] the effect Afro Brazilian culture had on the architect. What does it sound like? What does it signify or how does it feel to be in that culture?’
This interconnectedness is palpable throughout the exhibition, from the collaborators with whom Julien (a 2021 Wallpaper* Design Awards judge) has worked throughout his career to the themes that recur via his own timeline; histories and narratives are questioned in a way that informs but never feels didactic. You can learn a lot from these deeply researched works, but you can also experience the joy and the beauty in them and realise, in this life, how important these things are.
Isaac Julien, ‘What Freedom Is to Me’, Tate Britain, London, 26 April – 20 August 2023
Amah-Rose Abrams is a British writer, editor and broadcaster covering arts and culture based in London. In her decade plus career she has covered and broken arts stories all over the world and has interviewed artists including Marina Abramovic, Nan Goldin, Ai Weiwei, Lubaina Himid and Herzog & de Meuron. She has also worked in content strategy and production.
-
‘Concrete Dreams’: rethinking Newcastle’s brutalist past
A new project and exhibition at the Farrell Centre in Newcastle revisits the radical urban ideas that changed Tyneside in the 1960s and 1970s
By Smilian Cibic Published
-
Mexican designers show their metal at Gallery Collectional, Dubai
‘Unearthing’ at Dubai’s Gallery Collectional sees Ewe Studio designers Manu Bañó and Héctor Esrawe celebrate Mexican craftsmanship with contemporary forms
By Rebecca Anne Proctor Published
-
At The Manner, New York has a highly fashionable new living room
The Manner, a new hopsitality experience by Standard International in the heart of SoHo, triples up as a hotel, private residence, and members’ club
By Hannah Walhout Published
-
Meet Kenia Almaraz Murillo, the artist rethinking weaving
Kenia Almaraz Murillo draws on the new and the traditional in her exhibition 'Andean Cosmovision' at London's Waddington Custot
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Inside Jack Whitten’s contribution to American contemporary art
As Jack Whitten exhibition ‘Speedchaser’ opens at Hauser & Wirth, London, and before a major retrospective at MoMA opens next year, we explore the American artist's impact
By Finn Blythe Published
-
Doc'n Roll Film Festival makes its loud return to the UK
The 11th edition of the Doc'n Roll Film Festival celebrates music, culture and cinema from around the world
By Smilian Cibic Published
-
Preview the Jameel Prize exhibition, coming to London's V&A, with a focus on moving image and digital media
The winner of the V&A and Art Jameel’s seventh international award for contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic tradition will be showcased alongside shortlisted artists
By Smilian Cibic Published
-
Genesis Belanger is seduced by the real and the fake in London
Sculptor Genesis Belanger’s solo show, ‘In the Right Conditions We Are Indistinguishable’, is open at Pace, London
By Emily Steer Published
-
Francis Bacon at the National Portrait Gallery is an emotional tour de force
‘Francis Bacon: Human Presence’ at the National Portrait Gallery in London puts the spotlight on Bacon's portraiture
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Frieze Sculpture takes over Regent’s Park
Twenty-two international artists turn the English gardens into a dream-like landscape and remind us of our inextricable connection to the natural world
By Smilian Cibic Published
-
Meet Oluwole Omofemi and Bayo Akande, the founders creating a new art community
Oluwole Omofemi and Bayo Akande, are behind Piece Unique, an artist agency that guides and future-proofs emerging artists’ careers
By Mazzi Odu Published