Radar is Loughborough University's contemporary arts research programme, and forms part of LU Arts. They invite artists to produce new work in response to, alongside and in provocation of research undertaken at the University.
The Radar visiting artists for summer 2024 are as follows:
Mathew Wayne Parkin is pursuing research into the physicality and performativity of sparring in sport, dialogue and interpersonal relationships, as well as accessibility and audio description in artist film. For their first visit, they will meet with Loughborough academics including Dr Eleanor Morgan, Professor Claire Warden (School of Design and Creative Arts) and Dr Emma Pullen (School of Exercise, Sport and Health Sciences), as well as sharing their work with fine art students.
Radar is a partner on Parkin’s solo exhibition and new body of work currently on view at London’s Cubitt Gallery as part of the programme ‘Feeling Still in a World Which Runs’, curated by Seán Elder. Comprising moving-image and sculpture, ‘I can fit a fist in my mouth’ engages with acts of withdrawal, censorship, violence and memorial within intimate relationships, with particular attention given to the ways that ethics and the interpersonal play out in relation to one another.
Radar has invited poet Nat Raha to perform as part of the ‘Gestation: Bodies, Technologies, Ecologies, Justice’ programme. Nat’s performance will connect to themes of queer and transfeminist world-making, and collective living as a resistant practice, in a lineage of queer and trans feminist of colour thought. This continues a dialogue between Nat and Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) visiting fellow Dr Sophie Lewis, who will be speaking as part of the wider roundtable events. Nat's performance will take place on the London campus on Wednesday 15 May at 3.30pm. The performance is free but advance booking is recommended. This is the first part of Nat’s work with Radar, which will unfold later this year. Book online for Nat Raha’s performance.
As part of the same Radar programme for ‘Gestation’, there will be a screening of ‘Rubus I: Workers’ by Rehana Zaman, with an introduction from the artist. This will take place at the London campus on Monday 13 May at 3pm. ‘Rubus’ is an ongoing body of work that encompasses moving image, sound works, scripts and performances, in collaboration with artists, poets, writers, farm workers and plant microbiologists, that takes up a multidimensional conversation on the cultural resonances and social economies of monocrop farming. Book online for Rehana Zaman’s screening.
In July, artists Sheila Ghelani and Sue Palmer will be in residence with Radar as they develop their new work ‘Atmospheric Forces’. Staged as a performance taking place around a table, the work will incorporate objects, sound, film and spoken text. ‘Atmospheric Forces’ is about the relationships between the forces that shape our lives, from minerals to colonialism to human-nature relationships.
Whilst in residence on the Loughborough campus in July, the artists are keen to meet with researchers, staff and students. Opportunities to engage with Ghelani and Palmer will be shared through Radar’s channels soon.
Lucy Lopez, Radar Curator commented: "We are delighted to be able to bring these brilliant artists into dialogue with research and staff and students across the University, around themes including accessibility, land use and queer world-making.
"From co-commissioning work by Mathew Wayne Parkin together with London’s Cubitt Gallery to hosting Sheila Ghelani and Sue Palmer’s research residency, to collaborating with IAS to share work by Nat Raha and Rehana Zaman, this roster of visiting artists brings ambitious work and new thinking to the university context. We look forward to sharing the outcomes over the coming months."
Find out more about the visiting artists on the Radar website.