Strange Facts Worth Inquiring Into: Olivia Sterling & Sam Kindon

Together with VOLT, Blue Monkey Network is excited to present an online discussion between artist Olivia Sterling and writer/director Sam Kindon.

This in conversation event will see Sterling and Kindon unpicking how folklore, gossip, rumours and remedies colour the everyday. Both Sterling and Kindon's work examines history from the margin: Olivia Sterling's paintings in 'Clutching at Straws' use folklore as an allegory for the ignorance and irrationality of nationalism, xenophobia and racism, while Sam Kindon focuses on the queer and the transitory nature of history.

The conversation will explore how stories from the past that exaggerate or that are based in ignorance can be subverted into understanding contemporary plights and how they can aid the process of image and story making, especially from the perspective of marginalised artists. Sterling and Kindon will question the absurdity within these stories and ask whether they come from places of ignorance or prejudice, and whether they can reveal certain commonplace thoughts and feelings of the time.

About the speakers:

Olivia Sterling: Born in Peterborough in 1996 and graduating from the RCA in 2020, Sterling has carved out a distinctive niche in using paint to address questions of blackness and whiteness in twenty-first century Britain. Her paintings present scenes of colourful mayhem with a nostalgic twist and signature ‘slapstick’ style, combining joyous celebration with a subtle critique of racialised ways of seeing.

Blending pointed references like this into her depiction of ordinary scenes and subjects, Sterling’s work reflects on how we are confronted by racialised discourse everywhere in the everyday. Even happy or anodyne spaces are encoded with structures of othering and difference; every object, every skin tone, is assigned its place in a drama that continues beyond the edges of the canvas.

Sam Kindon: is a London based queer writer and director. They graduated from King’s College, London (2018) with a BA in philosophy and co-founded a theatre company Das Stück (2018).

Their work focuses on the queer and the transitory nature of history. Often blending different time periods, styles and mediums together to create multifaceted and dynamic portrayals of queerdom. Specialising in the French decadence, medieval theology, Indian philosophy and Ancient Egypt.

Their plays include ‘The Mannequin’ at Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2019), ‘Monsieur Venus’ (upcoming). Also working as a journalist interviewing queer figures for 10Magazine. Currently they are working as a model and producing a short film in collaboration with the ICA and the BBC called ‘Technicolour’.

Image: Olivia Sterling ‘Clutching at Straws’ at VOLT, Eastbourne, 2021. Photograph by Rob Harris.

Strange Facts Worth Inquiring Into: Olivia Sterling and Sam Kindon In Conversation
Thursday 17 June 2021
6.30-7.30pm
Online
Free for Blue Monkey Network Members
Non-Members are encouraged to donate to our online talks programme at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/bluemonkeynet/support-bmn-online-talks-programme

RSVP for Zoom link: bluemonkeynetsteph@gmail.com

For more information visit https://www.townereastbourne.org.uk/event/olivia-sterling-and-sam-kindon/