Major new work by Somerset House Studios artist and Turner Prize winning multidisciplinary artist, Tai Shani.
The Spell or The Dream is a major new work by Turner Prize winner and Somerset House Studios artist Tai Shani bringing together sculpture, radio, live gatherings and a host of guest contributors to collectively dream of new horizons. This free, multi-faceted work has been commissioned in celebration of Somerset House’s 25th birthday and as part of Somerset House’s special year of artistic and social innovation, The Spell or The Dream is an invitation to challenge convention, consider alternative perspectives and understand the necessity of imagining new and hopeful ways of being and building together.
The Spell is a magnificent 10m x 3m sculpture drawing on the archetypal fairytale image of a sleeping figure in a glass box, featuring a newly commissioned soundscape by composer, producer and double bassist Maxwell Sterling. Resting atop a stepped plinth, where visitors can sit, gather or peer inside, the figure lies within a faceted case; a dreamer caught in a suspended state under the spell. Animated by subtle movement, the luminous blue figure is hand painted and gently breathes, eyes partially open, at the cusp of waking from this cursed slumber. The figure has been sleeping through warnings of present and future catastrophes, the violence of colonialism and its living legacies, economic inequality, social breakdown, political disaster, and environmental collapse. But the figure also dreams of resistance against the fairytale of empire—of renewal and new imaginaries. It invites a communal, intergenerational intervention to imagine, wonder, and dream alongside it.
The installation is accompanied by The Dream Radio a 24/7 radio broadcast co-curated by Shani. The online broadcast is an urgent call to wake from apathy and dream of radical new futures. It features contributions from artists, writers, thinkers, ecologists, economists, and academics including artist Cécile B Evans’, poet, musician and activist, Moor Mother (aka Camae Ayewan) and activist Cecilia Vicuña, with ongoing collaborators Ricardo Gallo, Satoshi Takeishi and Daniel Neumann.
An accompanying programme of events will also take place over the duration of The Spell or The Dream, including After Illusions—a series of three live conversations inspired by the pioneering late-night television show After Dark (1987–1991), a series of Friday Lates titled Hypnopompic Hallucinations will animate the Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court. A programme of family-friendly activities will also run throughout August, inviting younger audiences to explore themes of dreaming, storytelling, and sound through creative workshops and drop-in sessions.
Admission: FREE