Guest artist KAREN McLEAN
joins Elizabeth Fullerton to chat about her work via Colson Whitehead's 2016 novel 'The Underground Railroad' published by Doubleday. The historical fiction tells of 19th century slaves Cora and Caesar and their attempts to escape to freedom in America's south west.
Starting with her intensely researched art practice, Karen McLean and Elizabeth explore stories of rebellion and suffering amongst individuals and the collective, including female power, body ownership, intergenerational identity, mental illness and a vast knowledge of plants used as a method of resistance. They also delve into the structural legacies created by the sugar, cotton and indigo industries; colonialism, covert operations, syncretic religions, and the rise of the blue devil.
(This episode is co-produced by Jillian Knipe and Elizabeth Fullerton with music by Griffin Knipe and image by Joanna Quinn of Beryl Productions)
KAREN McLEAN
instagram karenmclean_art
karenmclean.co.uk
'Blue Power' 2021 Block 336
'Ar'n't I A Woman' 2021 Block 336
'The Precariat' 2017 Lewisham Arthouse
ARTISTS
Anish Kapoor
Donald Judd
Doris Salcedo
El Anatsui
Eva Hesse 'Contingent' 1968
Gees Bend Quiltmakers, Alabama
Ibrahim Mahama
Joseph Beuys
Kara Walker
Louise Bourgeois
Paul Goodwin
Sheila Gowda
Teresa Margolles
Theaster Gates
Tracey Emin
BOOKS ACTIVISTS THEORISTS
Alan Krell 'The Devil's Rope: A Cultural History of Barbed Wire' 2002
Alice Walker 'Everyday Use' 1973
Bell Hooks 'Ain't I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism' 1981
Deborah Grey White 'Ar'n't I A Woman' 1985
Edward Said (Professor of Literature, Columbia University)
Emily Zobel Marshall 'Anansi's Journey: A Story of Jamaican Cultural Resistance' 2012
Harriet Tubman, 'Harriet' film 2019
Hilary Beckles 'Natural Rebels' 1989
Homi Bhabha 'Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse' 1984
Jacques Lacan (psychoanalyst)
Sojourner Truth (abolotionist, women's rights activist) 'Ain't I A Woman' speech 1851
Toni Morrison 'Beloved' 1987
GALLERIES LOCATIONS RESOURCES
Afterprojects, Julie Bentley
Birmingham City University
Black Cultural Archives, Brixton UK
Block 336, Brixton UK
Gees Bend Quilting Retreat
Goldsmiths University of London UK
King's Cross Station, London UK
Shakespeare's House, Stratford UK
The Gale Plantation, Jamaica, Caribbean
The New Art Gallery, Walsall UK
The Steamhouse, Birmingham UK
Trinidad & Tobago, Caribbean