In collaboration with Art Exchange, we presented A Lament for Power: Screening and In-Conversation with artists Larry Achiampong and David Blandy, and John Eng Kiet Bloomfield, Curator / Acting Head of Programme at Wysing.  

The screening and in-conversation took place on 3rd February 2021, and this podcast is a recording of the in-conversation.

The event began with a screening of A Lament for Power, the outcome of a nine-month residency by artists Larry Achiampong and David Blandy at the University of Essex, exhibited at Art Exchange in 2020. This ambitious new film explores the ethics of scientific discovery and the complex relationship between science, politics and race in our age of avatars, video gaming and DNA Ancestry testing. This was followed by an in-conversation between the artists and John Eng Kiet Bloomfield, with an opportunity for questions from the audience.

Click here for a transcript of the podcast as a PDF: https://wysingbroadcasts.art/discover/a-lament-for-power-screening-and-in-conversation/A%20Lament%20For%20Power%20Transcript_otter.ai%20(1).pdf 

Click here for a transcript of the podcast as a Word document: https://wysingbroadcasts.art/discover/a-lament-for-power-screening-and-in-conversation/A%20Lament%20For%20Power%20Transcript_otter.ai%20(1).docx 

Larry Achiampong (b. 1984, UK) is a Jarman Award nominated artist (2018). He completed a BA in Mixed Media Fine Art at University of Westminster in 2005 and an MA in Sculpture at The Slade School of Fine Art in 2008. He lives and works in Essex, and has been a tutor on the Photography MA programme at Royal College of Art since 2016. Achiampong currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts) and is represented by C Ø P P E R F I E L D. 

David Blandy (b. 1976) lives and works in Brighton and London. He studied at Chelsea College of Art and The Slade School of Art. Blandy has established his terrain through a series of investigations into the multiple cultural forces that inform and influence him, ranging from his love of hip hop and soul, to computer and role playing games, geopolitical events and climate cataclysm. His works move between performance, video and installation.