bingenTV
Multimedia exhibition, 2023
Working with video, textile, autofiction, and various installation processes, Sophie Seita’s and Naomi Woo’s exhibition pulls out and reroots the speculative potential of archives and queer history. Developed in conversation with The Hildegard von Bingen Society for Gardening Companions, a queer-feminist collective originally founded by the German mediaeval mystic and musician Hildegard von Bingen in the 12th century and ‘propagated’ by the artists in 2020—the exhibition centres on a queer gardening talk show, bingenTV, supposedly shot in 1987 and never aired, until now. Playful and flirty, this genre-bending talk show features a cast of queer characters real and fictional, past and present, in a whirlwind jaunt through space and time.
For the duration of the exhibition, the space will be activated through readings, workshops, and performances, by Youngsook Choi, Taey Iohe, Sophie Seita, Naomi Woo, Ashley Au, and Sister Steve of Ophelia Drowning (Kell w Farshéa).
bingenTV is conceived by artists Naomi Woo and Sophie Seita, in conversation with The Hildegard von Bingen Society for Gardening Companions, produced by Queer Art Projects and funded by Canada Council for the Arts, Arts Council England, and the Art Department at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Press release (including work list and credits)
Exhibition:
Mimosa House, 27 Oct 2023-8 Dec 2023, PV 26 October.
Photos:
(preview): Natalia Janula
(stills of bingenTV, the film, 2023): Katarzyna Perlak, Sophie Seita, Jack Barraclough. Cast in the photographs: Alice Morgan-Richards, Steffi Walker, Milla Harding, Ishmael Kirby, Jacqui Bardelang, Naomi Woo
(install shots): Laura Cobb (will be uploaded shortly)
Funding:
2023 ECRF Grant, Goldsmiths, University of London
2023 Arts Council England, Project Grant
2022-2023 Canada Council for the Arts, Explore and Create: Concept to Realization
2021-22 Canada Council for the Arts, Explore and Create: Research and Creation
2021 ’New Conversations’ grant, from the British Council, Canada Council for the Arts, Farnham Maltings, and The High Commission of Canada in the UK
Reviews:
Elephant Magazine (Nov 2023)
Now Nancy/Soho Radio (Nov 2023)
