Somerset House Studios resident artists Sophia Al-Maria and Lydia Ourahmane present The Pits and 2125
A new participatory installation has opened at Somerset House Studios created by resident artists Sophia Al-Maria and Lydia Ourahmane.
Titled The Pits in Somerset House Studios’ project space sits in dialogue with their outdoor commission on Lancaster Place, 2125 by delving into how social narratives in a postcolonial and late capitalist context can impact our emotional and physical well-being.
The artists consider the notion of sitting and resting not just as an act of quiet defiance, but as a way of reckoning with the weight of history and its lingering effects on contemporary society.
The work takes its name from the belly of the theatre, from the sensation in the stomach and from the void that emerges when things go wrong.
The Pits is intended as an unapologetic room that invites us to collectively discuss what happens when we stop performing and sit with the difficult emotions —a room designed to welcome unwelcomed feelings.
It is a space which invites the public to explore what cannot be metabolised into productivity, for the ways contemporary politics, debt, and bureaucracy can feel as an assault.
Meanwhile 2125 explores the grey areas of Britain’s narratives that shape our understanding of identity, belonging, and who has the ‘right to remain’.
Titled The Pits in Somerset House Studios’ project space sits in dialogue with their outdoor commission on Lancaster Place, 2125 by delving into how social narratives in a postcolonial and late capitalist context can impact our emotional and physical well-being.
The artists consider the notion of sitting and resting not just as an act of quiet defiance, but as a way of reckoning with the weight of history and its lingering effects on contemporary society.
The work takes its name from the belly of the theatre, from the sensation in the stomach and from the void that emerges when things go wrong.
The Pits is intended as an unapologetic room that invites us to collectively discuss what happens when we stop performing and sit with the difficult emotions —a room designed to welcome unwelcomed feelings.
It is a space which invites the public to explore what cannot be metabolised into productivity, for the ways contemporary politics, debt, and bureaucracy can feel as an assault.
Meanwhile 2125 explores the grey areas of Britain’s narratives that shape our understanding of identity, belonging, and who has the ‘right to remain’.
For information about The Pits go to somersethouse.org.uk.