Nikita Gale, presented by BMW
Talk Art
Russell Tovey and Robert Diament c/o Independent Talent
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 11 October 2022
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Talk Art special episode!!! We meet leading artist NIKITA GALE! It's Frieze London and we explore an incredible new art installation for BMW Open Work by Frieze. Artist Nikita Gale worked with BMW i7 designers to present the site-specific installation “63/22” in the BMW Lounge at the fair from October 12-16, 2022.
Curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini, BMW Open Work by Frieze invites an artist to develop an ambitious project utilising BMW design and technology to pursue their practice in innovative new directions. BMW Open Work offers artists the possibility of engaging in a rich dialogue with BMW engineers, designers, and experts from different fields to create unique artistic projects.
Investigating the politics of sound and its surrounding, Nikita Gale’s practice enquires themes of invisibility and audibility, recasting the complicated dynamic between performer and spectator. Within the work, notions are subverted and destabilized. Nikita Gale’s interest in the history of sound continues with “63/22”, in which the artist reflects on the relationship between automotive and sound technologies, already closely associated since the 1960s. In fact, the Gibson Firebird, one of the most popular electric guitars, was designed by a car designer in 1963.
Emerging from an intense dialogue with BMW i7 designers and engineers whilst reinforcing BMW’s commitment to art and music, Gale presents for Frieze London 2022 a sculptural installation comprising of five customised electric guitars. The guitars will be named historically significant and iconic Black women guitarists: Memphis Minnie, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Barbara Lynn, Big Mama Thornton, and Joan Armatrading. Activated in the lounge through a series of live acts performed by musicians invited by Gale, the guitars will play through the BMW i7, transforming the car into a sound amp, amplifying the relationship between the car, sound technologies and creativity. The guitars have been created in collaboration with BMW i7 designers and realised by a UK-based luthier, Ian Malone.
View more: https://frieze.com/bmw-open-work
Gale's work employs objects and materials like barricades, concrete, microphone stands, and spotlights to address the ways in which space and sound are politicized. Gale’s broad-ranging installations blur formal and disciplinary boundaries, engaging with concerns of mediation and automation in contemporary performance.
Follow: @NikitaGale on Instagram. Gale is represented by Commonwealth & Council (LA), Reyes | Finn (Detroit), and 56 Henry (NYC).
Follow @BMWGroupCulture to learn more about BMW's commitment to art, more than 50 years supporting artists and culture.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good afternoon, good morning, good evening, wherever you are in the world, I'm Russell Toby. |
| 0:09.2 | And I'm Robert Diamond. And this is Talkart. Welcome to Talkart. How are you today, Rob? |
| 0:14.8 | Today, Russell, I am feeling rock and roll. And I'm feeling invincible because |
| 0:23.1 | rock music and the aesthetics of it have always been something that have made me feel quite free. |
| 0:29.1 | And obviously pop music too. And then as I grew up and I got more into art, art is also something |
| 0:34.0 | that I think can transform your mind and the way that you see the world. And also highlight political |
| 0:40.2 | ideas that you might not have been able to process otherwise. And today's guest, we are very |
| 0:46.4 | excited about because it is free's week. And we are here with BMW again, continuing our collaboration |
| 0:53.7 | because this week is their BMW open work at free's 2022. And they have commissioned the most |
| 1:01.5 | extraordinary artist who recently had a show at the Chisnail Gallery commissioned by our dear |
| 1:06.6 | friends, Zoe Whitley. I loved that exhibition. And I'd actually never seen their work in person |
| 1:11.6 | before. And today's guest is from Los Angeles and is based there and works with all kinds of |
| 1:18.6 | objects and materials from kind of concrete and microphones or microphone stands to barricades |
| 1:25.1 | and all different kinds of objects and sound to spotlight the ways that space and sound are |
| 1:32.5 | politicized. So we are very excited to talk about this new project. And this morning I've been |
| 1:38.5 | singing to myself the song rid of me by PJ Harvey because our guest has done a post today, |
| 1:44.6 | wishing PJ Harvey a happy birthday. And it's all in relation to the guitar that PJ Harvey was playing |
| 1:51.1 | and Russell Tovy, you can't get rid of me. Oh, no. We would like to welcome to talk art. Nicky |
| 2:03.6 | Nicky. Hi. Hi. How's it going? Good. Good to talk to you both. I you can probably hear behind |
| 2:15.8 | me. I'm in install right now at free's. You're in the heart. The heart of the |
| 2:23.2 | Regents Park art fair in London. Yeah. Thank you so much for making time to talk to us during |
| 2:27.7 | your install. Really grateful. Yeah, no, of course. Yeah. So the noises behind you aren't the |
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