HOT LIST: 19/02/2025
- Mathilde Candotto-Carniel
- Feb 19
- 5 min read
We're coming back this week with a curation of the hottest upcoming events you won't want to miss. We've got a few performance picks, some freshly opened art shows we think you should check out, plus Del LaGrace Volcano’s book launch on queer dyke cruising, and more. Check out the list below and book your tix before they sell out!
ART SHOW
KARYN NAKAMURA: SURFACE TENSION
SHOWSTUDIO GALLERY
Victoria | 20 February - 11 March
It's well known the gaze of a machine is constructed through algorithms, datasets, and the intentions of those who design it. Less known are the people who control these systems; whose views do they privilege? How can art engage with technological processes to create new ways of understanding the world?’
Surface Tension asks such questions by exploring the interplay between media, technology, and human agency, the result of artist and visual forensics researcher Karyn Nakamura's 17-day LiveStudio residency in SHOWstudio's Belgravia-based gallery.
Find out more info here.
BOOK LAUNCH & SIGNING
LAGRACE VOLCANO: QUEER DYKE CRUISING
PHOTOGRAPHERS' GALLERY
Oxford Circus | 21 February 18:00 - 20:00
Queer Dyke Cruising introduces a new book of rare unseen images from the influential 1988 series by Del LaGrace Volcano, published for the first time by Climax Books.
Created in response to gay male cruising culture, and shaped by the activist energy of the era, Queer Dyke Cruising emerged as a bold intervention, challenging limitations placed on queerness.
Cruising, often dismissed as anachronistic, resists time. It is both tradition and rebellion, and this series from Volcano asserts that cruising is more than a fleeting act, that it’s a testament to queer resilience.
All info here.
ART SHOW
YAY, TO HAVE A MOUTH!
ROSE EASTON
Bethnal Green | 14 February - 29 March
This group show by Rose Easton & Ginny on Frederick explores the mouth as the originary site of pleasure and pain. It expands to think about modes of orality, seeking to engage with the ways in which information is stored in the body and disseminated; thinking through the oral tradition and the slippage of language.
PERFORMANCE
PUER DEORUM X OITIJ-JO: HOLD ME WHILE MY MIND FALTERS
WHITECHAPEL GALLERY
Whitechapel | 22 February 14:30 and 16:30
Teasing apart the complex, liminal space between romance and friendship, Puer Deorum’s solo-play hold me while my mind falters uses the cello as a metaphor for sapphic longing and bodily experience.
In this experimental solo play, Puer Deorum yields a cello in an act of exploration, mediating on its physical capabilities through improvised sound and movement.
Through moving image, performance and prose, they draw us close, blurring the lines between romance, friendship, and intimacy.
Book your tickets here.
PERFORMANCE
BOUNDARY CONDITION EDITION
ST JAMES GARLICKHYTHE CHURCH
Mansion House | 22 February 14:30 and 16:30
Boundary Condition is a multimedia, site-specific sonic immersion featuring nine artists in a hybrid audiovisual live set with immersive projections, set within a historic 12th-century church.
This edition will feature:
Áine O’Dwyer: Site specific, ghostly channelling of keening vocals and acousmatic sound transforming the church structure into a cavernous host for transmigrational sound.
Song Xin: Advanced computational practice animates futuristic yet ancient fantasy aesthetics through interactive wearables, installations, and immersive simulations. The audience will be invited to interact with the piece as it generates projections on the church walls.
The Shield, is a study on the movement of waves, through visual auditory maximalism, myriads of overtones, harsh drones, and resonances, through analogue electronics and liquid shape-shifting visual patterns
Theo Alexander & Qow present 'So Afraid to Show I Care’ covering tape-recorded ambience, voice note instrumentals, growling double basses, and spoken word.
Find out more info and secure your tickets here.
ART SHOW
RON MUECK: EN GARDE
THADDAEUS ROPAC
Green Park | 14 February - 2 April
Ron Mueck’s En Garde (2023) will be exhibited for the first time in the UK. Thaddaeus Ropac will present the acclaimed sculptor’s latest innovations: a colossal trio of black dogs, standing almost three metres tall with ears pricked and hackles raised. The sculpture demonstrates Mueck’s shifting focus from meticulous surface detail to poise and tension; as he distils his vision to confront the viewer with the immediacy and essence of an encounter which, in typical Mueck style, leaves the audience free from prescribed narrative.
Find out more info here.
SCREENING & ART SHOW
EXISTENCE AS RESISTANCE: AN EVENING OF PALESTINIAN FILMS
PALESTINE HOUSE
Holborn | 22 February 19:00
Global decentralised screening initiative, @filmsofresistance_ will be hosting its second big event in London with a multi-floor event at @palhouseldn. Existence As resistance for Palestinian Cinema will showcase six contemporary Palestinian films alongside an art exhibition spread across five floors.
As you make your way through Palestine House, you’ll encounter different screening rooms, each offering a distinct perspective on the theme of Existence as Resistance. The featured filmmakers include Dima Hamdan @bloodlikewater9, Forensic Architecture @forensicarchitecture, Kamal Aljafari @kamalaljafarifilms, Larissa Sansour @larissasansour, Mahdi Fleifel, and Mona Beniamyn @mona.beniamyn.
The event aims to inspire deep thinking, understanding, compassion, and – ultimately – long-term, sustainable and active resistance to the genocide and oppression of the Palestinian people.
Book your ticket here.
FILM
THE LAST YEAR OF DARKNESS
GARDEN CINEMA
Covent Garden | 28 February 20:15
As the city of Chengdu changes, the future of Funky Town, a beloved queer-friendly techno club, is unclear. For a vibrant group of DJs, drag performers, artists, lovers, ravers, and skaters, the club is a sanctuary for underground partying and allows them to thrive after the sun sets. It’s the one place that accepts them for who they are, while during the day they battle depression, question their sexuality, and struggle to make a living. But with construction cranes looming as a metro station encroaches, the partygoers are forced to face what brought them to the club in the first place - and make the most of their remaining time there. A love letter to the Chengdu underground scene,The Last Year of Darkness is a coming-of-age documentary that celebrates the ephemerality of youth.
Book your tickets here.
PERFORMANCE
CARDIO NIGHTS
ICAHURCH
Temple | 1 March 19:00
Cardion Nights, presented by Cardion Arts and ICA, platforms new and existing performance-based work by artists working across poetry, music and visual art. Curated by Gemma Rolls-Bentley, this one-night-only event creates a powerful space for the transformative powers of queer performance whilst raising vital funds for akt - a charity supporting queer and trans homeless youth.
Performance artist Ebun Sodipo, drag and movement artist Wet Mess, singer Tom Rasmussen, and special guests, will come together for what is sure to be a special night. Timed to coincide with Zero Discrimination Day, this gathering is a call for inclusivity, compassion, and community.
All info and tickets here.
