Somerset House Studios

New residents in 2017/18 included experimental rapper and performance artist Gaika, artist and writer Laura Grace Ford, DJ and producer Nabihah Iqbal, and collaborative artists and filmmakers Iain Forsyth and Jayne Pollard.

Studio 48.
Somerset House Studios is housed in the New Wing at Somerset House, a Grade 1 listed building which remodelled the old Admiralty residencies to create new offices for the Inland Revenue in the mid-nineteenth century.

Public projects emerging from Somerset House Studios have included Nocturnal City, a series of events exploring the future of global club culture featuring a discussion with London’s Night Czar Amy Lame, Shutters Down! club nights in the Deadhouse curated by LoneLady with Graham Dunning, Superflux discussing the future of power with Brian Eno, and a series of pioneering inter-disciplinary collaborations with academics from King’s College London.

Graham Dunning performing Mechanical Techno

A Studios bar created by Chloe Lamford

Brood Ma - Somerset House Studios launch party

Somerset House Studios residents FRAUD in their studio at Somerset House. An artist duo developing forms of art-led inquiry into the multiples layers of power and violence that flow through physical and cultural spaces.

Florence Peake rehearsing in the Gym. Visual artist, choreographer and dancer Florence Peake uses drawing, painting and sculpture materials with the moving body. Whilst at Somerset House Studios At Somerset House Studios Florence will be exploring ceramic work with performance as the subject, making clay forms through live performance to extract new autonomous sculptural works, alongside the creation of large scale paintings derived from her performance work.

Maeve Brennan, Visual Artist. Led by a documentary approach, Maeve’s work looks at the historical and political resonance of sites and materials, culminating mainly in moving image and installation works. She has had recent solo exhibitions at The Whitworth, University of Manchester; Spike Island, Bristol and Chisenhale Gallery, London (all 2017). Other exhibitions include Jerusalem Pink, OUTPOST, Norwich; Rough House, The Glue Factory, Glasgow; At the Seams: A Political History of Palestinian Embroidery, Dar el Nimer, Beirut (all 2016); KURZ / DUST, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw; Video Works, Metropolis Empire Sofil, Beirut (both 2015); and A Museum of Immortality, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut (2014).

Anat Ben David is an interdisciplinary artist, interested in the ‘Human-Machine’ as the complex data of the moving body and mind.

Through avant-garde methods, Anat researches the idea of Alienation whereby the artist is creating though ‘distancing’– letting the material and systems involved lead an artistic process generating unforeseen narratives. The work usually evolves around the lyrically performed text, voice, body movement, musical and sound compositions, taking the form of live performance with installation elements. OpeRaart is a word invented by Anat to describe her practice, as developing out of system-interaction: a combination of sound, voice, language and image.

Agnes Gryczkowska / NAKED.
Producer, vocalist, performance artist and art curator.

Agnes' confrontational presence shifts between extremities and deconstructs the boundaries between the performer and the audience. Her performances are simultaneously masochistic and submissive, painful and pleasurable, brutal and emotional – the chained body and mouth restraints, fear and vulnerability gradually get replaced with the feeling of empowerment, anger and hedonistic pleasure – becoming a call for self empowerment and a criticism of despotism, hierarchy, inequality and any pathological use of power.

Somerset House Studios residents Common Study
provide a space for art, education and politics. Formed under conditions of increased privatisation and commodification, it is an attempt to grasp the contradictions of life under capital.

Present members are Mike Brooks, Eve Chabanon, Rose Dagul, Lina Hermsdorf, Louis-Jack Horton-Stephens, Anneke Kampman, Penny Klein, Sam Mercer, Emil Scheffman and Thomas Watson. Within the group, individual practices engage art, music, performance, moving image and activism. Collectively, Common Study aspires to develop a non-standardised, oppositional form of education and practice, drawing on experiences with projects and organisations like Atlas Economy, Fuzzy Vibes, SET, Blackwall Beach and Open School East.

Nick Ryan is widely recognised for his uniquely conceptual approach to creating audio experiences and as a leading thinker on the future of sound. Much of his work involves applying emerging technologies to the making or listening process, or introducing people to new ways of thinking about audio. His work explores auditory representations of information, language, physical materiality and space through the creation of sound and multi sensory installations, bespoke instruments, generative/reactive/interative audio experiences and data sonficiations.

Ewan Jones Morris - Filmmaker, animator and music video director.

Ewan Jones Morris takes a multidisciplinary approach to filmmaking, often combing live action, collage, stop motion and CGI all within one project. Despite his best efforts, his style is often described as highly imaginative and DIY. Also one half of directing duo Casey + Ewan, he’s directed and co-directed music videos for the likes of DJ Shadow, Leftfield, John Grant, The Human League, Cate Le Bon and many more.

Rifle Range at Somerset House Studios

Music Studio

Maker Street during the launch party of Somerset House Studios.