Five things to do and see this July
July is here. The sun is shining and the air is hot – and so are our top picks of things to do and see this month, from an exhibition on an emerging artist exploring light and space to a food and art extravaganza celebrating the natural world. Diaries at the ready…
‘Sun + Shadow’ by Dori Deng at Serchia
After hosting our debut exhibition, ‘Drawing Room’, at The Cold Press, a Georgian house-turned-gallery, in autumn 2022, we can attest there’s something captivating about seeing art in a domestic setting. We’ve something of a soft spot, then, for Serchia, a not-for-profit contemporary art space situated within its founder’s beautiful Victorian home on a hillside in Cotham, Bristol – not least because its latest exhibition on Dori Deng is worth making a beeline for…
For those unfamiliar with the Chinese-British artist, her multidisciplinary practice centres around the medium of projected light, particularly in relation to the space in which it’s shown, and includes sculpture, installation and performance. Taking its name from Marcel Breuer’s 1952 book, Sun and Shadow: The Philosophy of an Architect, the two-part exhibition is inspired by research into modernist architecture and the International Style in the 1920s. Subsequently, industrial materials, including steel and glass, have been used to introduce light into the interior spaces and explore the concept of volume. Part one of ‘Sun + Shadow’ runs until 12 July. Part two opens on winter solstice, 22 December.
Photography Ash James
Mmabatho Molefe of Emazulwini at Carousel
There are many reasons we love Carousel in Marylebone but one is because its revolving kitchen offers us a chance to enjoy ever-changing menus by the world’s best culinary talents. Mmabatho Molefe, owner of Emazulwini in Cape Town is the latest guest chef to take the reins at the central London hub, where she’ll be bringing the flavours of her native South Africa to this side of the globe.
Mmabatho – who was born and bred in KwaZulu-Natal – has earned a legion of followers for not only championing the home-cooked food she grew up eating, but for elevating it to new heights. Alongside her all-Black, all-female team, Mmabatho is using traditional cooking techniques to create innovative and elegant Zulu- and Nguni-inspired plates. Our favourites on the menu at Carousel include umbila (sweetcorn custard, corn salad, chickpea shoots, mealie bread) and imfino (porcini-dusted cod, pumpkin leaf, Swiss chard, sorghum, oyster mushrooms) – but there’s plenty more to discover for yourself too. Tickets cost £75 for the set menu and can be booked here. Runs until 8 July.
‘An Alterable Terrain‘ by Rhea Dillon at Tate Britain
“This exhibition is my most direct engagement with Black women’s geographies and my viewpoint within the Black diaspora,” said Rhea Dillon, speaking to fellow artist Anthea Hamilton for the summer 2023 edition of Tate Etc magazine. The multidisciplinary talent – whose practice spans poetry, painting, olfaction, film and sculpture – was referring to her first solo institutional show, which explores Black women’s labour across histories and the formation of Caribbean and British identities. Running at Tate Britain in Pimlico, south-west London, it forms part of Art Now, an ongoing series of free exhibits that celebrate emerging creatives.
Rhea, a second-generation British-Jamaican, is known for her poetic approach to investigating her heritage and Blackness – and ‘An Alterable Terrain’ is no exception. “What would you say the key parts of a Black woman’s body are?” Rhea asked a handful of people from within her community, including mother, when thinking about the show. The new and existing works on display depict an anamorphous body, including the lungs, eyes, reproductive organs, feet and hands. Highlights include cut-crystal plates cast in sweat-scented soap, a net curtain akin to those in her Jamaica grandmother’s home and a beautiful sculpture made from mahogany – a material once used to build slave ships. ‘An Alterable Terrain’ is free and runs until 1 January 2024.
(Top) Rhea Dillon by Sirui Ma for Tate; (above) Rhea Dillon, An Unholy Trinity (the) Imaginary, Symbolic and Real, 2022
Outcrop: a three-month celebration of the natural world
Think you need to leave the city to connect with nature? Think again. On 7 July, 180 The Strand is launching Outcrop, a brand-new restaurant and arts space paying homage to the great outdoors via food, drink, art and culture. The three-month-long project, which is open Wednesday-Sunday, is a collaboration between Johnny Smith and Daniel Willis, founders of Luca, and Tom Allott, Andrea Moccia and Sabrina Goreeba of Secret Cinema.
Helming the restaurant is John Chantarasak, co-founder of AngloThai, who has created a low-waste menu that nods to dishes served in rural Thailand. Standout plates include salt-baked beetroot, coconut smoked turbot-bone broth, and skate-wing jungle curry – all made using British-grown spices, seasonal veg, native-breed meat and line-caught fish. Meanwhile, his wine expert wife, Desiree, also of AngloThai, has curated a pleasing drinks list featuring low-intervention bottles.
When it comes to art, pioneering collective Marshmallow Laser Feast has created a large-scale immersive video installation titled Sanctuary of the Unseen Forest, in which a towering Ceiba Pentandra tree from the Colombian Amazon aims to invite guests to “contemplate their place within the wider systems of nature.” Elsewhere, expect to hear experimental musical journeys inspired by animal migration from a selection of DJs, including John Gómez and Tash LC, playing overhead.
For more details visit Outcrop.social.
‘Gabriel Chaile’ at Studio Voltaire
Gabriel Chaile is a South American artist who harnesses the humble qualities of natural materials – from wood to eggs and clay – to create large-scale sculptures inspired by ancient forms, religion and pre-Columbian cultures. He’s also having something of a moment – on both sides of the Atlantic. Following suit from his solo show at Barro and a new sculptural commission on the High Line, both in New York, the artist is opening his first major UK exhibition at Studio Voltaire in Clapham, south-west London, on 12 July.
Gabriel will be drawing inspiration from both the northern Argentinian churches he frequented as a boy growing up in the city of San Miguel de Tucumán, as well as the gallery’s history as a former chapel. The result will include a transformation of Studio Voltaire’s interiors, which will be covered in adobe – a material comprising earth and water – so the viewer feels like they’ve stepped inside one of the artist’s terracotta vessels. Gabriel has also built a huge anthropomorphic clay figure that will sit at the heart of the space, where paintings by Buenos Aires-based artist Laura Ojeda Bär will also hang. The exhibition is the gallery’s most ambitious project to date – and is not to be missed. It runs until 10 September 2023.
Gabriel Chaile, The Milk of Dreams, installation view at the 59th Venice Biennale, Venice, 2022
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