IMPROVISING ANTIPHONY

CURATED BY MA CURATING AND COLLECTIONS

Opening reception:
THURSDAY 21 MARCH, 6-8.30pm (introductions at 7pm)

Exhibition continues:
FRIDAY 22 MARCH, 12-8pm
SATURDAY 23 MARCH, 11am-5pm

 

Dialogues logoPhotograph of Lindsay Cooper taken in the 1990s.
Photograph of Lindsay Cooper taken in the 1990s. Image courtesy The Lindsay Cooper Archive, Archives and Special Collections, University of the Arts London.


Improvising Antiphony, hosted at Chelsea Space and curated by students of MA Curating and Collections at Chelsea College of Arts, UAL, celebrates the work and wider influence of the experimental musician, Lindsay Cooper. By exploring her use of improvisation to create opportunities for antiphonal exchange between performers and audiences, this archival display examines collaborative practice in sonic and feminist movements.

Drawing on the spirit of improvisation, Improvising Antiphony encourages visitors to listen, feel and respond to a generation of women's sounds influenced by Cooper.

Improvising Antiphony exhibits photographs, documents, and audio from the Lindsay Cooper Archive, housed at the University of the Arts London Archives and Special Collections Centre. This display is presented to coincide with the conference, Women in Revolt! Radical Acts, Contemporary Resonances at Tate Britain.

MA Curating and Collections are:
Afra Almazrouei, Nis Azmee Murat, Yining Bai, Stephanie Colclough, Mengze Geng, Riccardo Greco, Maria Herrero Tejada, Wenjing Huang, Yaqi Liang, Yijia Liu, Heyue Lu, Ya-hsin Luo, Wenyan Ma, Aayushi Rajput, Qinxue Shen, Mahalia Sobers, Xinhe Tang, Ziyu Tang, Lily Tanprasert, Charmaine Wah, Jiaxin Wang, Xiaoyu Wang, Shuyi Wang, Lin Wanjing, Ziyan Xu, Xingcheng Xu, Jiabin Xu, Xueqing Xu, Wenbin Ye, Kun (Lydia) Yu, Lilian Zancajo-Lugo, Zihan Zhou

Thanks to: Irene Revell, Lina Džuverović, Georgina Orgill, Zoe Buckberry, UAL Archives and Special Collections Centre, Linsey Young, Lucy Reynolds, Claire Holdsworth


Lindsay Cooper (1951-2013) was an innovative English composer and multi-instrumentalist known for her ground-breaking contributions to avant-garde music. Self-taught on bassoon and oboe, she co-founded Henry Cow in the late 1960s, shaping the band's distinctive fusion of rock, jazz, and classical elements. Cooper's versatile skills extended to collaborations with the Feminist Improvising Group and the Art Bears. As a composer, Cooper made significant strides in film, television, and theatre, demonstrating a unique ability to blend classical and experimental tones. In 1983, Cooper co-wrote the script for The Gold Diggers, alongside Sally Potter and the artist Rose English. It was Potter’s first feature-length film, made with an allwoman crew, featuring stunning photography by Babette Mangolte and a score by Lindsay Cooper. Her compositions, marked by complexity and originality, earned her recognition and her legacy continues to inspire those exploring the boundaries of genre and expression in music and film.

The Women in Revolt! Radical Acts, Contemporary Resonances conference at Tate Britain is funded by the Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM) and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art with additional support from Tate Curatorial, Chelsea Space (Chelsea College of Arts, UAL) and London College of Communication Screen School (UAL). For programme information and booking, go here: https://cream.ac.uk/women-in-revolt-conference/

The conference is part of the Through a Radical Lens screening series, programmed by Lucy Reynolds to accompany the exhibition Women in Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970- 1990 (Tate Britain, 8 November 2023 – 7 April 2024), curated by Linsey Young with Zuzana Flaskova (Assistant Curator), Hannah Marsh (Assistant Curator) and Inga Fraser (Freelance Curator). The exhibition and conference title refers to Eve Figes’ Patriarchal Attitudes: The Case for Women in Revolt (1970).

 

UAL Chelsea College of Arts