In Conversation: George Chakravarthi and Neil Bartlett
Award-winning artist George Chakravarthi talked informally with celebrated author and director Neil Bartlett at an event entitled, What is it about Fathers? This public event at Madame Jojo's in Soho introduced Chakravarthi's project and its process, and discussed the questions that it provoked around male sex work, father figures and the gay male psyche.
Image: George Chakravarthi and Neil Bartlett in conversation at Madam Jojo's in Soho, London, 2006. Photograph: Thierry Bal
Nights of London
Running for just over a year, Nights of London was a thread of projects exploring the nocturnal life of the city. It ran through cinemas and galleries, was hosted on websites, burned onto CDs, written into letters, performed in nightclubs and broadcast via radio channels, before concluding in an old East End town hall that – for one night only – was filled with bat experts, musicians, cabaret artists and paranormal researchers. We heard stories from the unorthodox side of nightfall. We learned about ways of life that, despite their physical proximity, are all but invisible to most of us, most of the time.
Nights of London projects include:
George Chakravarthi
George Chakravarthi first worked with Artangel on To the Man in My Dreams in 2006 and was later selected as part of the 2013 Open Longlist.
Chakravarthi was born in New Delhi, India. He was brought up as a Catholic and moved to England at the age of ten. Chakravarthi considers much of his work to be a series of ‘self portraits’. As a multi-disciplined artist he draws inspiration from cinema, art history, fashion photography, the personal and the collective. Although much of the works are autobiographical, their sensitivities and emotive images make them highly compelling and accessible. In past works he has depicted himself as Bollywood film stars, Saint Sebastian, a silent crying figure in Genesis and an androgynous fashion icon in Remotecontrol.
He has performed and exhibited nationally and internationally in venues, galleries and museums including Site Gallery, Sheffield, Royal Academy of Arts, London, Tate Modern, London, Mousonturm, Germany, Tilburg Dance Academy, The Netherlands and The Queen’s Gallery, India. He lives and works in London.
Images: Multiple portraits of George Chakravarthi (left). Courtesy: the artist. Chakravarthi during his letter writing performance at Comptons of Soho, London, 2006 (above). Photograph: Thierry Bal
Who made this possible?
Credits
Artangel is generously supported by Arts Council England, and by the private patronage of The Artangel International Circle, Special Angels, Guardian Angels and The Company of Angels.
