Through the Spike Island Associates programme I was lucky enough to have a 1:1 with the wonderful artist Alberta Whittle. Alberta currently has an exhibition at The Holburne Museum in Bath which I went to see as rather enjoyable homework before our conversation.
Alberta Whittle is a Barbadian-Scottish artist who represented Scotland at the Venice Biennale in 2022 alongside a host of solo and group shows in the UK and around the world from The Showroom to Tate Britain and British Art Show 9.
'[Alberta Whittle's] creative practice is motivated by the desire to manifest self-compassion and collective care as key methods in battling anti-blackness. Oscillating between cutting humour and sensitive poetics her work ranges across media and across continents.'
Copperfield Gallery
Our conversation was enlightening. Alberta was fully present in our discussion, giving such generous consideration and time to my work and enabling me to explore new ideas with her insight and input throughout.
We talked about going deeper into the work, exploring ideas around large scale outputs of a recent collage series I have created (Expect the Unexpected, 2023), as well collaborating with medical institutions and museums to explore my research interests around birth trauma and women's bodies and deepening participation. We discussed ways of gifting artwork back to the communities involved, something I often do at the end of a project but giving it more intention and consideration felt special and held - something Alberta is incredibly adept at.
Alberta saw connections across my practice I had not fully vocalised before, and gave me the confidence to look them more squarely in the eye. She gave my work space to breathe, held it to the light and gently created room for it to grow.
Find out more about Alberta's work: copperfieldgallery.com/alberta-whittle