Moving-image and time-based artworks can visualize multiple temporalities at once and bridge the gap between lessons of the inevitable past and the possibilities of the expectant future. In this online conversation to celebrate the opening of new exhibitions at McEvoy Foundation for the Arts in San Francisco, two innovators in the creation and presentation of video art, British artist Isaac Julien CBE RA and Oakland-based artist, curator, and writer Leila Weefur, discuss the poetics and architecture of cinema. Julien’s immersive film and photography exhibition Lessons of the Hour and Weefur’s resonant video program New Labor Movements are on view at McEvoy Arts from October 14, 2020 through March 13, 2021.

Known for visually stunning and expansive films—often presented as multiscreen installations—Julien has used his art to explore historical figures from the Harlem Renaissance, the 2004 Morecambe Bay migrant-worker tragedy, and contemporary global diasporas. His interwoven narratives highlight cultural links across time and place, and call attention to social inequities. His work has earned the Semaine de la Critique prize at the Cannes Film Festival and been featured at the Venice Biennale, documenta, the Gwangiu Biennial, the Sydney Biennial, and in museums and galleries around the world.

Weefur uses artistic disciplines to examine the performativity intrinsic to systems of belonging in our lived experiences, bringing together concepts of the sensorial memory, abject Blackness, hyper surveillance, and the erotic. They are a lecturer at UC Berkeley and a member of the Black Aesthetic.

This event is presented by the McEvoy Foundation for the Arts.

Participants and topics are subject to change; visit Berkeley Arts + Design (artsdesign.berkeley.edu) for the most up-to-date series information.