Jane and Louise Wilson talk to Ben Luke about their influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped their lives and work. Jane and Louise Wilson, born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, in 1967, have been collaborating as a duo since their student days in the late 1980s. Identical twins, they have used their connection as a means of exploring duality, mirroring, and the notion of selfhood amid complex geopolitical contexts. Primarily working in video installation, photography and sound, they have accessed loaded and atmospheric sites, from abandoned military sites to borderlands, and used diverse cultural phenomena, including specific works of art, literature and cinema, to reflect on the environments we occupy and the ways in which they are constructed physically and in terms of political and social meaning. They discuss the pronounced sense of duality and mirroring in their work, the origins of their official partnership in art, shaped by their upbringing, and the enduring relationship between photography and film in their practice. They recall the early impact of John Martin’s work, and how Cindy Sherman proved a hugely significant inspiration in their student days. They discuss artists as diverse as Victor Pasmore, Rita Donagh, Carrie Mae Weems and Nam June Paik and reflect on the enduring influence of film-makers from Rainer Werner Fassbender to Jean Cocteau and Stanley Kubrick. Plus, they give insight into their life in the studio and answer our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?

Jane and Louise Wilson: Performance of Entrapment, London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE, until 10 January 2026; Dendrophiles, Leadenhall Building, Sculpture in the City, London, until spring 2026.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tai Shani talks to Ben Luke about her influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped her life and work.Shani makes sculpture and installations, paintings, performances and films, underpinned by writing that is experimental in approach and singular in its voice. Shani, who was was born in 1976 in London, where she lives and works today, creates bodies of work that evolve and expand across her diverse media, often over several years. They take particular cultural forms, historical events or theoretical ideas as a cornerstone in creating worlds that are at once fantastical and utopian, yet shot through with contemporary political and social ideas and convictions. Tai’s vision is fecund and colourful, and her aesthetic enters the sphere of the epic, the sublime and the gothic. She reflects with particular profundity on how the modes in which she engages have been historically gendered, and reimagines them for today’s audiences. She reflects on writing as the cornerstone of her work, how her political outlook has shifted through her various projects, reflects on the revolutionary possibilities of art in a time of extreme right wing politics, and her enduring ambitions for her own work: “I still want to split the atom.” She discusses the early impact of seeing Ophelia by John Everett Millais, and how it ​​prompted in her a desire “to be able to move someone through an act of creativity”. She recalls seeing Valie Export at Camden Art Centre and how it “completely blew my mind, and nothing was the same afterwards”. She describes the deeply personal circumstances behind Epilogue, a new work responding to Marcel Duchamp’s Étant Donnés. She reflects on the dramatic impact on her of writers including Christine de Pizan, Amy Hollywood and Octavia Butler, and of filmmakers including David Lynch and Carl Dreyer. Plus, she gives insights into life in the studio, and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: “What is art for?”

Tai Shani: The Spell or The Dream, Somerset House, 8 August-14 September; Tai Shani, Gathering, London, 26 September–8 November. Shani has a work in Dulwich Picture Gallery in London’s new sculpture park which is unveiled as part of an opening weekend on 6-7 September; her sculpture for the High Line in New York will remain on view until March 2026.

What is art for? Contemporary artists on their inspirations, influences and disciplines, by Ben Luke, featuring illustrated, edited versions of 25 artist interviews drawn from the A brush with… podcast series, along with new writings, published by HENI on 2 September (US) and 4 September (UK). Available exclusively from HENI.com now.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hew Locke talks to Ben Luke about his influences—from writers to musicians, film-makers and, of course, other artists—and the cultural experiences that have shaped his life and work. Locke was born in 1959 in Edinburgh, UK, to the artists Donald and Leila Locke. The family sailed from the UK to Guyana in 1966 and Hew was based there until 1980. He returned to the UK to study art in 1980 and now lives in London. Over more than three decades, Locke has explored a panoply of imagery about nationhood, culture and power. Since he was a child growing up in postcolonial Guyana, he has had a lifelong interest in the symbols nations choose to reflect themselves, the objects they acquire to enrich their cultures, and the institutions that project these values into the world. In sculpture and installation, photography, drawing and textiles, he has created arresting tableaux whose layers of rich materiality, fusing found and everyday objects with finely drawn and crafted elements, foreground nuance and complexity. He reflects the shifting nature of significance and meaning according to time, place and the collective values and subjectivities of his audience. He discusses his desire for complexity without dispensing with formal rigour and visual impact. He reflects on the different forms of composition necessitated by his approach, and his consistent use of cardboard as a material. He discusses the equal influence of his parents on his work, the tutorial with Paula Rego that led to a complete change in the direction of his work, and the impact of seeing Hans Haacke’s celebrated German pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1993. Plus, he gives insight into life in the studio and answers our usual questions, including the ultimate: what is art for?

Hew Locke, Gilt, Compton Verney, 5 July-July 2027; Hew Locke: Passages, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, US, 2 October-11 January 2026; Armada, Newlyn Art Gallery, UK, 1 November; Cargoes, King Edward Memorial Park, opening September.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.