Poet and artist Julian Knox took his camera around the continent, filming people sing, dance, recite poetry – or refuse to do anything but sleep. As the lyrical results go on show, he explains his odyssey
o make his latest work, poet and film-maker Julian Knox went on quite a journey – literally. The artist, who styles his name as, visited nine European port cities – Lisbon, Hamburg, Berlin, Marseille, Antwerp, Barcelona, Rotterdam, Amsterdam and London – and in each one collected what he calls “encounters” with Black residents there.
“Some people read a poem, some people sang, some people danced,” the 36-year-old says. An artist in Berlin would only let him film her while she slept, “’cos I’m tired of talking about Blackness and want to rest”, he remembers her saying. He giggles: “The offering could be whatever it is. I couldn’t say no.”is Knox’s first institutional solo installation and is set to debut at the Barbican in London this week. Well, it will when he’s actually finished the poems he’s writing for the exhibition.
‘Our histories are not really what the conqueror has tried to tell us’ … Julian Knox, AKA Julianknxx.The idea came to Knox in 2021 when he was collaborating with choirs and dancers for hisseries, which blended poetry, live singing and films into an exploration of Blackness and belonging. Knox has first-hand experience of a shifting notion of home: he is Sierra Leonean, and fled the early 1990s civil war with family to spend a few years in Gambia before settling in London as a teen.
The new installation’s title comes from two books: Lorna McDaniel’s Praisesongs in Rememory of Flight and Paule Marshall’s novel Praisesong for the Widow. “The whole thing is stitched together as a chorus: the songs people gave as offering to me,” he says.
The poems, once they’re ready , will join shorter films playing on seven screens as you move through the Curve gallery. His installations can feel like a mixture of independent cinema and a profoundly moving history lesson. He’s come a long way since reading his poetry aloud at university ACS events, from running
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