1965: Malcolm in Winter: A Translation Exercise - Theaster Gates @ White Cube Bermondsey

Theaster Gates’ latest exhibition at White Cube Bermondsey brings his typical juxtaposition of the personal and the political, the micro and the macro. Focussed primarily around Malcolm X and the Civil Rights Movement (specifically the more militant side of the Black Panthers) and how this work was carried across the world to a broader discussion of freedoms by two Japanese artists, the exhibition almost takes the form of archive. The video documentaries that are central to the exhibition serve to beautifully explain some of the objects — textures, materials, shapes — that are seen in the individual pieces around the gallery.

In particular, the use of everyday items as canvas, from roof shingles to fire hoses, from vases to pieces of wood and book cases, is quite stunning. The simplicity of the materials reminds the viewer of the personal nature of these huge political acts, and their repercussions.

A libation in Uncertain Times(2024)

Abstract Revolutionary Periodical Superstructure (I stole the Master’s library shelving and filled it with books) (2025) 

Tracey Emin - I followed you to the end @ White Cube Gallery

Emin’s latest exhibition of new work fills White Cube in Bermondsey with the angst and anguish of a scorned lover; a person who has been wronged through love, who leaves, or is left.

The main corridor is lined with miniature paintings, aggressive and sensual in their composition. The larger spaces house the bigger pieces, which tower over the viewer. Continuing to explore themes we have seen from Emin before - bedrooms, sensuality, sex - and toying with absence, there is an almost snarky edgy quality to some of them, despite the anguish they depict. They feel like a breakup song, replete with searing guitar riffs and mashed keyboards. Most stunning were the scenes where the lover is so faint, painted over in white, that it appears to be only the imprint their body left in the bed, not the lover themself. The memory of their warmth.

There is anger here, which at times bubbles, but then fades. A memory of the anger - as much with oneself for being tricked as with the former lover for the transgression.