Watch artists Larry Achiampong and David Blandy and panellists in conversation about their most recent work, ‘_GOD_MODE_’, featured in the ‘Genetic Automata’ exhibition, and how it addresses what we pass down via the legacies of scientific racism and eugenics.
You will watch a screening of the film and then host Subhadra Das will interview the artists and other panellists about their experiences of discovering and sharing histories of race science.
We’ll be in the Henry Wellcome Auditorium. To get there, take the stairs or the lift down to level −1. The auditorium is fitted with a hearing loop.
Booking a ticket for a free event does not guarantee you a place. You should aim to arrive 15 minutes before the event is scheduled to start to claim your place. If you do not arrive on time, your place may be given to someone on the waiting list.
This event will have British Sign Language interpretation.
This event will be live-transcribed, which may be useful for people who are D/deaf, hard of hearing, deafened or neurodivergent. The captions will be displayed on a large screen in-venue. Ticketholders for the livestream will receive a link to view the captions in a separate window.
There will be a hearing loop at this event.
For more information, please visit our Accessibility page. If you have any queries about accessibility, please email us at access@wellcomecollection.org or call 0 2 0. 7 6 1 1. 2 2 2 2
Larry Achiampong is a BAFTA-longlisted and Jarman Award-nominated artist, filmmaker and musician. He completed a BA in Mixed Media Fine Art at University of Westminster in 2005 and an MA in Sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art in 2008. In 2020 he was awarded the Stanley Picker Fellowship and in 2019 received the Paul Hamlyn Artist Award in recognition for his practice. He has presented projects across the UK and globally, including commissions with Art on the Underground, London (2022); the Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool (2021) and the Line, London (2020). He is represented by Copperfield, London and his films are distributed by LUX, London.
David Blandy makes work that slips between performance and video, digital and analogue, investigating the stories and cultural forces that inform and influence our lives. Collaboration is central to his practice, examining communal and personal heritage and interdependence. With research spanning multiple forms of archive, from fandoms to the archive of the body, historic texts to academic libraries, archaeology and ecological theory, Twitch streams and film archives, Blandy weaves poetic works that explore the complexities of the contemporary subject. He is represented by Seventeen Gallery, London. His films are distributed by LUX, London.
Subhadra Das is a writer and historian who looks at the relationship between science and society, and what those histories mean for our lives today. For nine years, she was Curator of the Science Collections at University College London, where she was also Researcher in Critical Eugenics at the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation. Her research centres around critical approaches to the history of science, particularly race science and eugenics, along with the history of museums, particularly the colonial history of natural history museums. She has written and presented podcasts, curated museum exhibitions, done stand-up comedy and regularly appears on radio and television.
Sasha Henriques is a PhD student with Wellcome Connecting Science exploring structural inequalities in genomics, a principal genetic counsellor at Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS trust and the course director for their Equality Diversity and Inclusion for Genomic Professionals Training. As a committee member of the Association of the UK Genetic Nurses and Counsellors (AGNC) she was instrumental in convening the association’s first subcommittee on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. She also designed and currently delivers cross-cultural communication teaching for the MSc in Genetic Counselling at Cardiff University and the Scientist Training Programme (STP) for genomic counsellors in England. She is an advocate for sharing genetics with all communities and believes that true inclusivity goes far beyond the patient-clinician interaction, as such she co-founded Genetics Engage a public engagement platform to promote inclusivity in all things genetic.
Yomi Ṣode is a Nigerian British writer. His debut collection ‘Manorism’, (Penguin, 2022) published alongside a stage adaptation at the Southbank Centre, is shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2023 and the T S Eliot Prize 2022. He was shortlisted for the Brunel International African Poetry Prize 2021, and received the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship in 2019. Yomi's acclaimed one-man show ‘COAT’ toured nationally to sold-out audiences. In 2020 his libretto Remnants, written in collaboration with award-winning composer James B. Wilson and performed with Chineke! Orchestra premiered on BBC Radio 3. In 2021, his play, ‘and breathe…’ premiered at the Almeida Theatre to rave reviews. Yomi is a Complete Works alumnus and a member of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen. He is the founder of BoxedIn, First Five, The Daddy Diaries, and mentorship programme, 12 in 12
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