Sunil Gupta in-conversation with Mason Leaver-Yap and Flora Dunster

Join us for this special event on the occasion of Sunil Gupta’s commission ‘Songs of Deliverance Part I and Part II on display at St. Mary and Charing Cross Hospitals until 24 June. Gupta will be joined in conversation with writer and researcher Flora Dunster and Curator Mason Leaver–Yap.

Building on recent collaborations, such as Dunster’s essay ‘Do You Have Place? A Conversation with Sunil Gupta’ in Third Text (2021) and Leaver-Yap’s conversation as part of Gupta’s landmark exhibition From Here to Eternity at The Photographer’s Gallery (October 2021), they will discuss the artists pioneering archive of work exploring queer politics and illness as well as delving into the commission itself; its context, process and related LGBTQIA+ healthcare concerns.

Songs of Deliverance Part I and Part II is a new body of work by the artist commissioned by Studio Voltaire and Imperial Health Charity, displayed across two London hospitals. Gupta spent a year working in residence at St. Mary’s Hospital in Paddington and Charing Cross Hospital in Hammersmith. Recruited via an open invitation, LGBTQIA+ people from the adult HIV Clinic and Gender Affirmation Surgery service were invited to collaborate and spend time with Gupta.

The resulting series of photographic works present portrayals of his collaborators’ lives, their experiences of receiving care and the relationships and transformations that occur in the process. Each work incorporates a colourful accompanying text panel, referencing the work of artist Ken Lum. Some fictional, some personal—they explore family, community, stigma and the lived realities of individuals who access these vital services. With tenderness and insight, Songs of Deliverance explores how public health systems shape private modes of belonging.

Please note this event will take place in the Brockway Room on the ground floor of Conway Hall.

Conway Hall

25 Red Lion Square

London

WC1R 4RL

Free, booking essential

Flora Dunster lectures at Central Saint Martins, and at other institutions across the UK. Her research focuses on the politics of queer and lesbian photography in Britain during the 1980s and 1990s. In 2019 she completed a CHASE/AHRC funded PhD at the University of Sussex, and in 2020 was a Paul Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow. A recent essay on Sunil Gupta is published in the Third Text special issue "Imagining Queer Europe", and a chapter on the pamphlet series "Lesbians Talk" is forthcoming in the volume "Resist, Organize, Build : Feminist and Queer Activism in Britain and the United States during the Long 1980s" (SUNY Press, 2022). She is finishing a book on Tessa Boffin, Del LaGrace Volcano, and queer British art.
Sunil Gupta (b. 1953, New Delhi India) is a photographer, writer and curator. He has exhibited internationally and published several books, including Christopher Street, 1976 (Stanley/Barker 2018) and Queer (Vadehra Art Gallery/Prestel 2011). His work is in many public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (NY, USA) Tate Britain (UK), Philadelphia Museum of Art (USA), Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (Japan), Arts Council of Great Britain (UK) and Harvard University (Massachusetts, USA). His retrospective From Here to Eternity is currently on display at Ryerson Centre in Toronto until 6 August 2022. Gupta is represented by Hales Gallery, Stephen Bulger Gallery and Vadehra Art Gallery.
Mason Leaver-Yap works with artists to produce texts, exhibitions, and events. He has recently been working with Ingrid Pollard, Renée Green and Free Agent Media, Oreet Ashery, Stefanie Heinze, Jamie Crewe, Beatrice Gibson, Laura Guy, Sunil Gupta and the Estate of Tessa Boffin, Onyeka Igwe, Winnie Herbstein, Ima-Abasi Okon, Lin+Lam, Uri Aran, Andrea Büttner, Iman Issa, Jimmy Robert, and Em Hedditch. He is based in Glasgow and Berlin.
Sunil Gupta, Songs of Deliverance Part I, 2022, Installation view at Charing Cross Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Commissioned by Studio Voltaire and Imperial Health Charity, Image Zoë Maxwell

, 7–8.30pm

Book

Sunil Gupta in-conversation with Mason Leaver-Yap and Flora Dunster

Sunil Gupta, Songs of Deliverance, Part I and Part II

Desperate Living