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The swimming pool in art, Kwame Kwei-Armah's Twelfth Night, Poet Jean Sprackland

The role that the swimming pool plays in film and art. A review of Kwame Kwei-Armah's Twelfth Night at London’s Young Vic. Poet Jean Sprackland.

An entire disused swimming pool has been built on the ground floor of the Whitechapel Gallery in London for the new exhibition from the Scandinavian duo Elmgreen & Dragset. The artists discuss how they have been inspired by the work of David Hockney and Ed Ruscha. Then film critic Mark Eccleston art critic Jacky Klein and artist and former Canadian national competitive swimmer Leanne Shapton reflect on the swimming pool in the arts.

Kwame Kwei-Armah opens his first season as the Artistic Director of London’s Young Vic with a musical adaptation of Twelfth Night. This reworking of Shakespeare’s comedy, which includes soul music and show tunes from songwriter Shaina Taub, has already impressed audiences in New York. Theatre critic Sam Marlowe gives her verdict.

Green Noise is the title of poet Jean Sprackland’s new collection which encapsulates her concerns with the natural world on which she focuses minutely, as well as the sounds of the street, the wind, and resonating history. She reads her work and talks about writing poems that listen to the green noise of life.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Edwina Pitman

Available now

29 minutes

The swimming pool in art

The swimming pool in art
Michael Elmgreen and
Ingar Dragset

The Exhibition Elmgreen & Dragset: This Is How We Bite Our Tongue is at the until
13 Jan 2019

Main image: The Whitechapel Pool
Photo credit: Elmgreen & Dragset

Kwame Kwei-Armah's Twelfth Night

Kwame Kwei-Armah's Twelfth Night
Gabrielle Brooks and
Community Chorus
Photo credit: Johan Persson

The musical adaptation of Twelfth Night is at the
until 17 Nov

Jean Sprackland

Jean Sprackland
Jean Sprackland
Photo credit: David Adams

Jean Sprackland's poetry collectionΒ Green NoiseΒ is available from 11 Oct

Broadcast

  • Tue 9 Oct 2018 19:15

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