Richard Birkett
Words Don't Come Easy

Whitstable Umbrella Hall

13:00-14:00 Sunday 20 June

Curator Richard Birkett’s recent projects have often focused on framing the production of art as much as its presentation in a given space. As such, alongside a consideration of artworks in a gallery setting, Birkett’s interests place an emphasis on live events and the social experience of culture – encompassing performance, speech and music. For his Whitstable Biennale event on the opening weekend of the festival, Birkett will respond to the commissions and performances within the programme at large. His event, including image projection and sound, also considers more generally the ways in which we reflect on and can talk about art.

Richard Birkett is a curator at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. He studied Fine Art at the Slade School of Fine Art and Goldsmiths College before running the non-profit gallery, Whitechapel Project Space, for six years. During this time he organised several projects as part of the Serpentine Gallery’s public programme. In 2007 he moved to the ICA, where he has curated and organised recent exhibitions and events including Nought to Sixty, Talk Show, Calling Out Of Context and Billy Childish: Unknowable But Certain. He has contributed texts to artist monographs and art magazines including Untitled and MAP.