RESET
The Frieze Artist Award 2020 is commissioned and produced by Forma and Frieze with the support of Arts Council England.
RESET continues to tour across festivals, museums and institutions around the world.
Recent presentations
High Line, New York (USA), as part of Salutations to Soothe Weathered Hearts, 9 July - 9 September 2024
Regen Projects, LA (USA), as part of Learning a new punctuation for hope in times of disaster, 16 March - 18 May 2024
Temporary Gallery, (Cologne), as part of Moving Beyond the Time of Salt, 21 June - 15 December 2024.
— Gathering, London (UK), as part of Pictures of Us, 1 December 2023 - 20 January 2024
— Videonale Scope, Turisterama, Bonn, (Cologne) as part of Language Beyond Language. Language inspite of Language, 30 November 2023
— Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia, Norwich (UK), as part of Film Works, 8 June 2023.
Press
Moving Bodies, Moving Images Whitechapel Gallery / London (Flash Art, 12 December 2022)
Alberta Whittle wins 2020 Frieze Artist Award (Artforum, 25 Aug 2020)
Glasgow artist Alberta Whittle’s prizewinning film could go viral... (The Times, 1 Sep 2020)
Playing (with) Ghosts (Frieze Magazine, 5 Oct 2020)
The occult’s return to art: ‘Before, you’d have been laughed out of the gallery’ (The Guardian, 4 Nov 2020)
Interview with Alberta Whittle: RESET (This Is Tomorrow, 11 Nov 2020)
RESET
Alberta Whittle
October 2020 – Ongoing
RESET is a film by Alberta Whittle co-commissioned by Forma and Frieze London for the 2020 Frieze Artist Award.
Informed by the writings of queer theorist Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, the work interweaves gothic imagery, fears of contagion, xenophobia and the ensuing moral panic that often follows such anxieties. Exploring timely questions relating to personal healing and the cultivation of hope in hostile environments–such as the ensuing global pandemic or colonialism–this urgent political film strikes the balance between grief and reflection, empathy and desire.
Living and working between Scotland and Barbados, Whittle’s interdisciplinary works frequently explore the African diaspora and push for the decolonisation of Western history.
Often working with multiple collaborators from composers, choreographers, writers and animators, Whittle creates a working practice that is supportive and humanising. Motivated by the desire to manifest self-compassion and collective care as key methods in battling anti-blackness, Whittle choreographs interactive installations, using film, sculpture and performance as site-specific artworks in public and private spaces.
The 2020 edition of the Frieze Artist Award was selected by a jury composed of leading industry figures, including Chris Rawcliffe (Artistic Director, Forma), Eva Langret (Artistic Director, Frieze London), Himali Singh Soin (Artist and winner of the Frieze Artist Award 2019), Victor Wang (王宗孚) (Artistic Director and Chief Curator, M WOODS Museum) and Zoé Whitley (Director, Chisenhale Gallery).
Whittle’s winning proposal was selected from a shortlist of nominated artists including Cibelle Cavalli Bastos, Jamie Crewe, Adham Faramawy, Arash Fayez, Onyeka Igwe, Helene Kazan and Sadé Mica.
Chris Rawcliffe, Artistic Director, Forma said: ‘I’m incredibly proud to continue the collaboration between Frieze and Forma on the 2020 Frieze Artist Award. This year’s selected artist, Alberta Whittle, has shown incredible generosity in her creative process, inviting multiple collaborators to work on her commission. In her films, Whittle balances urgent political and social issues with poetic narratives that transcend time and resonate with us all. In these more than challenging times, Whittle’s voice speaks louder and clearer than most.’
Eva Langret, Artistic Director, Frieze London said: ‘Frieze is thrilled to present a major new commission by Alberta Whittle. Whittle’s winning proposal is a moving-image work that explores timely questions relating to personal healing and the cultivation of hope in hostile environments; be it the pandemic, colonialism or xenophobia. We are delighted to be partnering with Forma, for the second year, and thank them for their support in realising this significant new commission.’
Alberta Whittle, RESET, 2020. Installation view from Twilight Land, Moderna Museet Malmö (29 October 2022 – 5 March 2023). Photo: Helene Toresdotter.
Alberta Whittle, RESET, 2020. Installation view from Twilight Land, Moderna Museet Malmö (29 October 2022 – 5 March 2023). Photo: Helene Toresdotter.
Installation view at the Gothenburg Biennale (4 September - 21 November 2021).Photo by Hendrik Zeitler.
Installation view at the Gothenburg Biennale (4 September - 21 November 2021).Photo by Hendrik Zeitler.
Installation view, RESET, Platform 2/ Peak, Abergavenny Station, part of Art Night 21 (18 June - 17 July 2021)
Installation view, An apology, a pill, a ritual, a resistance, Remai Modern, Saskatoon, Canada (13 March - 24 May 2021). Photo: Blaine Campbell.
Installation view, An apology, a pill, a ritual, a resistance, Remai Modern, Saskatoon, Canada (13 March - 24 May 2021). Photo: Blaine Campbell.
Installation view, An apology, a pill, a ritual, a resistance, Remai Modern, Saskatoon, Canada (13 March - 24 May 2021). Photo: Blaine Campbell.
RESET has started touring across festivals, museums and institutions around the world. Including:
— Moderna Museet Malmö (Sweden) as part of Twilight Land, 29 October 2022 – 9 April 2023 — Whitechapel Gallery (London, UK) as part of Moving Bodies, Moving Images, 12 October 2022 – 8 January 2023
— Nicola Vassell Gallery (New York, US) as part of Respectability won’t save you: a Caribbean haunting, 18 May - 25 June 2022
— GIBCA 2021 (Gothenburg, Sweden), 4 September – 21 November 2021
— Jupiter Artland (Edinburgh, UK) as part of the residency programme Healing the Hostile Environment, 31 July – 31 October 2021
— Glasgow Womens Library (Glasgow, UK) as part of Life Support: Forms of Care in Art and Activism, 14 August – 16 October 2021
— Platform 2 with Peak (Abergavenny, UK) as part of the trilogy Creating dangerously (we-I insist!), Art Night 2021, 18 June – 17 July 2021
— CCA (Derry, UK) as part of the trilogy Creating dangerously (we-I insist!), Art Night 2021, 18 June – 17 July 2021 — KLA ART (Kampala, Uganda) as part of the trilogy Creating dangerously (we-I insist!), Art Night 2021, 18 June – 17 July 2021
— Remai Modern (Saskatoon, Canada) as part of An apology, a pill, a ritual, a resistance, 13 March – 24 May 2021
— Rewire Festival, 6 – 9 May 2021
Forma is committed to creating opportunities for this immersive and urgent body of work to engage many audiences internationally. If you’re interested to know more about RESET please get in touch with our Head of Programme Antonia Shaw (as@forma.org.uk).
RESET premiere
9–16 October 2020
FormaHQ, London
Winner of the 2020 Frieze Artist Award, RESET premiered in October 2020 through a hybrid of online and offline activity, screening live at Forma’s new cultural hub in South London from 9–16 October 2020 and to audiences worldwide via the Frieze Viewing Room.
Artist Biography
Alberta Whittle is an artist, researcher and curator. She was awarded a Turner Bursary, the Frieze Artist Award and a Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award in 2020. Alberta is a PhD candidate at Edinburgh College of Art and is a Research Associate at The University of Johannesburg. She was a RAW Academie Fellow at RAW Material in Dakar in 2018 and is the Margaret Tait Award winner for 2018/9. Alberta has exhibited and performed in various solo and group shows, including at Glasgow International (2020), Grand Union (2020), Eastside Projects (2020), DCA (2019), GoMA, Glasgow (2019), Pig Rock Bothy at the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh (2019), 13th Havana Biennale, Cuba (2019), The Tyburn Gallery, London (2019), The City Arts Centre, Edinburgh (2019), The Showroom, London (2018), National Art Gallery of the Bahamas (2018), RAW Material, Dakar (2018), FADA Gallery, Johannesburg (2018), the Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg (2017), FRAMER FRAMED, Amsterdam (2015), Goethe On Main, Johannesburg (2015), at the Johannesburg Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, Venice (2015), and BOZAR, Brussels (2014), amongst others.
Her work has been acquired for the UK National Collections, The Scottish National Gallery Collections, Glasgow Museums Collections and The Contemporary Art Research Collection at Edinburgh College of Art amongst other private collections.
Alberta is representing Scotland at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022, with a film co-commissioned by Forma and Glasgow International. Over 2021, Alberta will be sharing new work as part of Art Night, British Art Show 9, Liverpool Biennial, An infinity of traces at the Lisson Gallery, business as usual : hostile environment at Glasgow Sculpture Studios, An apology, a pill, a ritual, a resistance at Remai Modern, Right of Admission at the University of Johannesburg and A Miraculous Noise at Viborg Kunstal.
The Frieze Artist Award 2020 is commissioned and produced by Forma and Frieze with the support of Arts Council England.
RESET continues to tour across festivals, museums and institutions around the world.
Recent presentations
High Line, New York (USA), as part of Salutations to Soothe Weathered Hearts, 9 July - 9 September 2024
Regen Projects, LA (USA), as part of Learning a new punctuation for hope in times of disaster, 16 March - 18 May 2024
Temporary Gallery, (Cologne), as part of Moving Beyond the Time of Salt, 21 June - 15 December 2024.
— Gathering, London (UK), as part of Pictures of Us, 1 December 2023 - 20 January 2024
— Videonale Scope, Turisterama, Bonn, (Cologne) as part of Language Beyond Language. Language inspite of Language, 30 November 2023
— Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia, Norwich (UK), as part of Film Works, 8 June 2023.
Press
Moving Bodies, Moving Images Whitechapel Gallery / London (Flash Art, 12 December 2022)
Alberta Whittle wins 2020 Frieze Artist Award (Artforum, 25 Aug 2020)
Glasgow artist Alberta Whittle’s prizewinning film could go viral... (The Times, 1 Sep 2020)
Playing (with) Ghosts (Frieze Magazine, 5 Oct 2020)
The occult’s return to art: ‘Before, you’d have been laughed out of the gallery’ (The Guardian, 4 Nov 2020)
Interview with Alberta Whittle: RESET (This Is Tomorrow, 11 Nov 2020)