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Inspired by with Prem Sahib

@premsahib is a British of Indian and Polish heritage known for minimalist sculptures, installations, and performances that explore queer histories and architecture.

For Contxt, he chose an artwork, book, film and piece of music that inspire him,

Waterfall (2015–16), Robert Gober features a man’s vest mounted on the wall with a small opening in the back that reveals a tiny lit diorama of a waterfall.

Ban en Banlieue by Bhanu Kapil is a novel whose narrative circles a fictional girl who lies down to die in a 1979 London race riot, writing in fragments, notes, and performance scores.

Marlon Riggs’ Tongues Untied is a landmark documentary-essay from 1989 on Black gay identity in America, mixing poetry, testimony, and direct address.

“Let’s Not Chat About Despair” by Diamanda Galás is from the album You Must Be Certain of the Devil (1988), a searing, industrial-tinged indictment of government indifference to AIDS.

Prem Sahib’s survey exhibition Chamber opens at the @delawarr on October 10.

Image: Prem Sahib, Sleepwalker (2023), steel, plywood, MDF, paint, mirror, two-way mirror, LED lights, dimmer, acrylic, baby-grows, plastic hangers by @contxt_archive

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2 days ago

Inspired by with Jenkin van Zyl

@JenkinvanZyl is a British artist who creates immersive installations with moving image and sculpture that sit between surveillance and spectacle.

For Contxt, they chose an artwork, book, film and piece of music that inspires them.

Admiring La Argentina was a work by the septuagenarian butoh pioneer’s by Kazuo Ohno performed in 1977 which is a ghostly reimaging of the memory of a flamenco dancer.

The Bed Trick by Izabella Scott is a novelistic account of the Gayle Newland “rape by deception” trial, using a catfishing case to unpick centuries of bed-trick myths in culture and law.

The 1975 feature film The Maids based on Genet’s claustrophobic play stars Glenda Jackson and Susannah York as two sisters role-playing servitude and murder.

P.J. Harvey’s second album Rid of Me, released in1993 and produced by Steve Albini, veers between feral and whisper, desire and control.

Van Zyl’s exhibition Enclosure is on view @SomersetHouse in London until November 29.

Images: Jenkin van Zyl, Enclosure, 2026 by @contxt_archive

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5 days ago

Inspired by… with Alexandra Bachzetsis

@alexandra.bachzetsis is a Swiss-Greek choreographer and artist working with dance and performance exploring ideas around the body, pop culture, identity and expression.

For In Contxt, she chose a book, film, piece of music and artwork that inspires her.

Let’s Take Back Our Space: ‚Female‘ and ‚Male‘ Body Language as a Result of Patriarchal Structures by Mariam Wex is a groundbreaking illustrated artist book created in 1979 that took 5,000 images of people’s postures and gestures to demonstrate how humans present themselves – and their gender.

Zabriskie Point Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni is the Italian director’s wild, sexy take on counterculture America. Released in 1970, with a Pink Floyd soundtrack, this is a move about rebellion, resistance and redefining love.

The N-—r Series by Julius Eastman are three iconic piano compositions created by American composer Julius Eastman in 1979 that intentionally provoke, express ideas around Blackness and identity in the context for classical minimalism.

Cut Piece by Yoko Ono, enacted in 1964: the artist invited audience members to cut her clothing off piece by piece while she remained still and seated on stage, forcing the viewer to rethink their ideas around power, desire and action.

Alexandra Bachzetsis is currently working on a new piece, entitled To be real, which is part 2 of the work Rush(es), which she toured in 2025 and 2026. It will premiere on December 4 @Shedhalle in Zurich.

Image: Alexandra Bachzetsis, Rush(es), 2025. Photo: Estelle Hanania, courtesy of EDIZIONI C/O BARDI. by @contxt_archive

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8 days ago

Inspired by with Andi Fisher

German artist @andi___fischer works with oil stick and pencil to created paintings, drawings and sculptures that use a childlike aesthetic to unpick ideas around Western art history.

For Contxt, he chose an artwork, book, film and piece of music that inspires him.

A.B.:Insight from 2014 is painting by the late artist Thomas Zipp, whose practice fused pop-culture and belief in an all encompassing pseudo-scientific tableau.

Das Narrenschiff by Sebastian Brandt is a 1494 satirical verse allegory with attributed woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer describing over a hundred human follies loaded onto a “ship of fools”.

The feature film The Naked Gun released in 1988 is a spoof comedy starring Leslie Nielsen as a bumbling police Lieutenant.

‘Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’ by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah awss the breakout single from the band’s 2005 self-released debut album, featuring yelping vocals over a lo-fi, hand-clap.

Andi Fisher’s exhibition ‘Ship of Fools – umherirren’ is on show @vonbartha in Basel until October 23.

Image: Andi Fischer, Ohne Titel, (2026), colored-Pencil on paper by @contxt_archive

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13 days ago

Inspired by with Joanna Piotrowska

Joanna Piotrowska @janka_piotrowska is a London-based Polish artist best known for photographic, performance and film work examining the human condition and gesture using archives including self-defence manuals and psychotherapy guides.

For Contxt she chose an artwork book film and piece of music that informs her work.

Taína H. Cruz’s If and When They Come She’ll Be Ready is a graffiti-inspired site specific wall drawing created in 2026 for the Whitney Biennial.

Sophie Calle’s True Stories pairs short stories with photographs, blurring the line between fiction and reality.

Motivated by the director Carla Simón’s own family, Alcarràs (2022) follows a Catalan peach-farming family’s last summer on land they’re about to lose.

No I Won’t is by Evans Pyramid, the alter ego of Andre Evons, a seasoned performer and session player in the 1970s known for his disco and boogie sound.

Piotrowska has a solo exhibition opening @phillidareid October 8. by @contxt_archive

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14 days ago

Inspired by Philipp Timischl

Philipp Timischl @philippphilipp is a Paris-based Austrian artist working with video, sculpture, painting and photography, often combined with text, that touch on ideas around class, queerness and power.

For Contxt, he chose an artwork, book, film and piece of music that inspires him
Isa Genzken’s sculpture Rose III created in 2007 has been the image on TImischl phone background since his iPhone 7 in 2016.

Timischl owes giving up smoking to Allen Carr’s book Easy Ways to Stop Smoking, which has sold millions of copies since its publication in 1985.

NAZA by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, is an investigative documentary examining the civilian casualties of Israel’s military operations in Gaza.

DJ Billybool aka Thaiboy Digital, is a Thai rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. His trance mix ‘The Effect Mix’ is available on soundcloud.

Timischl’s upcoming monograph, published by Road House, will be release in October 2026.

Image: (Broken Painting), 2024, Mixed media on canvas, LED Panels, video 1’23’’ by @contxt_archive

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16 days ago

Inspired by with Hew Locke

@hewdjlocke is a renowned Guyanese-British artist working with sculpture, installation, painting and photography to create work about topics including. power, colonialism and

For Contxt he chose an artwork, book, film and song that inspires him

Marc Chagall’s 1911 painting ‘I and the Village’ on show @themuseumofmodernart depicts memories of his childhood in a peasant village near Vitebsk.

Miguel Street by V.S. Naipaul published in 1959, is a collection of linked short stories set in wartime Trinidad and Tobago.

‘Return of the One Armed Swordsman’ directed by Chang Cheh in 1969, as it reminded him of his youth watching Hong Kong Kung Fu films at the wooden Astor Cinema in Georgetown.

‘The Gold in Africa’ by Growling Tiger is a 1936 calypso song that covers Mussolini’s invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and Emperor Haile Selassie’s spirited defense of the country before the League of Nations.
 Hew Locke’s exhibition ‘The Wanderers’ is on show at PPOW Gallery until October 24. @ppowgallery

Image: Hew Locke, Foreign Exchange 3, 2026, plywood, tin, zinc, brass, copper alloys, jesmonite, plastic, synthetic fabric, acrylic paint, resin, fiberglass, enamel paint, acrylic medium by @contxt_archive

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18 days ago

Inspired by with Aramis Navarro

@aramis.navarro is a Swiss artist working with ideas around belief, mysticism, algorithms and neural networks.

For Contxt, he chose an artwork, book, film and piece of music that inspires him.

Las Meninas (1656) is a portrait of the Spanish royal court by Diego Velázquez, known for its unusual take on perspective, mirrors, and the act of painting.

Erik Davis’s book Techgnosis from 1998, examines hthe relationship between the occult and spiritual to technology and media throughout history.

Spike Jonze’s 2013 film Her is a melancholic sci-fi film about a man who falls in love with an intelligent operating system.

truisms 4 dummies is a 2023 track by Headache mixing ambient electronic and artificial voice poetry.

Navarro’s work is on show until Nov 18 @doppelganger.gallery in St Gallen.

Image: Aramis Navarro Ratking, 2025. Courtesy of the artist. Photo E. by @contxt_archive

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21 days ago

Inspired by with Olivia Erlanger

@oliviaerlanger is a New York based artist who explores American dream and delusions through sculpture, writing and filmmaking

For Contxt, she chose an artwork, book, film and piece of music that inspires her.

Dominique Gonzales Foerster transformed a 3,700 square foot gallery into a landscape for chronotopes & dioramas, containing books by writers like Ballard, Bolaño.

The Changeling by Joy Williams is a 1976 dark fantasy novel about a grieving mother who flees to a chaotic island with a child she believes may be a supernatural being.

Directed when she was 18, Chantal Akerman’s Saute Ma Ville is a story about rebellion against domesticity.
O Superman was the a minimalist and electronic debut single by Laurie Anderson from 1981.

Erlanger will be included in the group exhibition Her October 3 and runs until November 22 @salzburgerkunstverein

Image: Olivia Erlanger, Fan Fiction, 2024. Courtesy of the artist. by @contxt_archive

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23 days ago

In contxt with Chloe Wise

@chloewise is a New York-based Canadian artist who creates figurative paintings, satirical films and installations drawing from pop culture and the transcendent images within art history.

For Contxt, she chose an artwork, film, book and piece of music that inspires her.

Cristo Velato was created by the Neapolitan sculptor Giuseppe Sanmartino in 1753 for the Sansevero Chapel, depicting a marble Christ beneath a death shroud on bed.

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov was published in 1961, after the success of Lolita. It is structured as a 999-line poem by the fictional writer John Shade.

The 1975 feature film Love and Death directed and starring Woody Allen is a satire on era of great Russian literature and co-stars Diane Keaton.

Merriweather Post Pavillion is the eighth album by American band Animal Collective, release on Domino and infused with lush electronic sounds and reverb.

Following a major solo show at „Kulturstiftung Basel“ „H. Geiger in Basel“, @chloewise is working on a forthcoming solo show at Massimo di Carlo in Milan in March 2027.

@kbhgeiger @anmlcollective
@massimodecarlogallery
Image: A stone is frozen music (2025), oil on linen. Photo: Charles Roussel by @contxt_archive

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a month ago

In Contxt with Frida Orupabo

Frida Orupabo (@nemiepeba) is a Norwegian-Nigerian artist working with collage, video and installation whose hybridic work addresses ideas around representation, identity and gender.

For contxt she chose an artwork, book, film and playlist that inspires her.

Artwork: Frida chose the collaborative floor sculptures of Rosa Duffy and Y. Malik Jalal “because pearls and diamonds have not yet been heard to speak”. @antylc @ymalikjalal

Book: Academic Christina Sharpe’s book Ordinary Notes, is a collection of 248 notes about black life in the United States.

Film: Back Inside Herself is a 194 short film by Saundra Sharp shows a Black woman finding her own sense of self and rejecting societal expectations of beauty and behaviour.

Music: Orupabo chose a private playlist “Ada” made for their oldest daughter “(back then when she was a small plum). Because it comes with the sweetest memories and it brings good work flow.”

Orupabo has solo shows coming up @Kunstendk in Aalborg, Denmark from October 9 to May 7 and @stevenson_za in Amsterdam from November 7 to December 9. by @contxt_archive

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a month ago

Inspired by with UVA

Matt Clark, the founder of @unitedvisualartists , is an artist working with perception and physical experience using light, code, sound, and movement.

For Contxt, he chose an artwork, book, album and film that inspires him.

Artwork: Tino Sehgal, This Variation, first created in 2012, is an intentionally undocumented performance work that take place entirely in darkness. The viewer only experience bodies, sound and a sense of ritual around them.

Book. Lawrence Weschler’s book on Robert Irwin, Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees (published in 1982), tells the story of how the artist moved beyond the canvas, traditional media and gallery itself.

Record: Plastikman’s 1998 album Consumed showcases his sculptural and spatial on minimalist techno.

Film: Adam Curtis, a former collaborator of UVA, released the documentary All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace in 2011, suggesting that computers have failed to liberate humanity and reduced our view of existence.

Clark has just finished collaborating with Massive Attack on their recent Asia tour on the stage visuals and is working towards a solo show at bitforms in New York in spring 2027.

Image UVA, Vanishing Point (2019). Courtesy of the artist. by @contxt_archive

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a month ago