Artist Talk | SOPHIE MULLINS-POOLE & EMILY GILLIATT

24 Julho 2025 18h00

Zaratan AIR
Artist Talk | SOPHIE MULLINS-POOLE & EMILY GILLIATT

SCHEDULE | 24th July at 18:00
ENTRY | Free
INFO | residencies@zaratan.pt

ARTIST TALKS is a series of conversations that offer the community a chance to meet the artists-in-residence at Zaratan and to gain insight into the creative process.
During this encounter, Sophie Mullins-Poole and Emily Gilliatt will be available to introduce their artistic practices and to lead visitors on a discussion around the creation imaginary of the work developped during the residency.
The conversation will be held in English; participants are invited to engage and ask questions.
 

Biographies:

>>> SOPHIE FLORENCE MULLINS-POOLE is a South African researcher and interdisciplinary artist from Makhanda, Eastern Cape. The daughter of two artists, she has been steeped in the South African arts and culture scene since childhood, and politically involved as an activist since the age of sixteen. Getting a Master’s degree in Contemporary Arts & Literature, Cultural Interventions and Social Justice, her artwork utilises concepts and praxis from social science, primarily rooted in feminist decolonial theory. She views culture as story, a malleable, ancient and cyclical act of constructing the world and being constructed in turn - therefore viewing culture as something that can be directly engaged, fed and changed. Sophie has engaged in many artforms and mediums, working across painting, Rapoko carving, weaving, writing, scenography, curation, photography and film. Her research has focused on culture and de/coloniality, particularly within the South African context; dealing explicitly with the contemporary realities of settler colonialism as experienced socially, culturally and personally. As she pulls from social science, art making and activism, her work (in any and all of these fields) tries to ground itself in actionability and impact. Her current work is a diaristic, exploring the contemporary and historical resistance towards empire, and the desire for a different but ultimately unknowable future - grappling with the feeling of being stuck on the precipice of a cliff, too afraid to look over the edge, and unable to step back.

>>> EMILY GILLIATT is a British photographer from Louth, Lincolnshire. She graduated in 2021 with a degree in Fashion Communication and Promotion; where she specialised in Photography and got shortlisted for the Graduate Fashion Week, Fashion Photography award. While studying she found herself gravitating towards visual communication and expanded her knowledge of various photographic techniques. Not only does she find this to be the best expression for her as an artist but she also enjoys creating tactile elements by using traditional analogue methods. Her chosen format to shoot imagery in is currently 35mm film as she personally finds the gravitational pull to her images to be more intense and thought provoking. Thereby bridging the gap between the viewer and creating a visceral response; she believes that by creating Lo-Fi aesthetics adds an immediate character and depth to the work.

ZARATAN – Arte Contemporânea | Rua de São Bento 432, 1250-221 Lisboa
SUPPORT | República Portuguesa – Cultura, Juventude e Desporto / Direção-Geral das Artes / Direção-Geral das Artes