Maximum Break: Who Gets To Be An Artist?

At the heart of the creative community at Somerset House is Somerset House Studios, where up to 70 artists are resident at any one time. Deep in the vaults of the building, movement artists share space with set designers and film makers work alongside musicians. Conversations which begin around a desk can go on to form long collaborations. 

What subjects drive these conversations? Over a game of snooker, we hear two artists from the Studios talk about an idea that is occupying them. We follow as they share their innermost thoughts on the subject, from what it means to be an artist within the current technological landscape to how class, power and ideology intersect within the art world, all from the safety of the Somerset House snooker room.

In this episode, artists Jemma Desai and John Costi discuss Dom Hunter’s Chav Solidarity, a book of essays which examines the ways in which our classed experiences shape the ways in which we think and do politics.  They share the moment they decided to become an artist, the compulsion to make work and who gets to be an artist in the first place.