Isaac Julien, I Love My Friend, from the film Looking for Langston, 1989. Courtesy of Galerie Ron Mandos
Exhibition
Photography

Isaac Julien: Looking for Langston

FREE
18 – 29 May 2017

Mon, Tue, Sat & Sun 10.00-18.00 (last entry 17.00) Wed–Fri 11.00-20.00 (last entry 19.00)

Studio Room
South Wing

A photographic exhibition revisiting Isaac Julien’s seminal film Looking for Langston (1989).

Isaac Julien is an internationally acclaimed artist and filmmaker. One of the objectives of his practice is to break down the barriers that exist between different artistic disciplines, drawing from and commenting on film, dance, photography, music, theatre, painting and sculpture, and uniting them to construct a powerfully visual narrative.

Isaac Julien: Looking for Langston
Isaac Julien: Looking for Langston

This exhibition presents a body of work that revisits his seminal film Looking for Langston (1989), a poetic documentary and homage to Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes. When Julien was preparing to make what would become this award-winning work, he studied the photographs of James Van der Zee, George Platt Lynes and Robert Mapplethorpe. This work is regarded as a cinematic landmark in the exploration of desire and the reciprocity of the gaze, created at a time when the AIDS crisis was at its height.

Isaac Julien: Looking for Langston
Isaac Julien: Looking for Langston