The Hot List is here, this week offering you several cultural experiences that will get you thinking, learning, and maybe seeing things in a new light. Whether you feel like a nature walk combined with a Palestine solidarity learning experience, thoughtful talks, photography exhibitions or just a wine and art book evening - we know where you should go.
EXHIBITION OPENING
THE 80S: PHOTOGRAPHING BRITAIN
TATE BRITAIN
Pimlico I 21 November to 5 May
Explore one of the UK’s most critical decades, the 1980s. This exhibition traces the work of a diverse community of photographers, collectives and publications – creating radical responses to the turbulent Thatcher years. Set against the backdrop of race uprisings, the miner strikes, section 28, the AIDS pandemic and gentrification – be inspired by stories of protest and change.
At the time, photography was used as a tool for social change, political activism, and artistic and photographic experiments, with powerful images that gave voice and visibility to underrepresented groups in society. This includes work depicting the Black arts movement, queer experience, South Asian diaspora and the representation of women in photography.
Find more information and get tickets here.
SHOW OPENING
HOLDING SPACE
10 14 GALLERY
Dalston Kingsland I 21 November - 16 January
Holding Space brings together five rising photographers and their reflections on frameworks of support—the intimate networks that foster connection and care across communities. From Cusco, Peru to Tamil Nadu, India to Leeds, UK, and beyond, each artist’s body of work offers a loving look at how often overlooked systems of support sustain and uplift us. The photographers featured delve into things such as the vibrant energy of the dance floor through a queer lens and the lives of Nepali diaspora youth in Britain.
Book your ticket for the opening here.
ART BOOKS
BOOKS & WINE: LOOKBOOKS X TENDER BOOKS X PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE BOOKS
LANT STREET WINE
Borough I 22 November 16:00-22:00
LOOKBOOKS, an independent seller of "old kind of fun books", Tender Books, a space for independent publishing, and Public Knowledge Books, a distributor of books and magazines championing underground culture, invite you to an evening of books and wine, where you can browse books whilst sipping wine in the most beautiful and festive of settings. The evening will take place at Lant Street Wine, an independent wine merchant based in the Borough since 1986.
More information here.
WALK & LUNCH AND LEARN
ESEA SISTERS NATURE WALK: THAMES PATH COMMUNITY WALK AND PALESTINE SOLIDARITY LUNCH & LEARN
THAMES PATH
Hammersmith I 23 November 8:00-15:00
ESEA Sisters is a volunteer-led collective of women, trans, non-binary and genderqueer folk of East and South East Asian (ESEA) heritage. Established in 2021, they’ve been creating spaces for members to connect with one another through healing, activism, joy and more. On their last nature walk of the year, they'll explore 5 miles of the Thames path in west London, from Kew Gardens to Hammersmith. This relatively short walk will be followed by a Palestine solidarity community lunch & learn in partnership with bakery Saffron & Honey, reflecting on the connections between food, land, community, oppression and collective liberation.
This event is for East and South East Asian (ESEA) women, trans, non-binary, and queer folks only.
More information and tickets can be found here.
EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC
BOUNDARY CONDITION III ANNIVERSARY
ST JAMES GARLICKHYTHE
Cannon Street I 23 November
Boundary Condition is a site-responsive audiovisual sonic immersion for the rabidly sentimental investigating the parallelization between dark jazz hauntology and music concrete as nostalgia-centric practices tickling from the persistence and antagonistic fragmentation of certain memories. Their third anniversary features ten artists in a hybrid of audiovisual live sets and immersive projections, seances in disused vessels, resonant spaces, performative dialogues of intergenerations, rituals of belonging and resistance, Iranian neoclassical music, Sardinian paganism, Celtic folk and much more in a historic twelfth-century church.
More information and tickets here.
TALK
THEIRSTORIES: FRAMING MASCULINITIES
THE STANDARD
Kings Cross St. Pancras I 26 November 18:00
TheirStories presents Framing Masculinity, a one-off special in which writer D Mortimer brings together legendary photographer Ajamu X and emerging icon Jesse Glazzard to discuss the ways in which masculinity and its diversions are represented in their photographic work. Two artists from different worlds; emerging from within black queer, and trans masc communities, their work is intrinsically linked. Both artists share a corruscating, irreverent and confronting approach to photography and a way of photographing men that is entirely their own. This panel will discuss the ways in which sexuality, race and gender have figured in the work of these photographers and how they have each carved out spaces of pleasure and play over the course of their careers. Join them in The Library Lounge at The Standard for a rich evening of queer intergenerational conversation, celebrating two of the UK’s most exciting queer photographic artists.
Find more information and RSVP details here.
TALK
REFLECTING ON THE LEGACY OF TEN.8
THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S GALLERY
Oxford Circus I 26 November 18:30-19:45
Launched in 1978, Ten.8 provided a forum for West Midlands-based photographers to come together and share images and ideas. It was described by the Jamaican scholar Professor Stuart Hall as “the journal which has most systematically explored the relationship between how we represent the world photographically, the knowledge which these images produce and their implications for power and politics”.
Coinciding with a special archive display of the renowned photography journal, this panel discussion featuring Gilane Tawadros, Derek Bishton and Darryl Georgiou, and moderated by David A. Bailey, will delve into the legacy and impact of Ten.8. Together they will reflect on how the journal challenged dominant narratives and was a platform for diasporic perspectives, significantly shifting photography and cultural discourse in the UK.
All details and tickets here.
TALK
A WORLD WITHOUT RACISM: JOSHUA VIRASAMI & LOV WYNTER
BURLEY FISHER BOOKS
Haggerston I 27 November 18:30 – 21:00
To celebrate the publication of A World Without Racism: Building Antiracist Futures, edited by Joshua Virasami, Josh will be in conversation with artist and activist Liv Wynter. A World Without Racism offers a set of clear-eyed, radical and accessible principles and strategies for building working-class power through antiracist organising. Challenging the harms of the racist establishment as well as the entrenchment of the liberal diversity-inclusion complex, this book carves out a much-needed space for the ideas of radical antiracists, putting the politics back into activism.
Find more information and get tickets here.
Left: Joshua Virasami. | Middle: A World Without Racism. | Right: Liv Wynter.
SCREENING
PUNISHMENT
ICA
Charing Cross I 28 November 21:00
PUNISHMENT marks the second instalment of the Lates series; an exploration of fetishistic desire, curated by Harlan and Helena Whittingham in collaboration with the Bishopsgate Institute’s UK Fetish Archive. Step into an erotic time capsule where the roles of punisher and punished are playfully brought to life. Featuring scenes from VHS tapes ranging from the '80s to the early '00s, a glimpse into the nation's pornographic collections will be offered to uncover representations of kinky power dynamics and sadomasochistic compulsion.
Content warning: The programme contains references and/or depictions to/of pornography, heavy bondage, and impact play.
All information and tickets here.
EXHIBITION & BOOK LAUNCH
EDDIE OTCHERE: SPIRIT BEHIND THE LENS
HOXTON ARCHES
Hoxton I 28 November - 1 December
Join us for four days of an immersive exhibition celebrating photography, music, and culture, featuring artist talks, community photo walks, sound systems, and more. The event kicks off on Thursday, November 28, with the exhibition launch—an evening of photography and music centered around Eddie Otchere's book Spirit Behind the Lens, accompanied by DJs. On Friday, November 29, legendary photographers Simon Wheatley and Eddie Otchere will lead a photography-focused walking tour. The weekend will continue with additional talks, music, and guided tours through the exhibition.
All details and RSVP here.
