Interview

Isaac Julien: 'I'm interested in poetry'

Meet the award winning filmmaker and installation artist through three key works

Isaac Julien: What Freedom is to Me

The first major UK exhibition by one of today's most compelling artists and filmmakers

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Isaac Julien, CBE, is an award winning filmmaker and installation artist. He rose to prominence with his 1989 film Looking for Langston, a poetic documentary and homage to Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes. His work has since explored a variety of issues including black identity, diaspora, migration and capital.

Julien was born in 1960 in London, where he currently lives and works. In the film above we visit the artist's studio to explore three key works across his career.

"I'm interested in poetry. And in my work it's very much a sort of poetic quest for a language to express experiences which are part of the everyday experience of people like myself."
Isaac Julien

Looking for Langston 1989

Isaac Julien, Looking for Langston 1989

Isaac Julien, Looking for Langston 1989 © Isaac Julien

Looking For Langston is a poetic documentary and meditation on a poet of the Harlem Renaissance called Langston Hughes. He was one of the most important poets writing at that particular time.

The work was really in conversation with a lot of the excitement around black independent film and queer cinema. It was very much an artistic statement around black gay desire and to transgress the way one was being viewed and seen.

Playtime 2014

Isaac Julien, Playtime 2014

Isaac Julien, Playtime 2014 © Isaac Julien

Behind a lot of my work is really an underlying theme, which is the theme of capital and labour. After the crash in 2008 I was very interested in making a work that would somehow explore how that came about.

Capital itself is quite hard to film, it's quite hard to depict, so one can only really depict it by its effects.

Ten Thousand Waves 2010

Isaac Julien, Ten Thousand Waves 2010

Isaac Julien, Ten Thousand Waves 2010 © Isaac Julien

Ten Thousand Waves looks at the more conveyed tragedy which occurred in 2004 when over 23 Chinese cockle shell pickers died while trying to eke out a living in the Lancashire coast and I was moved by this event.

I wanted to make a work that would bring attention to this tragedy that occurred.

Isaac Julien in his studio 2017

Isaac Julien in his studio 2017 © Tate Digital

Dance, theatre, music, sculpture, painting. All of these different modes of art-making are encapsulated into my practice which is why I chose film as a medium for making my work.

Isaac Julien

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