Michael Stipe in conversation
Friday 18 October 2019 7.30 - 8.30pm
The Benjamin West Lecture Theatre, Burlington Gardens, Royal Academy of Arts
£20, £12
Artist and singer/songwriter Michael Stipe talks about his life-long passion for photography and its potential to produce a defining image of our times.
In this exclusive event Michael Stipe joins the RA’s Artistic Director Tim Marlow for a conversation about his multifaceted artistic practice and its contemporary relevance. This event coincides with the launch of his new book Our Interference Times: a visual record, published by Damiani.
Stipe’s interest in photography began in his teens, before the band R.E.M. rose to fame. After studying art at university, Stipe was propelled to find a visual language that he could use to make sense of life. Deeply personal and extremely relevant, his work spans queerness and American pop culture to human memory and the relationship between analogue and digital image. Our Interference Times is formed from Stipe’s vast archive of personal photographs. Created with writer and artist Douglas Coupland, this is the second in a series of his work published by Damiani. The first work, Volume 1, was published in 2018.
This event includes a Q&A with the audience followed by a book signing with the author in the Wohl Entrance Hall.
Michael Stipe (b. 1960) studied photography and painting before the formation of R.E.M. in 1980, the band for which he served as singer/songwriter until its dissolution in 2011. The sensibility he began developing during his time as an art student transferred to his work for R.E.M. from art directing their graphics, videos and stage design, to writing, composing and performance.
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