Nina Wakeford
Nina makes artworks which are often initiated by encounters with feminist, LGBT and queer histories or archives
Staff details
Nina is Professor of Art the current Director of Research in the Department of Art. Recent work has been shown at Glasgow International, the Barbican, Reading International, Science Gallery, London and by Art on the Underground. With artist Elizabeth Price she initiated the Artist Citizens Jury which took place in November 2022 at CCA, Goldsmiths and also resulted in an artist book of testimony and reflection (also available as digital download).
Research interests
Through performance, props and moving image, she addresses the way in which identification and disidentification are forged, modes of empathy and inhabitation, and the risks of staying loyal/respectful to the kinds of materials that initiate her artwork - mostly from feminist, LGBT and queer archives. In 2024 she will complete a project for Stadtgalerie Bern generated from materials on concrete, Cold War paranoia and homo/queer/sexuality. Her artist book Our Pink Depot:The Gay Underground FLO-N202-236000000- TRK-MST-00002-SAY- HELLO-WAVE-GOODBYE- KEN-NIE-BPS (Book Works, 2019) based on conversations with miners, DJs, train drivers, engineers and flower market traders, proposes the whole of the new Northern Line Extension as queer club, and is being adapted into a live performance to be staged at London Transport Museum in 2025. Nina studied sociology before training in fine art and is the is the co-editor of Inventive Methods: The Happening of the Social (Routledge, 2012) a collection which explores, amongst other things, how academic research might better work with openness and ambiguity.
Featured publications
Publications and research outputs
Show/Exhibition
- Being a faggot-spaceman, I am awesome. Andreetta, Gianmaria; Beeler, Luca; Universal Frxnd, Public and Wakeford, Nina. 2022. Being a faggot-spaceman, I am awesome.. In: "Stadtgalerie Bern", Stadtgalerie, Bern, Switzerland, 23 September - 29 October 2022.
- Out in Stevenage Wakeford, Nina. 2022. Out in Stevenage. In: "Out in Stevenage", Stevenage Museum, United Kingdom, 24 February -12 March 2022.
- 'on being allergic to onions'... we read Susan Leigh Star Wakeford, Nina. 2020. 'on being allergic to onions'... we read Susan Leigh Star. In: "Genders: Shaping and Breaking the Binary", Science Gallery, London, United Kingdom, 13 February - 28 June 2020.
Performance
- Above this new tunnel the Market Tavern once stood. Grey concrete outside. Cherry red, dark, sexy, cruisy, inside. Wakeford, Nina. 2023. Above this new tunnel the Market Tavern once stood. Grey concrete outside. Cherry red, dark, sexy, cruisy, inside.. In: "Blueprints of Hope", Octogan Gallery, UCL, United Kingdom, 31 May 2023.
- Live Performance Wakeford, Nina. 2019. Live Performance. In: "Our Pink Depot", Matt's Gallery, London, United Kingdom, 28 November 2019.
- The Worker Poets, Political Repression: Weakness of memory, in search of a revolutionary future Wakeford, Nina. 2019. The Worker Poets, Political Repression: Weakness of memory, in search of a revolutionary future. In: "In the Open or in Stealth. The Unruly Presence of an Intimate Future", MACBA, Barcelona, Spain.
Artist's Book
- Our Pink Depot: The Gay Underground FLO-N202- 236000000-TRK-MST-00002-SAY-HELLO- WAVE-GOODBYE-KEN-NIE-BPS Wakeford, Nina. 2019. Our Pink Depot: The Gay Underground FLO-N202- 236000000-TRK-MST-00002-SAY-HELLO- WAVE-GOODBYE-KEN-NIE-BPS.
Conference or Workshop Item
- Cross-Departmental Textiles Workshop Andrews, Jorella G.; Wakeford, Nina; Kerridge, Tobie and Cameron, Jane. 2023. 'Cross-Departmental Textiles Workshop'. In: Cross Departmental Textiles Workshop. Constance Howard Gallery, Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom 8 March 2023.
- Affect and Curating: Feeling the Curatorial Reckitt, Helena; Blackman, Lisa; Wakeford, Nina and Fisher, Jennifer. 2016. 'Affect and Curating: Feeling the Curatorial'. In: Affect and Curating: Feeling the Curatorial. Whitechapel Gallery, London, United Kingdom 19 January 2017.
- Replacing the Networked Society with Social Foam: A Revolution for Corporate Ethnography? Wakeford, Nina. 2011. 'Replacing the Networked Society with Social Foam: A Revolution for Corporate Ethnography?'. In: Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings. Colorado, United States.
Art Object
- DEMO PHOENIX Carter, Claire Makhlouf; Noonan-Ganley, Joseph and Wakeford, Nina. 2022. DEMO PHOENIX.
- We Will Replace All Men With Machines (manifesto statement) Wakeford, Nina. 2020. We Will Replace All Men With Machines (manifesto statement).
- Posters for the Northern Line Wakeford, Nina. 2019. Posters for the Northern Line.
Article
- Number ecologies: numbers and numbering practices Day, Sophie E.; Lury, Celia and Wakeford, Nina. 2014. Number ecologies: numbers and numbering practices. Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, 15(2), pp. 123-154. ISSN 1600-910X
Book Section
- A Conversation about Models and Prototypes Prophet, Jane and Wakeford, Nina. 2010. A Conversation about Models and Prototypes. In: Hazel Gardiner and Charlie Gere, eds. Art Practice in a Digital Culture. London: Ashgate, pp. 43-60. ISBN 978-0-754-67623-2
Edited Book
- Inventive Methods: The Happening of the Social London Lury, Celia and Wakeford, Nina, eds. 2012. Inventive Methods: The Happening of the Social London. Abingdon and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-57481-5
Printed Ephemera
- Making and Opening: Entangling Design and Social Science - conference delegate hand-out Wilkie, Alex; Kerridge, Tobie; Michael, Mike; Gaver, William; Wakeford, Nina and Jungnickel, Kat. 2010. Making and Opening: Entangling Design and Social Science - conference delegate hand-out.
Project
- Art on the Underground: Our Pink Depot Wakeford, Nina. 2019 Art on the Underground: Our Pink Depot.