We spoke to Imogen Stidworthy about the radical audio guides she’s co creating as part of London Borough of Culture.
What inspired you to create Radical Audio Guides?
I have always been very interested in dissolving the boundaries between what is happening inside an exhibition space and how that reverberates with the immediate contexts around the space, in the city, in the wider world. It’s important that those reverberations are happening and felt.
When you're commenting on an artwork—however you communicate—you're already challenged by what words you can use to describe something that is speaking in its own terms. Any kind of gallery mediation, whether wall text or an audio guide, has to translate its commentary into verbal language. And the whole point of art is that it speaks in its own way, whether that’s through sound, image, sculpture or performance.
Essentially, this project brings together people who communicate in different ways to explore how they respond to artworks. I wanted the process to be truly collaborative, co‑creative and equal. Many people embody different forms of voicing; they may communicate through gesture or rhythm. I wanted there to be a real range of forms of voicing among the participants so that we could learn about and attune ourselves to different ways of communicating. This puts everyone in a position of equal vulnerability and equal expertise.
How did you collaborate during the project?
It is important that everyone involved has a practice of their own, so they can bring elements of it to the group and benefit directly from our feedback. So everyone in the group has an artistic practice: Delson’s work is dance and choreography, Emmanuele’s is drawing, James is in a punk‑folk band, Sonny is a performer and filmmaker, Seja is a dancer and performer and, I would say, Charlotte practices an art of facilitation.
In the workshop there is a focus on what is being generated between us, as people communicating with quite different forms of language, or voicing. This is how I approach the relationship between people in my own artworks, one of which will be the work we are responding to in our final workshop. Each person in the group will be making a ‘radical audio guide’ to the new installation I’m preparing for Matt’s Gallery, In a thread of air. Visitors will be able to listen, or look at, or feel the guides – they may not be sound based – which will open out different ways of reading and perceiving the installation.
How can museums and galleries make their commentaries more accessible and diverse?
I think there’s huge value in bringing different voices and commentaries into gallery spaces. As audiences, we always participate in a work. We’re not just passively viewing – we’re participating. Particularly with immersive installations, you’re brought into the work through many things: sound, spatial arrangement, and more. I hope some of these commentaries might offer audiences alternative channels for accessing aspects of the work that they might not otherwise notice.
How has working locally to Wandsworth affected the project?
I want to thank Wandsworth Council, Matt’s Gallery, Actionspace and BLINK Dance Theatre, for making this possible. It was invaluable to have Wandsworth Council’s steer on potential partners among local organisations; this, and Matt’s Gallery own links with the neighbourhood and Wandsworth more widely, has rooted the project, given it an important sense of community, and made it immediately relevant to key organisations.
About the Exhibition
Chapter is presenting Imogen Stidworthy’s first solo exhibition in the UK for over a decade, from 22 March 2026. In a thread of air is the title both of the exhibition and of the first version of the new installation that will be presented at Matt’s Gallery, and is co-commissioned by the two venues. The exhibition at Chapter brings together In a thread of air v.1, alongside three related installations and a short film. In a thread of air v.2, will be presented at Matt’s Gallery in September, accompanied by the alternative, ‘radical’ art commentaries developed through Radical Audio Guides project.