The Spell or The Dream
Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh, 2026; Somerset House Courtyard, London, 2025
The Spell Or The Dream is a major new work by Turner Prize winner and Somerset House Studios artist Tai Shani, drawing together sculpture, radio, live gatherings and a host of guest contributors, to collectively imagine new horizons.
Drawing on the archetypal fairytale image of a sleeping figure in a glass box and devised for the iconic Somerset House courtyard, the sculpture - The Dreamer - invokes myths of cursed or enchanted sleeps that last a hundred years, a millennia, an eternity; poisoned apples and pricked fingers that lead to suspended states of animation.
Under the seemingly unbreakable spell or curse of capitalism, we sleep through the warnings of present and future catastrophes, economic inequality, social breakdown, political instability and environmental collapse, dreaming out the violence of colonialism and its living legacies, the fairy tale of empire.
Dreaming a way out of crisis and into fairer futures is an act of the imagination, and in our current reality it is not only a radical act, but an urgent one. Of what does the Dreamer dream? Responding to this question, a continuous broadcast, manifested as an internet radio station, will host a programme of discussions, lectures, readings, curated sound works, archival sonic artefacts, and newly commissioned performances.
Featuring contributions from artists, writers, thinkers, economists, ecologists and academics from around the globe, including many Somerset House Studios artists, The Spell or The Dream is an invitation to understand the necessity of imagining new and radical ways of being and building together.
Commissioned by and developed in residence at Somerset House Studios. Commission and touring presentations made possible with Art Fund support. Commission and premiere presentation supported by Cockayne Grants for the Arts, a Donor Advised Fund held at The Prism Charitable Trust. With additional support from Jingmei Liu and Gathering.