The Box gets ready for a ‘Super Saturday’

Staff at The Box are busy preparing for a busy day on 8 March, when it will be hosting a ‘Super Saturday’ to mark the final weekend of one of its current exhibitions.

‘Osman Yousefzada: When will we be good enough?’ has been on display since early November and comes to a close at 5pm this Sunday. The powerful, thought-provoking exhibition includes textiles, film, sculpture and clever use of found objects, and explores ideas of power across the ages.

The ‘Super Saturday’ will delve into different themes in the exhibition throughout the day with a series of events for different ages and interests.

Osman’s South Asian heritage has inspired a free family-friendly drop-in which will be on offer from 10.30am-12.30pm (last entries at 12.15pm) and where children can decorate tote bags to take home using Indian prints and sparkles.

Osman will be in conversation with internationally-acclaimed author and curator Gemma Rolls-Bentley from 11.30am-1pm. Gemma’s debut book ‘Queer Art: From Canvas to Club and the Spaces Between’ was published last spring and has been highlighted as a must-read by Them, Dazed, Timeout, The Guardian, Cultured and the FT. In Osman’s exhibition, queer communities are presented as spaces of resistance, providing hope of an alternative future and a means of escape from past and present power structures. Together, Gemma and Osman will explore his exhibition through a queer lens.

‘When will we be good enough?’ features three newly created busts of today’s digital ‘overlords’ Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. In the afternoon, the focus will be on digital in a fascinating artist-led workshop led by Yudi Wu where participants will be able to learn more about how our data is currently being used, and how to better protect any creative content they share online. The workshop will run from 2-4pm.

The ‘Super Saturday’ will finish with a talk by Wonderzoo that will highlight the untold stories of some of the many people who have made an impact on Plymouth. Jimmy Peters, the first black rugby player to play for England, Bill Miller, the first black Labour councillor in Plymouth and Ann Wilkinson, a black activist who co-founded the city’s Respect Festival will be the focus of ‘Exploring Plymouth’s Hidden Figures’ from 2.30-4pm.

‘Super Saturdays’ are set to be a regular feature at The Box over the next few months, taking place at the start of each month with a wide range of talks, workshops and activities that really celebrate the exhibition programme. The Box is already planning future events for Saturday 5 April, all of which will be themed around its popular ‘Planet Ocean’ exhibition.

More information and ticket booking links for the Gemma Rolls-Bentley and Osman Yousefzada ‘In Conversation’ and Yudi Wu’s ‘Digital Resilience’ workshop are available from theboxplymouth.com. Further details about the Ramadan Tote Bag drop-in and ‘Exploring Plymouth’s Hidden Figures’ talk, both of which are free with no need to book, can also be found online.