Major new work by Somerset House Studios artist and Turner Prize winner, Tai Shani
7 August – 14 September 2025
Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court
Free entry onsite and online, ticketed live events programme
www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/tai-shani-the-spell-or-the-dream
Unveiling on 7 August 2025, in Somerset House’s iconic courtyard and online, will be The Spell or The Dream, a major new work by Somerset House Studios’ and Turner Prize-winning multidisciplinary artist, Tai Shani.
Uniquely bringing together sculpture, radio, live gatherings and a host of guest contributors to collectively dream of new horizons, this free, multi-faceted work has been commissioned in celebration of Somerset House’s 25th birthday and its role as an unrivalled centre for cultural innovators and internationally acclaimed arts destination. As part of Somerset House’s special year of artistic and social innovation, The Spell or The Dream is an invitation to challenge convention, consider alternative perspectives and understand the necessity of imagining new and hopeful ways of being and building together.
Drawing on the archetypal fairytale image of a sleeping figure in a glass box, Shani’s new sculptural work, The Spell, will invoke myths of cursed or enchanted sleeps that last a hundred years, a millennium, an eternity; poisoned apples and pricked fingers that lead to suspended states of animation. Under the seemingly unbreakable spell or curse of late capitalism, the figure sleeps through the warnings of present and future catastrophes, economic inequality, social breakdown, political disaster, and environmental collapse, dreaming out the violence of colonialism and its living legacies, the fairy tale of empire.
Tai Shani, who is celebrated for her interdisciplinary practice crafting epic fantastical worlds through mythic narratives and histories of feminised aesthetics, creates this large-scale installation for one of London’s most admired public spaces, the Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court, at the heart of Somerset House. The figure lies atop a stepped plinth to encourage interaction—visitors can use the plinth as a place to sit, rest and dwell, while children are encouraged to climb to peer at the figure inside the box.
The luminous blue figure is hand painted and gently breathes in slumber. It is both feminine and masculine, human and android, from the future, or elsewhere. Exquisitely dressed in an opulent baroque style, the sculpture expresses the rich, visual detail that is the hallmark of Shani’s work.
Of what does the dreamer dream? Responding to this question, the installation is accompanied by The Dream, a 24/7 radio broadcast co-curated by Shani. The online broadcast of The Dream is an urgent call to wake from apathy and dream of radical new futures. It features contributions from artists, writers, thinkers, ecologists, economists, and academics on the themes of crisis, dreaming, solidarity and action. The broadcast features related discussions, readings, archival radio plays, sound works and new works for radio.
Lead commissions for The Dream radio broadcast include artist Cécile B Evans’ new radio adaptation of French surrealist Antonin Artaud’s play ‘A Spurt of Blood’, on what will be its 100th year anniversary; poet, musician and activist, Moor Mother (aka Camae Ayewa) develops a piece for radio which draws inspiration from the Old Testament and plays with ideas of ancestry and time; and a new experimental piece by visual artist, poet, and activist Cecilia Vicuña, features a poem and sound improvisation with ongoing collaborators Ricardo Gallo, Satoshi Takeishi and Daniel Neumann, meditating on indigenous wisdom and humanity’s possible extinction in the face of planetary crisis.
The Dream radio will be broadcast via Channel, Somerset House’s curated online space for art, ideas and the artistic process.
An accompanying programme of events will take place over the duration of The Spell or The Dream, including themed discussions inspired by the format of the late-night live television show After Dark (1987-1991), a series of Friday Lates in the courtyard, and activities for all families during the summer weeks.
Director of Somerset House Studios Marie McPartlin said:
“This is our first courtyard installation by a Somerset House Studios’ artist, commissioned especially as part of Somerset House’ 25th birthday, and it’s an honour to have the inimitable Tai Shani inaugurate this moment. There is profound beauty, bravery and imagination in this work, which extends beyond the physical installation in the courtyard, to create a space for others to contribute and collaborate.
Co-curated with Tai, The Dream radio will be one of our most ambitious online projects to date, live non-stop for 45 days, encouraging audiences to consider their own relationship to the themes of crisis and radical imagination, in ways that will be thought-provoking, poetic and profound.”
Somerset House Studios artist Tai Shani said:
“To have the opportunity to create work in such a striking, historic venue as Somerset House and to then present it in the courtyard, is a huge privilege. When devising this work, it was imperative to me to address the public nature of this context and consider what it means to express oneself through different forms and languages at a moment of profound crisis.
“I want to think about how we are seemingly under an ‘unbreakable spell or curse’—sleeping our way through present and future catastrophes.”
The Spell or The Dream is curated by Somerset House Studios Director Marie McPartlin and independent researcher, curator and writer Rahila Haque. The Dream Radio is Executively produced by Alannah Chance.
NOTES TO EDITORS
Dates: 7 August – 14 September 2025
Press enquiries: press@somersethouse.org.uk / Sahar.beyad@somersethouse.org.uk
Press images: High-res images here
Website: https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/somerset-house-studios
Somerset House Studios Facebook: www.facebook.com/somersethousestudios
Somerset House Studios (X): @SomersetHouse Studios
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ABOUT SOMERSET HOUSE STUDIOS
Somerset House Studios is an experimental workspace in the centre of London connecting artists, makers and thinkers with audiences. Located inside the repurposed former Inland Revenue building, the Studios offer space and support to artists pushing bold ideas, engaging with urgent issues and pioneering new technologies. It is also a platform for the development of new creative projects and collaborations. Up to 70 artists are resident at any one time and are supported to develop their practice for a defined period.
ABOUT SOMERSET HOUSE
Step Inside, Think Outside
As the home of cultural innovators, Somerset House is a site of origination, with a cultural programme offering alternative perspectives on the biggest issues of our time. In 2025, Somerset House celebrates its 25th birthday, marking its extraordinary transformation to one of London’s best-loved cultural spaces and home to one of the largest creative communities in the UK. We are a place of joy and discovery, where everyone is invited to Step Inside and Think Outside
From our historic site in the heart of London, we work globally across art, creativity, business, and non-profit, nurturing new talent, methods and technologies. Our resident community of creative enterprises, arts organisations, artists and makers, makes us a centre of ideas, with most of our programme home-grown.
We sit at the meeting point of artistic and social innovation, bringing worlds and minds together to create surprising and often magical results. Our spirit of constant curiosity and counter perspective is integral to our history and key to our future. Drawing from Somerset House’s unique resident community, the digital platform will showcase a rolling programme of exclusive commissions, documentaries, films, podcasts, talks, interactive works and editorial content.
ABOUT CHANNEL
Channel is a curated online space for art, ideas and the artistic process. As well as presenting newly commissioned cross-disciplinary works, Channel explores and unpacks the artistic process, thinking and ideas that drive them. Powered by Somerset House Studios, Channel draws on Somerset House’s unique community to drive a distinctive and evolving programme of original films, podcasts, talks and curated content. Channel’s content has been created with accessibility in mind and will provide alternative ways of presenting information such as subtitles and transcripts.
Channel has been developed with support from the UK Government’s Culture Recovery Fund through Arts Council England.
Header image: © Adam James Sinclair and Lotti V Closs, 2024