Artists Bella Milroy and Khairani Barokka recently finished their Shape-supported duo presentation 'Languages of Intimacy' with Grand Union at Birmingham School of Art - you can still explore the show in full online. Shape's Creative Producer, Elinor Hayes, caught up with the artists via voice notes to dive deeper into the process, content, and future of their most recent collaboration.

You can listen to the conversation below, question by question, or find downloadable transcripts accompanying each question.

Find out more about the exhibition Explore the online walkthrough

---

‘Languages of Intimacy’ was the first large-scale exhibition of visual work in the UK by British artist Bella Milroy and Indonesian artist Khairani Barokka, on display at Birmingham School of Art.

‘Languages of Intimacy’ explored interiority and play from two distinct sick-disabled perspectives. As process-oriented artists coming together through this collaborative project, ‘Languages of Intimacy’ explored the potential of illness and disability to facilitate intimacy in powerful and life-affirming ways. Existing in a world that does not value the presence of disabled people, the exhibition considered how intimacy emerges amongst isolation and marginalisation.

Shape's Creative Producer exchanged voice notes with the artists over a period of a couple of weeks, to give enough time for each person to respond and to account for fluctuating capacities.

You can listen to the conversation question-by-question below, or in full on our SoundCloud.

---

Question 1: Collaboration

Download a transcript for question 1

Question 2: The 'languages' of intimacy

Download a transcript for question 2

Question 3: Juxtapositions

Download a transcript for question 3

Question 4: Process 

Bella felt that Khairani had perfectly summed up their shared thoughts to this last question, simply adding a final text: "Ditto x infinity!".

Download a transcript for question 4

---

Back to top