“We are Duchamp & Sons.
– Extract from Duchamp & Sons’ Manifesto (2017)
We meet, we talk, we eat.
We ask questions.
We are an open group.
What connects us are the interests we share and the projects we do.
Being part of Duchamp & Sons gives you a key into the arts.
We are the past. We are the present. We are the future.“
15 Years of Duchamp & Sons is an original exhibition curated by Whitechapel Gallery’s youth collective Duchamp & Sons, with artist Holly Graham, and Amelia Oakley (Curator: Youth Programmes, Whitechapel Gallery).
The exhibition marks the collective’s 15-year anniversary, and with it a generation of artistic experimentation during a period of unprecedented pressure on arts education, funding, and young people.
Founded in its current form in 2010, Duchamp & Sons is a collective of young people aged 15-24 from in and around East London who meet regularly at Whitechapel Gallery to collaborate with each other and guest contemporary artists on creative projects. Prioritising those from backgrounds underrepresented in the arts, the group aims to offer a supportive and participatory space for members to connect with their creative and critical voice, and to discover more about possible pathways in visual art.
Over the past 15 years, members have gathered to experiment together, share space for food and conversation, and learn more about art making, curation, and creative practices. Their past artistic projects include establishing an artist manifesto, recording an EP, making a film in the midst of a pandemic, curating exhibitions, programming events, and in 2010, choosing an evocative name for the group.
Their moniker arose from a desire to cement their identity as artists rooted locally, by uniting ‘Duchamp’ as a representative of subversive art making, with ‘& Sons’ which referenced a local shop on Whitechapel High Street.
This new exhibition will be a celebration of Duchamp & Sons’ far-reaching and ever-evolving artistic collaborations, past and present, and a timely reminder of the crucial need for young people’s voices in gallery spaces.
Working in collaboration with artist Holly Graham, Duchamp & Sons will co-curate this new participatory exhibition for all ages, which reflects on the collective’s history and asks vital questions about what it means to make and collaborate as a young person today.
Playful re-imaginings of archival materials will combine with new audio experiments, and space for live participation, offering a welcoming space for people to gather, reflect, and perhaps collaborate themselves.
Graham says
“I wasn’t involved in a dedicated youth collective growing up, but I did have opportunities – signposted by encouraging teachers at my school – to participate in artist-led workshops and projects at different art institutions. It definitely informed my understanding of what art is – and can be.
I often work with archival collections in my own practice as a way of responding to, and thinking about, memory, shared histories, and how we can challenge dominant narratives. For this project, I’ve been working with Duchamp & Sons exploring and responding to their 15 year archive as a way of reflecting on a common history while considering what being in a youth collective means today.
By experimenting with different processes and forms (including oral storytelling and collage) and taking an intuitive approach to curation, over the course of ten sessions, the group will have built up a range of creative tools to draw on when realising their exhibition. I’m really excited to be a part of it.”
Accompanying the exhibition will be a new zine featuring learnings from the 15 Years of Duchamp & Sons research project, and events produced in dialogue with Duchamp & Sons members and alumni.
Current Duchamp & Sons Members include Abdi, Aisha, Amir, Arin, Ash, Camila, Constança, Elliot, Eva, Faith, Farjana, Harry, Isabella, Jemila, Jennifer, Josiah, Jessica, Nayyan, Queen, Rasimani, Sabiha, San, Shannay, and Terrell.
15 Years of Duchamp & Sons, 5th February 2025 – 5th May 2025, Whitechapel Gallery
Free
About
Duchamp & Sons is Whitechapel Gallery’s collective of young people from across East London who meet regularly at the gallery and collaborate on creative projects with artists. They experiment with art, share space for food and conversation, and create exhibitions, events, and new artworks as a collective.
Holly Graham is a London based artist whose work looks at ways in which memory and narrative shape collective histories; and in turn inform shared futures. Holly holds a BFA from Oxford University and an MA in Printmaking from the Royal College of Art.
Current projects include commissions with UP Projects & Barnet Council (2024); TACO! (2021-24); and Manchester Art Gallery (2024). Recent solo projects include commissions with: Locales, Rome (2023); Deptford X (2023), London; Skelf, Online (2022); Robert Young Antiques, London (2021). Holly is an Associate Lecturer at the Royal College of Art, London; and is Co-Founder of Cypher BILLBOARD, London. She was awarded a Sainsbury Scholarship at the British School in Rome for 2023.
