Sharon Hayes’ major new project with The Common Guild is the culmination of Ricerche, a suite of video works that the artist has been working on since 2013. Taking its title from the Italian word for researches, investigations, or essays, Ricerche adopts Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1964 film, ‘Comizi d’amore’ (Love Meetings) as a structural guidepost. The result is a sustained investigation of public speech, and its intersections with history, politics, activism, queer theory, love and sexuality.

Ricerche feature a range of individuals: from poets and labourers to members of a women’s tackle football team, students at a women’s college in Massachusetts, and children of queer or gender non-conforming parents. Although filmed in the United States, the work resonates strikingly across societies elsewhere.

Presented by The Common Guild