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Refigure

Arts & Culture Podcasts

Chris and Rifa sift through their past week in the arts, tech, culture and diversity. Freshly ground in Brighton on the English south coast.

Location:

United Kingdom

Description:

Chris and Rifa sift through their past week in the arts, tech, culture and diversity. Freshly ground in Brighton on the English south coast.

Twitter:

@refigureuk

Language:

English


Episodes

Refigure VI - Ep 69: Sozzled Review Of The Year

12/31/2023
To end 2023, Rifa and Chris reflect on their year in arts and culture, while drinking several glasses of the good stuff.

Duration:00:20:04

Refigure VI - Ep 68: Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé

12/21/2023
Chris and Rifa talk about Renaissance: A Film By Beyoncé. Rifa is reading Angela Davis - Freedom Is A Constant Struggle and Chris is reading Aflo The Poet's new poetry zine Warm Up. Please send us your questions for next week's Best Of 2023 episode, when we'll try to answer anything you throw at us.

Duration:00:22:18

Refigure VI - Ep 67: End Of The World x2

12/13/2023
This week Rifa and Chris dug into two 'end of the world' TV things: they watched Sam Esmail's Netflix movie Leave The World Behind, starring Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali and Ethan Hawke. They also watched the new TV series A Murder At The End Of The World, made by Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij (creators of The OA) which stars Emma Corrin and Clive Owen. Rifa is reading Sultana's Dream by Begum Rokeya, a classic Indian feminist sci-fi novella from 1905. Chris is reading Isaac Butler's book The Method: How The Twentieth Century Learned To Act. Hey, dear listener, in two weeks, our end-of-the-year Refigure will include an AMA. So send us your questions and we'll try to answer them. Thank you!

Duration:00:24:19

Refigure VI - Ep 66: Squid Game & Women In Revolt

12/7/2023
Chris and Rifa are annoyed by the Squid Game gameshow and inspired by Tate Britain's new major exhibition Women In Revolt. In What You Reading For? Rifa is reading Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall, while Chris is re-reading John Higgs' The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band Who Burned A Million Pounds.

Duration:00:26:32

Refigure VI - Ep 65: Our Own Creative Shizzle

11/29/2023
We didn't have a chance to review stuff together in the midseason break, so this week we chat about our own recent creative stuff. Chris chats about the minitour playing in the band with Jim Bob, as well as an album he's producing, while Rifa unpacks her current adventures in painting with acrylics. Rifa is reading Katy Hessel's The Story Of Art Without Men and Chris is reading Olga Ravn's short novel The Employees, translated from the Danish by Martin Aitken.

Duration:00:24:46

Refigure VI - Ep 64: Eye Filmmuseum & Chila Kumari Singh Berman

11/15/2023
Chris and Rifa take the ferry to the Eye Filmmuseum in the north of Amsterdam, see an exhibition by film artist Janis Rafa, 'Feed Me, Cheat Me, Eat Me'. They also chat about Chila Kumari Singh Berman's works in neon, including new commission 'The Shining Lights Of Service', which is hung off the side of Brighton's Royal Pavilion. Rifa is reading Travis Alabanza's None Of The Above, while Chris is reading John Robb's The Art Of Darkness, The History Of Gogh.

Duration:00:19:05

Refigure VI - Ep 63: Sex Museum & Nan Goldin

11/8/2023
Rifa and Chris are in Amsterdam, where they visit the infamous Sex Museum and check out Nan Goldin's major retrospective This Will Not End Well at Stedelijk. In 'What You Reading For?' Chris is reading Zoe Gilbert's novel Mischief Acts, while Rifa is reading Women Who Run With The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés. Thank you for listening, it means a lot. If you're enjoying Refigure please tell your friends, or leave a nice review or something.

Duration:00:23:12

Refigure VI - Ep 62: Beckham & Rooney

11/1/2023
Chris and Rifa dive into two vaguely football related doc series, the Netflix show Beckham and the Disney+ series Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story. Rifa is reading Regena Thomashaur's book Pussy: A Reclamation, while Chris is reading Ocean Vuong's debut novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous and also Vuong's award-winning poetry collection Night Sky With Exit Wounds. If you're enjoying Refigure, please leave a nice five star review and tell your friends, because we don't have a marketing budget. Thank you!

Duration:00:26:53

Refigure VI - Ep 61: Lee Miller & Dreamy Place

10/25/2023
A Brighton-heavy episode this week, as Chris and Rifa check out the exhibition Lee Miller: Dressed at Brighton Museum, then hang out at Embodied Realities, at The Old Market, as part of the new Dreamy Place festival. Rifa is reading a book about menopause and Chris is reading Julian Jaynes' classic The Origin Of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind.

Duration:00:26:10

Refigure VI - Ep 60: Turner Prize & Taylor Swift's Eras Film

10/18/2023
Weekly bitesize arts and culture chat with Chris and Rifa. This week Rifa and Chris go to Eastbourne for the Turner Prize 2023 exhibition. They watch both Taylor Swift's new Eras Tour concert film and Talking Heads' remastered Stop Making Sense at the cinema. Rifa is reading the Black London guidebook by Avril Nanton and Jody Burton, while Chris is reading Kashmir Hill's investigation into facial recognition tech, Your Face Belongs To Us.

Duration:00:30:16

Refigure VI - Ep 59: The Creator & Reservation Dogs

10/11/2023
Welcome to Refigure, a weekly arts and culture conversation with Chris and Rifa. This week we saw The Creator in the cinema and also caught up with season two of Reservation Dogs on Disney+ ahead of season three's UK launch in a week or two. Chris is reading Naomi Klein's new book Doppelganger and Rifa is reading bell hooks' The Will To Change about masculinity.

Duration:00:24:04

Refigure VI - Ep 58: Past Lives & Jon Amor Trio

10/4/2023
Rifa and Chris chat about new Korean-American film Past Lives, the directorial debut of Celine Song, and check out blues-rock band The Jon Amor Trio in a village hall at a birthday party. Rifa is reading the British Museum's picture book Goddess, written by Janina Ramirez and illustrated by Sarah Walsh, while Chris is reading David Graeber's classic social history book Debt: The First 5,000 Years.

Duration:00:21:38

Refigure VI - Ep 57: A Strange Loop & Blue Zones

9/27/2023
Chris and Rifa discuss the musical A Strange Loop with an annoyed sidebar about the state of The Barbican, and chat about Netflix documentary series Live To 100: The Secrets Of The Blue Zones. Rifa is enjoying coffee table books on the artist Hilma af Klint, while Chris is reading Katherine Rundell's biography of the 17th century poet John Donne, Super-Infinite.

Duration:00:21:24

Refigure VI - Ep 56: Tate Britain & Pere Lachaise

9/20/2023
Chris and Rifa talk about Tate Britain's permanent collection rehang, visiting Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris and the Black Brighton Market. Rifa is reading Hafsa Zayyan's We Are All Birds Of Uganda and Chris is reading David Grann's The Wager.

Duration:00:23:57

Refigure Pod season 6 trailer

9/15/2023
We're back, after a three year break...

Duration:00:01:18

Refigure Check-in E55 – The Assistant & The King

8/26/2020
Chris and Rifa's weekly review of our adventures in the arts, diversity and culture. This week we watch unsettling low key film The Assistant, starring Julia Garner, which shows the entertainment industry normalising abuse and suppressing dissent. We also watch Beyoncé's vivid and arresting semi-abstract musical Black Is King on Disney+ made in response to her involvement with The Lion King reboot. Finally, we venture on our first post-corona trip to a physical exhibition, donning masks for the Prince's Treasure exhibition at Brighton's Royal Pavilion, where priceless items originally bought for the Pavilion by George IV have been loaned back to the building by The Royal Collection. Rifa is reading Glennon Doyle's memoir Untamed, while Chris is reading Layla F Saad's anti-racism workbook Me And White Supremacy. Thank you so much for listening. Find us on Facebook and Insta.

Duration:00:32:25

Refigure Check-in E54 – Mrs America & Get Shorty

8/4/2020
Chris and Rifa's bitesize arts and diversity review show. This week we watch Mrs America on the BBC iPlayer, starring Cate Blanchett and Rose Byrne, set in the 1970s USA, telling the story of the battle for the Equal Rights Amendment. We also bing-watch all three seasons of Sky dramedy Get Shorty, starring Chris O'Dowd as a gangster trying to break into Hollywood. In What You Reading For? Rifa is still ploughing through bell hooks' trilogy about love, while Chris is revisiting Aldous Huxley's classic Brave New World, ahead of its major new television adaptation. Thank you very much for listening. Find us on Facebook and Instagram, please leave a nice review and tell your friends.

Duration:00:28:05

Refigure Check-in E53 – How Not To Build A Film About A Girl

7/28/2020
Welcome to Chris and Rifa's bitesize arts, diversity and culture review show. This week we watch the third season of Norwegian viking comedy Norsemen on Netflix. Then Rifa has an unexpectedly strong reaction to new film How To Build A Girl, starring Beanie Feldstein, directed by Coky Giedroyc and based on Caitlin Moran's comic fictionalised memoir. In What You Reading For? Rifa has joined a book club and is reading Season Butler's novel Cygnet, while Chris is reading our old friend Kate Bulpitt's debut novel Purple People. Thank you very much for listening. Find us on Insta and Facebook – and please leave us a nice five star review and all that jazz.

Duration:00:26:34

Refigure Check-in E52 – I May Destroy You

7/19/2020
Welcome to Refigure with Chris and Rifa, a weekly podcast about the arts, diversity and culture. This week we are both blown away by Michaela Coel's acclaimed new comedy-drama series I May Destroy You on BBC iPlayer. We also binge-watch the entire run of Danish/Swedish mystery thriller The Bridge, which we actually paid money for, as Rifa discovers her love for Nordic noir. In What You Reading For? Rifa is still reading bell hooks' trilogy on love, while Chris is still reading Priyamvada Gopal's Insurgent Empire. Thank you very much for listening. Find us on Facebook and Instagram.

Duration:00:27:45

Refigure Check-in E51 – Iceland & Disclosure

7/7/2020
Chris and Rifa's weekly bitesize review of the arts, diversity and culture. This week we watched Will Ferrell's new comedy Eurovision, which sent us down a rabbit hole of watching Icelandic films and documentaries. Then we watched the powerful new Netflix documentary Disclosure, about the history of how American TV and cinema has representated transgender people onscreen – and how that has impacted how culture sees trans people. Rifa is re-reading bell hooks' All About Love (which she may have recommended before on an earlier series of Refigure), while Chris is reading Priyamvada Gopal's history book Insurgent Empire: Anticolonial Resistance And British Dissent. Thank you very much for listening. Please 'like' and subscribe and leave a five star review and tell all your friends about us. You can find us on Instagram and Facebook.

Duration:00:30:30