Episode 20.
This episode is a conversation with Black Quantum Futurism, an interdisciplinary practice founded by Rasheedah Phillips and Camae Ayewa. Their work brings together quantum physics with Afro-diasporic understandings of time, space, ritual, text, and sound, creating frameworks for counter histories and alternative futures.
In this conversation, they take us on a journey through their practice. They share their thinking on time, black holes and non-linear temporalities, offering ways of understanding the apocalypse not as an ending, but as a site of transformation, delay and return.
Choreographing the Apocalypse is a series of þ thorns þ, curated by Mine Kaplangı and it is part of their ongoing research into queer and trans imaginaries of the apocalypses. Through the series they’re inviting artists, thinkers, and somatic practitioners to explore apocalyptic thinking through speculative, world building and radically intimate frameworks. The project is inspired by Oxana Timofeeva’s idea that apocalypse is not a singular event, but a cyclical and continuous condition.
You can listen to this podcast wherever you usually listen to podcasts, or via the link in our bio. You will find a full transcript and list of resources mentioned on our website.
Black Quantum Futurism (BQF) is an interdisciplinary practice founded by Camae Ayewa and Rasheedah Phillips that synthesizes quantum physics with Afrodiasporic principles and ontologies of time, space, ritual, text, and sound, yielding an innovative framework for the creation of counterhistories and alternate futures.
Rooted in a commitment to challenge mainstream narratives, BQF actively confronts exclusionary perspectives of history and the future, offering critical alternatives that uplift Black experiences and possibilities.
Hear from Camae and Rasheedah on episode 20 of þ thorns þ, available 13 May 2026.
This episode is part of a series called ‘Choreographing the Apocalypse’, curated by Mine Kaplangı.
photo credit: Ebru Yildiz
Last weekend to visit Time Is On Our Side exhibition by @blackquantumfuturism as part of the Entanglements of the Apocalypse programme
Time is On Our Side
by Black Quantum Futurism
Black Quantum Futurism (BQF) is an interdisciplinary practice founded by Camae Ayewa and Rasheedah Phillips that synthesizes quantum physics with Afrodiasporic principles and ontologies of time, space, ritual, text, and sound, yielding an innovative framework for the creation of counterhistories and alternate futures. Rooted in a commitment to challenge mainstream narratives, BQF actively confronts exclusionary perspectives of history and the future, offering critical alternatives that uplift Black experiences and possibilities. The collective has been instrumental in the conceptualization and execution of an array of community-based projects, performances, experimental music projects, immersive installations, educational workshops, published books, short films, and a diverse range of zines. Two seminal initiatives by Black Quantum Futurism include the award-winning Community Futures Lab, which serves as an interactive platform for communal storytelling and speculative planning, and the Black Women Temporal Portal, aimed at amplifying the often-overlooked narratives of Black women through a variety of media.
⏱️⏱️⏱️
• The exhibition is on view until the 21st of March 2026
• All photo documentation by Baiba Sprance and Marco Berardi 2026
• More information about the exhibition, artists and access via our website and link in bio.
@blackquantumfuturism@minekaplangi@fraxin_us@benjaminsebastian@jmschofield@marco____berardi@tamysammakko@piankamperformance_@enclaveprojects@ateliercomms@aceagrams
Time is On Our Side
by Black Quantum Futurism
Black Quantum Futurism (BQF) is an interdisciplinary practice founded by Camae Ayewa and Rasheedah Phillips that synthesizes quantum physics with Afrodiasporic principles and ontologies of time, space, ritual, text, and sound, yielding an innovative framework for the creation of counterhistories and alternate futures. Rooted in a commitment to challenge mainstream narratives, BQF actively confronts exclusionary perspectives of history and the future, offering critical alternatives that uplift Black experiences and possibilities. The collective has been instrumental in the conceptualization and execution of an array of community-based projects, performances, experimental music projects, immersive installations, educational workshops, published books, short films, and a diverse range of zines. Two seminal initiatives by Black Quantum Futurism include the award-winning Community Futures Lab, which serves as an interactive platform for communal storytelling and speculative planning, and the Black Women Temporal Portal, aimed at amplifying the often-overlooked narratives of Black women through a variety of media.
Image credits:
1-3. Details from Black Hole ViewFinder Installation, Black Quantum Futurism, 2021
2-4. Details from the Altar, Black Quantum Futurism
⏱️⏱️⏱️
• The exhibition is on view until the 21st of March 2026
• All photo documentation by Baiba Sprance and Marco Berardi 2026
• More information about the exhibition, artists and access via our website and link in bio.
@blackquantumfuturism@minekaplangi@fraxin_us@benjaminsebastian@jmschofield@marco____berardi@tamysammakko@piankamperformance_@enclaveprojects@ateliercomms@aceagrams
We are so excited for our next exhibition in the Entanglements of the Apocalypse programme, Time Is On Our Side by Black Quantum Futurism.
The exhibition will open on Friday 27 February from 6 to 9 pm at VSSL Studio in Deptford.
Getting Here: please see the Visual Story: How to Get to VSSL for more details, link in bio and on our website.
You can learn more about accessibility information on our website.
For the exhibition period, our access team is expanding with the participation of @tamysammakko and @piankamperformance_
Thank you and hope to see you all tomorrow night.
🕰
@blackquantumfuturism@minekaplangi@fraxin_us@benjaminsebastian@jmschofield@enclaveprojects@ateliercomms@aceagrams@carefuffle
#BlackQuantumFuturism #TimeisOnOurSide
𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐎𝐧 𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐒𝐢𝐝𝐞
Black Quantum Futurism
27 February – 22 March 2026
Opening: Friday 27 February, 6–9 pm
Public Programme: Black Quantum Futurism will be part of the Choreographing the Apocalypse series at Rose Choreographic School’s þ thorns þ podcast.
We are delighted to announce Time Is On Our Side exhibition by Black Quantum Futurism. Running from 27th of February to 22nd of March 2026, the exhibition concludes VSSL Studio's ongoing programme Entanglements of the Apocalypse and marks its final iteration.
Time is On Our Side draws on Black Quantum Futurism's understanding of time, darkness and information to reimagine the black hole from a site of destruction into one of creation and transformation. Akin to Irma Thomas' version of Time is On My Side, recorded before it was displaced, disconnected from its origin, and later reclaimed - the exhibition understands temporality as a non-linear experience: what crosses an event horizon is not necessarily destroyed or lost. It is only delayed, displaced, or rendered illegible outside the visible boundary of the Western linear timeline running from past to present to future.
𝐖𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐮𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟕 𝐅𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐞.
More information about the exhibition, artists and access via our website or link in bio!
🕚🕘🕙🕑
Image credits;
1. Black Quantum Futurism, CPT Reversal, courtesy of REDCAT, 2022
2. Black Quantum Futurism, photo by Ebru Yildiz
3. Black Quantum Futurism, detail from Into the Black Hole exhibition, Valkhof Museum, by Flip Franssen, 2023
Image descriptions in Alt Text.
@blackquantumfuturism@minekaplangi@fraxin_us@benjaminsebastian@jmschofield@enclaveprojects@ateliercomms@aceagrams@tamysammakko@marco____berardi@rosechoreographicschool
Last week to visit
At Those Terrifying Frontiers Where The Existence And Disappearance Of People Fade Into Each Other
by Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme,
presented as part of our ongoing programme Entanglements of the Apocalypse.
Visiting hours: Friday & Saturday, 12–5pm
Thursday & Sunday by appointment (Please email: [email protected])
More information about the exhibition, access, and the artists can be found on our website & link in bio.
About the artists:
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme work collaboratively across sound, image, text, installation, and performance. Their practice engages the intersections of performativity, political imaginaries, the body, and virtuality, responding to a contemporary landscape shaped by perpetual crisis and an endless present.
Through sampling, excavation, and reconfiguration, their work questions dominant colonial and capitalist narratives, exploring non-linearity through ideas of return, amnesia, and déjà vu. Their projects unfold the slippages between actuality and projection, opening space for alternative imaginaries of the present.
🔗
Image credits: Photographic documentation of the exhibition by Marco Berardi & Baiba Sprance, 2026
@ruanne.ar@basel.abb@minekaplangi@fraxin_us@jmschofield@benjaminsebastian@marco____berardi@enclaveprojects@tammysammako@ateliercomms@not.nowhere@whitechapelgallery@surplus_sounds@aceagrams
At Those Terrifying Frontiers Where The Existence And Disappearance Of People Fade Into Each Other
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme work together across a range of sound, image, text, installation and performance practices. Their practice is engaged in the intersections between performativity, political imaginaries, the body and virtuality. Across their works they probe a contemporary landscape marked by seemingly perpetual crisis and an endless ‘present’, one that is shaped by a politics of desire and disaster.
They have been developing a body of work that questions this suspension of the present and searches for ways in which an altogether different imaginary and language can emerge that is not bound within colonial/capitalist narrative and discourse. In their projects, they find themselves excavating, activating and inventing incidental narratives, figures, gestures and sites as material for re-imagining the possibilities of the present. Often reflecting on ideas of non-linearity in the form of returns, amnesia and deja vu, and in the process unfolding the slippages between actuality and projection (virtuality, myth, wish), what is and what could be.
Largely their approach has been one of sampling materials both existing and self-authored in the form of sound, image, text, objects and recasting them into altogether new ‘scripts’. The result is a practice that investigates the political, visceral, material possibilities of sound, image, text and site, taking on the form of multimedia installations and live sound/image performances.
• The exhibition is on view until 15 February.
• All photo documentation by Marco Berardi & Baiba Sprance, 2026, from the opening night.
• More information about the exhibition, artists and access via our website or link in bio.
• With special thanks to not/nowhere, Whitechapel Gallery and Surplus Sounds for technical support!
Image descriptions in Alt Text.
@ruanne.ar@basel.abb@aceagrams@minekaplangi@benjaminsebastian@fraxin_us@jmschofield@marco____berardi@enclaveprojects@tamysammakko@ateliercomms@not.nowhere@whitechapelgallery@surplus_sounds
𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐥 𝐀𝐛𝐛𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮-𝐑𝐚𝐡𝐦𝐞: 𝐀𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬: 𝟐𝟑 𝐉𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 – 𝟏𝟓 𝐅𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔
𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟑 𝐉𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲, 𝟔–𝟗 𝐩𝐦
Venue: VSSL Studio, Unit 8, 50 Resolution Way, SE8 4AL
Exhibition Hours: Friday & Saturday, 12–5 pm
Thursday and Sunday by appointment only (Please email: [email protected])
Please join us for the opening of the exhibition by Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, on Friday 23 January from 6–9 pm at VSSL Studio. Co-curated by Mine Kaplangi, Benjamin Sebastian, Joseph Morgan Schofield, and Ash McNaughton, the exhibition forms part of the Entanglements of the Apocalypse programme.
"𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑜 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎 𝑛𝑒𝑤 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑐𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑓𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟.” - Edward Said, After the Last Sky
Fragments from Edward Said’s most personal and poetic work, After the Last Sky, are repurposed to create a new script that reflects on what it means today to be constructed as an “illegal” person, body, or entity.
The script is transformed into a song sung and performed by the artists through multiple avatars. Using software that generates avatars from a single image, the figures in the video are drawn from people who participated in the Great March of Return—ongoing protests that took place along the seamline in Gaza, an area that has been under physical siege by the Israeli army since 2006.
🔗For further information about the exhibition, including exhibition details, biographies and accessibility information, please visit our website (link in bio).
📸: Stills from "At those terrifying frontiers where the existence and disappearance of people fade into each other" (2019)
@minekaplangi@benjaminsebastian@fraxin_us@jmschofield@aceagrams@enclaveprojects@marco____berardi@wearelewisham
As we come to the end of the year, we’re reflecting with gratitude on the first chapter of our ongoing programme ENTANGLEMENTS OF THE APOCALYPSE and all of its participants while also looking ahead to what’s next.
Between 6–13 December 2025, Dani d’Emilia was artist-in-residence at VSSL Studio as part of EoA. We thank Dani deeply for their time, care, and work.
The programme will continue in 2026 with two new exhibitions:
BASEL ABBAS AND RUANNE ABOU-RAHME: At Those Terrifying Frontiers Where the Existence and Disappearance of People Fade Into Each Other - Jan/Feb 2026
BLACK QUANTUM FUTURISM: Feb/March 2026 - details coming soon
We thank all the artists, collaborators, and participants who shaped the first chapter of the programme. Thank you all for being with us and see you in the new year! ✨️
Image credits:
1. Wormhole of Our Formation by Catherine Hoffmann. Photographed by Eda Sancakdar, 2025
2. Come Hell or High Femmes: The Dolls Rise by Keioui Keijaun Thomas, performed at The Horse Hospital (London) video stills by Studio MaBa (Baiba Sprance and Marco Berardi), 2025
3. A detail from Rose Choreographic School gathering: Dreaming Alternative Ways of Education While Witnessing Apocalypses.
4. Detail from The Pest Confessional performance, courtesy of Hannah Fair, 2025
5-6. Trans Get Down: Hospicing He-Man At the Bitter End by Mijke van der Drift and Zissel Aronow. Documentation by Studio MaBa (Baiba Sprance and Marco Berardi), 2025
7-8. (Detail) Exhibition installation of Biolytic Daughter by Bassam Issa Al-Sabah and Jennifer Mehigan. Photo and video documentation by Marco Berardi and Baiba Sprance, 2025
9-10. Details from Dani d'Emilia's residency, courtesy of the artist, 2025
*All video and photo documentation is now available online.*
@cath_hoffmann@keioui@rosechoreographicschool@zissel_____
#Mijkevanderdrift
#HannahFair
@this.isnowhere@jennifermehigan@carefuffle@danidemilia@marco____berardi
#BaibaSprance
@edasan@ateliercomms@minekaplangi@benjaminsebastian@fraxin_us@jmschofield@cultureireland@aceagrams@thehorsehospital@blackquantumfuturism@basel.abb@ruanne.ar@antiuniversitynow
“Biolytic Landscapes: Desire, Collapse, and the Mega-Femme Mythology of Issa Al-Sabah & Mehigan at @vsslstudio in London”
Link In Bio To Read Full Interviews With Both Artists @this.isnowhere@jennifermehigan 📍
‘VSSL Studio is delighted to announce Biolytic Daughter, an exhibition by Bassam Issa Al-Sabah and Jennifer Mehigan, co-curated by Mine Kaplangı, Benjamin Sebastian, Joseph Morgan Schofield, and Ash McNaughton. Running from 6–30 November 2025, the exhibition forms part of the programme Entanglements of the Apocalypse and is supported by Carefuffle, who collaborate creatively with the artists to shape access throughout the project. The programme is made possible with public funding from the National Lottery via Arts Council England and Cultúr Éireann / Culture Ireland’ +more in 🔗
•
•
•
•
•
•
📷ℹ️ 1,2 Exhibition installation (detail) at VSSL Studio (Deptford, London) – Biolytic Daughter – A collaboration between Bassam Issa Al-Sabah and Jennifer Mehigan – as part of Entanglements Of The Apocalypse. Photographic documentation by Marco Berardi & Baiba Sprance. 2025
3,4,5 Still from “Uncensored Lilac” HD CGI Film (2024). A collaboration between Bassam Issa Al-Sabah and Jennifer Mehigan.
6. Portrait of the two artists as horses, created by the artists on the occasion of Biolytic Daughter at VSSL Studio as part of Entanglements Of The Apocalypse (2025)
•
•
•
•
#VsslStudio
#ArtVerge
#ArtistToWatch
