Simon Wheatley, Templo and Osheen Siva: Tickets now available for May’s Nicer Tuesdays!

We’re back for another Nicer Tuesdays! After taking a month’s break, we’ve got some incredible creatives lined up. May’s talks are sure to rejuvenate you; you’ll hear from a legacy photographer, a cause-led branding agency and a multidisciplinary artist with a passion for Indian folklore and mysticism.

A highly regarded photographer from London, Simon Wheatley has spent two decades as a watchful documenter of the city’s underground music scenes, specifically grime. His lens has become a portal into the journey of many of the genre’s founders and contributors, from Boy Better Know to Dizzee Rascal and Akala. Also joining us in May is Templo, a cause-led branding agency. It will be talking us through its story and work for initiatives in human rights and accountability, education, diversity and inclusion, and community and regeneration. And lastly, Osheen Siva, Goa-based multidisciplinary artist, will be talking us through the works in their first UK solo Karuppu, and how they take cues from Afrofuturism, science fiction, mythology and their Indian heritage.

In May MPB will be back again with another activation, this time a photobooth in collaboration with Photobot.co! Grab a picture with your mates to commemorate Nicer Tuesdays: a memory for your fridge, scrapbook or studio noticeboard. People who take part in the activation will also have the chance to enter a competition to win the photo equipment used inside the stand courtesy of MPB, worth around £450!

The event will take place on 7 May with doors opening at 6pm. As this is an 18+ event, please bring ID with you to the venue. If you are in need of disability access, please make yourself known to a member of the EartH team on the night or email [email protected] so we can arrange assistance. Carry on reading to find out more about our incredible line-up of speakers.

Though his legacy is too grand to summarise, Simon Wheatley is best known for his documentations of the burgeoning inner-city London music subcultures from the early aughts to now. Working primarily in portraiture, the photographer has become synonymous with the city and grime’s development, perhaps best summed up in his photobook Don’t Call Me Urban! The Time of Grime in 2010, highlighting the genre’s vibrance and the lived experience of its contributors. In a Q&A with It’s Nice That’s editor-in-chief Matt Alagiah, Simon will discuss everything from his beginnings and some of his famed portraits, to his evolution into documenting contemporary music stars and figures in the big city.

What goes into branding campaigns for community or human rights initiatives? Templo has been working at the helm of the campaigns for some of the most impactful projects of the past few years. From a rebrand for Raid, a UK-based NGO exposing corporate wrongdoing, to the visual identity and social media campaign for the Free Syria’s Disappeared initiative, and a cross-channel adaptive visual identity for the Dignity in Death, a campaign organisation fighting for the right to assisted dying. The agency’s co-founders Pali Palavathanan and Anoushka Rodda, will discuss their journey, methods and the process behind their projects of the past year.

Osheen Siva is a multidisciplinary artist from Tiruvannamalai, who is currently living and working in Goa. This month, we’re lucky to have them talk at Nicer Tuesdays, just after their debut UK show Karrapu at Bonington gallery, which closes on 4 May. Often creating surreal depictions of decolonised dreamscapes, Osheen will be talking us through their surreal motif, inspired by science fiction, and rooted in their Dalit and Tamil heritage. They will also take us through the drawings, paintings, and collaborative tapestries crafted by local woman artisans, that are central to the show and its themes.