Chris and Rifa are in London on a visual art binge. We talk about Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1820 at Tate Britain. We also argue about Judy Chicago: Revelations at the Serpentine Gallery. Rifa is reading the classic Theosophical Society book Thoughtforms: A Record Of Clairvoyant Investigation by Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeate…

More adventures in the arts and culture with Rifa and Chris. We watched the new doc Eno at the cinema, about the artist Brian Eno (obviously), which recuts itself and runs differently, every single time it's screened, making a review somewhat moot. Rifa went to an LGBTQI+ 'late' event at the Wallace Collection in London, while Chris went to Black C…

Adventures in culture and the arts, with Rifa and Chris. Thanks for joining us! This episode we're in Barcelona for Primavera Sound 2024 and we also checked out some art: photographer Jeff Wall — Possible Tales at La Virreina Centre de la Imatge, and painter and collagist Armand Boua at OOA Contemporary Gallery in Sitges. Rifa is reading Mikaela Lo…

Chris and Rifa are in Paris to visit the Brancusi retrospective at Centre Pompidou and also stumble on the lost 1950s Parisian painter Requichot's abstract work. They also binge-watch season three of Sweet Tooth. Rifa is reading Katy Hessel's Great Women Artists substack and Chris is reading Adèle Oliver's essay Deeping It: Colonialism, Culture & C…

Dipping into Brighton Festival, Rifa and Chris see Sunny Singh in conversation about her new book A Bollywood State Of Mind and watch Natalie Sharp's experimental solo mixed media performance Marra! connecting her heritage in Cumbria and the Seychelles. They also watch a bunch of Netflix stuff about coercive control. Rifa is reading Meiko Kawakami'…

Chris and Rifa attempt to make it through Richard Gadd's controversial Netflix dramedy Baby Reindeer and enjoy Dunstan Bruce's Chumbawamba documentary I Get Knocked Down. Rifa goes to UXCampBrighton unconference. Chris is reading Richard Norris of The Grid's memoir Strange Things Are Happening, while Rifa is reading the Tate Magazine (again). Thank…

Refigure podcast with Chris and Rifa returns for a 7th season of the homemade culture review show from the English south coast. This week, we're watching the TV series Shōgun on Disney+ and we went to Tate Modern to see Yoko Ono: Music Of The Mind. In 'What You Reading For?' Chris is reading the new Joel Morris dissection of comedy, Be Funny Or Die…

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

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.

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 Cli…

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.

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 Wi…

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 Tr…

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 …

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 Nigh…

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 Th…

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…

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 abou…

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 classi…

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, S…

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.

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 res…

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…

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.…

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…

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 tran…

Welcome to Refigure, Chris and Rifa's continuing home-based bitesize covid-avoiding adventures in the arts, diversity and culture. It's the fiftieth episode of Refigure but we're so hardcore we forgot to even mention it in the show. Yes please to cake, though, if you insist. This week we binge-watch brainmelting Netflix high concept game show The F…

Chris and Rifa's continuing home-based adventures in culture, diversity and the arts. This week we wear masks to a Black Lives Matter protest in Brighton. Then we watch Steve Carrell's new Netflix comedy series Space Force with John Malkovich and Lisa Kudrow, about a Trump-style military run space initiative. Then we disagree about Spike Lee's new …

Chris and Rifa's continuing adventures in the arts, diversity and culture. This week we watch Mark Cousin's epic cinema history series Women Make Film, narrated by Tilda Swinton, Jane Fonda and others. We also binge-watch the fifth series of tearjerking Netflix makeover show Queer Eye. Then we fall into a difficult, not necessarily successful conve…

Chris and Rifa's weekly adventures in arts, diversity and culture. This week we binge-watched two drama series, doing each complete series in one late night, so we treated them more like a long film. First we watched Alex Garland's sci-fi drama Devs, made by FX but we saw it on BBC iPlayer. Then we did Netflix drama Unorthodox, a German production …

Chris and Rifa's weekly adventures in the arts, tech, diversity and culture. This week we watched Kenya Barris' new sitcom BlackAF co-starring Rashida Jones. Rifa also watched Ryan Murphy's Hollywood TV series, which Chris couldn't stand. We also talk a bit about watching ballet on the screen. Rifa is reading Jen Sincero's self-help book You Are A …

Chris and Rifa's weekly home-made adventures in the arts, tech and diversity. This week we're entranced by Midnight Gospel, Pendleton Ward's philosophical, psychedelic animation series on Netflix. We also dive into the work of Mindy Kaling, we were meant to be chatting about her new Indian-American teen coming-of-age comedy series Never Have I Ever…

Rifa and Chris continue their bitesize adventures in culture, the arts, diversity and tech. We watch two seasons of brilliant Korean Netflix historical drama Kingdom, which turns a costume drama of 15th century feudal taboos into a horrifying march of the undead. We also watch the much discussed ITV three-parter Quiz, based on the real-life events …

Chris and Rifa's Refigure Check-in continues our locked down adventures in culture, tech and diversity. This week we chat about the plethora of livestream performances during the quarantine period. Then we binge-watch the whole of season four of Korean-Canadian sitcom Kim's Convenience. In What You Reading For? Rifa is enjoying Ben Okri's latest sh…

Refigure returns for series #4, the Check-in Season, several weeks early, as Rifa and Chris find ways to resume our tinkering in the arts, tech, culture and diversity, from the safety of our own house. This week we binge-watch The Great British Bake Off (the early years) and swap tips for fun apps and games to download and play, while you're quaran…

Chris and Rifa's weekly bitesize joyride around the arts, culture, tech and diversity. This week we go to the cinema to watch Rian Johnson's acclaimed new whodunnit style movie Knives Out starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Daniel Craig and Chris Pine. We also watch the latest David Attenborough series on the BBC iPlayer, Seven Worlds One Planet as it incre…

Chris and Rifa continue their fun weekly dive into arts, culture, tech and diversity. This week Refigure is a lo-fi episode, entirely taped onto iPhone. Back to normal next week. We watch the second series of Netflix documentary show Abstract, which profiles visionary creatives working in different disciplines of design. Then we introduce a special…

Chris and Rifa's continuing bitesize adventures in the world of arts, culture, tech and diversity. This week our intrepid duo check out the iconic new installation at Tate Modern's enormous Turbine Hall, Kara Walker's powerful reflection on slavery and empire Fons Americanus. We also watch Eddie Murphy's sweet new Netflix film Dolomite Is My Name –…

Chris and Rifa's weekly bitesize review show about the arts, culture, tech and diversity. This week Chris and Rifa argue about the first episode of the BBC/HBO's epic new TV series His Dark Materials, adapted from Philip Pullman's wildly acclaimed kids' fantasy novels. We also go to the beautiful East Brighton venue The Spire – a spooky deconsecrat…

Rifa and Chris chat about their recent adventures in the arts, culture, tech and diversity. This week we catch up with our own recent projects, including Rifa's latest She Says Brighton event for Brighton Digital Festival, plus Chris going back on tour with his old band lineup, as backing band for Jim Bob from Carter USM. We also go to Tate Modern …

Chris and Rifa's week in arts, culture, tech and diversity. This week we played indie video game cult hit Untitled Goose Game. We also went to see DIY alt-rock veterans Sebadoh play live. Rifa is reading Audrey Lorde's iconic essays The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master's House, while Chris is enjoying rock writer Oliver Gray's music t…

Chris and Rifa return with more bitesize chat about the arts, culture, tech and diversity. This week our heroes discuss everything Jerry Seinfeld has ever done, which they've watched in full over the past two months. They also get lost in a misty corridor, in Olafur Eliasson's major exhibition at Tate Modern. Chris is reading TV critic Emily Nussba…

Chris and Rifa return with their bitesize weekly review show, covering culture, tech and diversity. We check out the major retrospective of William Blake's work at Tate Britain and Rifa is down the front row of the cinema for J-Lo's new movie Hustlers. Chris is reading Jia Tolentino's Trick Mirror and also enjoyed John Higgs' William Blake Now. Rif…

It's the season two finale of Chris and Rifa's weekly review of culture, tech and diversity. For this packed episode, we binge-watch the entire run of HBO's hugely acclaimed multi award-winning political satire Veep, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, to mark the occasion of that show finishing. We also mooch up to Tate Modern for a preview of Danish/Ic…

Nearing the end of season two, Rifa and Chris take their weekly bitesize chunk out of the arts, culture, tech and diversity. This week we cleared our schedules, bought a pile of unhealthy snacks and settled in to spend the whole weekend binge-watching BBC live streams from Glastonbury Festival, enjoying full live sets by more than 25 bands, without…

Chris and Rifa's weekly bitesize look back at their week in culture, tech and diversity. This week, we chat about three recent TV drama series that we binge-watched, all of which try to make us think about the state of reality, right now. We watched season five of Charlie Brooker's Netflix show Black Mirror, Russell T Davies' new BBC series Years &…

Chris and Rifa's weekly bitesize show digging through their favourite arts, culture, tech and diversity. This week is a Barcelona special, mostly recorded at Kino Café outside the Contemporary Art Gallery, over a big pile of patatas bravas. We chat about our weekend at Primavera Sound 2019 music festival, which had a wildly diverse lineup and booke…

After a mid-season hiatus and a bit of overseas travel, Chris and Rifa return for another bitesize munch on culture, tech and diversity. This week the show is taped in our Barcelona hotel room. We would've recorded it on the roof terrace but there were noisy Brits. We chat about new Netflix drama series Dead To Me starring Christina Applegate and L…