Season 6 · Episode 72 · 30 Jan 2026
72 - Evie Manning
With Evie Manning
“"I'm trying to think about the amateur in me as someone who can disrupt the systems that I've ended up in, how the amateur, the not always knowing what you're doing, be the thing I embrace".”
Reflections
Q1: Place
If we could do a flypast on any part of the world that is significant to you, which place, city or country would it be and why?
Bradford. 'I could track almost every show that we've made to a conversation that's happened in Bradford or in my area where I live'.
Q2: Life
Give us a glimpse into your life story so far with an emphasis on what you are doing currently?
The early days of Common Wealth were very DIY, working in big squatting buildings, making really big ambitious pieces with lots of different artists, all pretty renegade. Became much more socially engaged, thinking about what change we could make with our work which led to a show called Eye Glass House which focussed on the issue of domestic abuse. This piece led to a change of law on policing and how policing was viewed around the issue of domestic abuse in Scotland. The most recent show was Peaceophobia, a piece about Islamophobia.
Q3: Reset
Where on earth is your place or reset or re-charge?
The perspective that comes from being near the sea.
Q4: Wonder
What wonder of the natural world excites you the most?
Flowers with their own ecosystems
Q5: Hopefulness
What is your story of hopefulness (not your own) about a person, business or non-profit who are doing amazing things for the world?
Ibra, who has remarkably transformed an underused park with a notorious reputation into a large scale chicken coop and peacock farm.
Q6: Insight
Location
Flyover
Bradford. 'I could track almost every show that we've made to a conversation that's happened in Bradford or in my area where I live'.
Guest
Bradford (UK)