JUDGE ISAAC JULIEN ARTIST

n a year when racial injustices reached a tipping point, Julien saw some of his works take on a (1983), showed at London’s Royal Academy of Arts and reflect on the death of a Black man shot at the entrance to a London police station. , a 2019 video installation about the African American abolitionist and writer, is now showing in San Francisco. We invited Julien to join our judging panel out of admiration for his art, and the ways in which he has shown the importance of representation, but also because of his abiding love of architecture and design. ‘My artist studio in London was designed by David Adjaye and my apartment was designed by a Black conceptual designer called Layton Reid,’ he says. His advice for designers in uncertain times? ‘Be true to their vocation even under duress.’