
Join us for an online artist talk by Deeqa Ismail exploring her artistic practice, drawing on her experience as a Somali-British artist and curator. Deeqa will explore how her artistic practice connects with family archives, in particular through materiality and sound, to create sonic worlds that extend beyond time and space, and will consider what diversity in spaces looks like for emerging artists beyond the performative and institutional framework. Drawing on her experience as a Somali-British artist and curator from London, now living in the North West she will also interrogate the gap between institutional claims of inclusion and the realities faced by emerging artists navigating hybrid cultural identities. About Deeqa Deeqa Ismail (b. 1988, Hargeisa, Somalia) is a Somali-British artist based in Stockport, Manchester. She works with sculpture, printmaking, sound, video, and installations, often incorporating analogue processes and Somali sonic archives. Her work explores both shared and personal experiences of hybrid identity and the in-between spaces. She has developed exhibitions and public programmes at Tank Gallery in South London, KALEID Editions in East London and Agora Collective in Berlin, Germany and is currently doing a practice-based research degree at Manchester School of Art and Design. This event has been organised by Bloc Projects for The Kaleidoscope Network, a collaboration between Eastside Projects (Birmingham), Spike Island (Bristol), Primary (Nottingham), The NewBridge Project (Newcastle) and Bloc Projects (Sheffield). Formed in response to a need for mutual support, the network has come together as a way to share resources, increase what each partner is able to offer and create new connections between communities of artists. Membership of any of the above organisations automatically makes you part of the Kaleidoscope Network.


















































