Join us for an open discussion hosted by cultural worker, somatic facilitator and artist Jemma Desai. Together we will think through how Western systems of knowledge shape the ways we define and express identity. Reflecting on the exhibition The Hole in the Whole, we will explore how translation, performance and a belief in intuition over the rational can offer other ways of knowing and being.
Jemma, artist-curator Harmanpreet Randhawa and artists Ashkan Sepahvand and Valerie Asiimwe Amani will speak about these ideas and the ways in which they articulate them through their practices.
Access - If you have any access needs that you would like to discuss before attending, drop us a line on info@eastsideprojects.org and we can talk them through
Bios
Jemma Desaiis a cultural worker, somatic facilitator and artist (in as much as they see being an artist, as James Baldwin did as being on an ongoing search for integrity). Her work spans artistic and administrative practice, writing, curation and performance. Through her practice she seeks places and people to question the role of testimony, desire and political commitment in the social relations that make cultural work.
Ashkan Sepahvandis an artist, writer, and researcher. He was born in Tehran, grew up in Tulsa, and lives and works between Berlin and Oxford. His practice takes time. An interest in words and bodies shapes his inquiries. Projects take the form of publications, performances, and regular collaboration with friends. Together with Natascha Sadr Haghighian, they founded the institute for incongruous translation, an ongoing framework for their shared studies. He is one half of ssSssssssssss, a study-friendship with Virgil B/G Taylor. His current research considers the poetic and performative possibilities in translating the English word 'faggot' into Persian.
Valerie Asiimwe Amani is a Tanzanian artist and writer whose practice explores the intersections of body, language, and myth. Working across video, textiles, performance, installation, and text, her work responds to questions of belonging, memory, and how we make sense of ourselves in the world.
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