Women of Colour Index Reading Group at Women in Revolt: radical acts, contemporary resonances
Led by Samia Mailk and Sophie Carapetian.
Date: Saturday 23 March
Time; 11.30am – 1pm
Address; Taylor Digital Studio, Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG
(the studio is opposite the Women in Revolt! exhibition entrance)
WOCI (Women of Colour Index) Reading Group is currently organised and facilitated by founder and director Samia Malik. WOCI is a collection of slides and papers collated by artist Rita Keegan Indexing Women of Colour artists during 1980s and 1990s. Reading Group sessions aim to improve the visibility of women of colour artists whilst using material in the archive to generate discussions, thoughts around practices of: anti racism, anti colonisation and political justice. All people of all backgrounds, genders, sexualities, religions and race are welcome.
In October 2016, the WOCI Reading Group was co-founded by Samia Malik. In 2015 Samia started working with WOCI at the Women’s Art Library (WAL) at Goldsmiths University, which raised urgent, paramount questions about institutional censorship of the Index and women of colour artists, between 2015–2016 these issues have been explored and investigated by Samia as an artist and curator.
Workshop text
“Roadworks is a six-minute colour video of an hour-long performance under-taken by Mona Hatoum for Brixton Art Gallery, London in 1985, during which she walked around barefoot with Doc Martin boots tied to her ankles. The work responded to the socio-political context of Brixton, which at the time was plagued by police violence towards people of colour, which had fuelled the uprisings of 1981 and 1985.” – Women in Revolt!, Linsey Young (2023)
Mona Hatoum was born in Beirut, Lebanon, to a Palestinian family in 1952. During a short visit to London in 1975, civil war broke out in Lebanon preventing her from returning home. Stranded in London, she decided to study art, first at the Byam Shaw School Art and then the Slade School of Fine Art until 1981. Hatoum’s experience of being stranded in the UK significantly shaped her practice, which deals with issues of living in exile, displacement, containment, and the notion of home. She works across installation, sculpture, video, photography, performance and works on paper.
Biographies
Sophie Carapetian is an artist, writer, designer and organiser. She is pursuing a PhD at Central Saint Martins entitled ‘Art in the Age of Crisis: Labour Turn in the Culture Industries’, drawing on her research as a participant in the anti-austerity movements. She is a founding member of Boycott Divest Zabludowicz and Arts Against Cuts, with whom she co-produced the anthology Bad Feelings, which was awarded Bookworks’ ‘Common Objectives’ prize in 2012. Her writing has been published in Mute magazine and Ludd Gang and her most recent exhibition ‘Refuse to Collaborate’ was at the Stadt Gallery in Bern in 2022. She regularly designs book covers for small poetry presses as well as making political leaflets and pamphlets for a wide range of campaigns. She lives and works in London.
Samia Malik is an artist and designer. She’s the director and founder of WOCI Reading Group, and she is writing a book about WOCI Reading Group contracted by Book Works. She recently completed an MA in Academic Practice. She works at University of the Arts as an associate lecturer workshops designed by her titled ‘Art, Fashion, Politics and Anti-Colonialism’. She has also worked with Shades of Noir and has curated two exhibitions about Palestine. She designs for her streetwear label: Samia Malik ihtgw, which is sold worldwide. The label has collaborated with several musicians and artists. In her earlier years, she studied MA Womenswear at Central Sant Martins and an MFA Fine Arts at Goldsmiths.
Address: 3Space, International House, Canterbury Crescent, London SW9 7QE
Date: Monday 11December 2023
Time: 5.30pm-7.30pm
Workshop reading text: Mona Hatoum, Bars, Barbs and Borders: The Negotiating Table, at the Saw Gallery on Wednesday only
Performance artist Mona Hatoum is a Palestinian who who was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon but who now lives in London. Her parents still live in the centre of Beirut and spend about half their lives huddled in their bomb shelter. They do not spend their leisure time sitting on the living-room sofa passively watching TV. But their daughter watches TV. But their daughter watches TV. She says she likes the entertaining and imaginative fiction programs the best such as news reporting.
Hatoum is not being as flippant as the cynicism of that remark suggests. Her performance piece Wednesday drew the distinction between fiction and the reality of Lebanon in startling terms. Alongside the bloody chaos depicted, the detached reportage – that attempts to account for it in ordered terms – was absurdly disembodied.
The gallery was dark, lighted only by an interrogation lamp lowered over a table, on which lay what first appeared at a distance to be the slaughtered corpse of an animal wrapped in plastic. Approaching the gruesome sight, it became evident that it was a human victim portrayed by Hatoum who was curled up in rope and covered in blood. Her head was wrapped in surgical gauze which was also blood stained and concealed her identity. (The Citizen, 1983).
WOCI (Women of Colour Index) Reading Group is currently organised and facilitated by co-founder, director: Samia Malik and guest facilitators. WOCI is a collection of slides and papers collated by artist Rita Keegan Indexing Women of Colour artists during the 1980s and 1990s. Reading Group sessions aim to improve the visibility of women of colour artists whilst using material in the archive to generate discussions, thoughts around practices of: anti-racism, anti-colonisation and political justice. All people of all backgrounds, genders, sexualities, religions and race are welcome.
Alina Kakoo is a PhD researcher and teacher in postcolonial studies and art history at the University of Cambridge. Her thesis looks at South Asian diasporic artmaking in 1980s Britain, across the contexts of art education, periodicals, archives, and exhibitions, thinking through questions of solidarity, art and activism, and institutions. Her published work includes a chapter on Sutapa Biswas’ polemical video artwork Kali (1984) in Lumen: Sutapa Biswas (2021, Kettle’s Yard, BALTIC and Ridinghouse). She has also programmed a range of events on postcolonial and community aesthetics in Britain, including at Tate, Kettle’s Yard and Cambridge Central Library.
Samia Malik is an artist and designer. In 2002, she launched her clothing label Samia Malik ihtgw, independently sold worldwide. In 2004, she studied MA Womenswear at Central Saint Martins, London. In 2007, she designed for musician M.I.A. From 2012–2014, she studied MFA Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. The central focus of Samia’s art practice has been on issues of: racism, sexism, Islamophobia and social injustice. She is the director and co-founder of WOCI (Women of Colour Index) Reading Group. She worked for Shades of Noir at University of Arts, London as an Academic Support Lecturer and is writing a book about WOCI Reading Group contracted by publishers Book Works.
Join us for the Women of Colour Index Reading Group with artist Blu Smith facilitated by Samia Malik.
Address: The Lounge, 58 Atlantic Rd, SW9 8PY
Date: Monday 4th September
Time: 6.15pm-8.30pm
Workshop reading text: As an alumni of UAL in both BA and MA with a focus on moving image, it has informed my method of world-building and storytelling, allowing me to experiment with photography and moving image to build complex narratives. I subsequently pursued an MA in Documentary Filmmaking which led to the creation of my debut documentary, “Black Genesis” (2022). This film is a poignant example of the traditions of Black oral storytelling, explored through the perspectives of three generations of family members.
My newest collage work, “Not Black, Not White but a Third Thing” (2022), delves into the boundaries of mixed-race identity and memory keeping, with a focus on the ownership of identity when one does not have access to their history. Documenting lived Black experiences is a catalyst for information exchange, which has been facilitated through my work with Shades of Noir, an organisation dedicated to advancing social justice within academia.
Blu Smith: I am a multi-disciplinary artist of mixed race based in London, whose practice is rooted in the exploration of identity and the collective consciousness of Blackness through ancestral memory. Due to the volatile and unsafe nature of existing as a person of colour in the United States, my practice found fertile ground in the UK where I was able to engage with the Black diaspora and exchange information through various mediums, including moving image, film, audio scape’s, and collage. Currently, by pursuing a Ph.D. in Black ancestral memory and epigenetics, I aim to identify key epigenetic markers associated with the trauma of Black individuals. Whilst political, this critical work will also be personal as I seek to uncover the ancestral African history of my family through DNA analysis. Through this research, I hope to unravel the complex relationship between Black people and epigenetics, a rapidly evolving field of study.
WOCI Reading Group
WOCI (Women of Colour Index) Reading Group is currently organised and facilitated by co-founder, director: Samia Malik and guest facilitators. WOCI is a collection of slides and papers collated by artist Rita Keegan Indexing Women of Colour artists during the 1980s and 1990s. Reading Group sessions aim to improve the visibility of women of colour artists whilst using material in the archive to generate discussions, thoughts around practices of: anti-racism, anti-colonisation and political justice. All people of all backgrounds, genders, sexualities, religions and race are welcome.
Samia Malik is an artist and designer. In 2002, she launched her clothing label Samia Malik ihtgw, independently sold worldwide. In 2004, she studied MA Womenswear at Central Saint Martins, London. In 2007, she designed for musician M.I.A. From 2012–2014, she studied MFA Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. The central focus of Samia’s art practice has been on issues of: racism, sexism, Islamophobia and social injustice. She is the director and co-founder of WOCI (Women of Colour Index) Reading Group. She worked for Shades of Noir at University of Arts, London as an Academic Support Lecturer and is writing a book about WOCI Reading Group contracted by publishers Book Works.
Join us for the Women of Colour Index Reading Group with artist Karimah Bint Dawoud facilitated by and Samia Malik.
Address: The Lounge, 58 Atlantic Rd, SW9 8PY
Date: Monday 17th July 2023
Time: 5.45pm-8.00pm
Workshop reading text: “Afrikan Children UK’ 40cmx 100cm acrylic on canvas, by Dawoud depicts an eclectic spectrum of the diversity of the Ladbroke Grove social activists, some identified signature styles and some that are autobiographical yet generic at the same time. Within the painting is “the warning” given to RBKC Council from Edward Daffarn. The residents knew they were living in a timebomb. The community of Ladbroke Grove is resilient, Alhamdulilah, many from disenfranchised global communities, oppressed and abused, but spirituality and genetically strong maashaAllah.
The composition is a contradiction, a juxtaposition of geometric sterile cold cobalt blue, looming phallic tower, cheek by jowl with vibrant, dynamic, organic, sedulous activity of the mass and the wider community.
Arabic Qur’anic calligraphy titles the pieces, symbolic of Allah’s dominance over all things and a reminder to keep the nia, the intention, for His sake.
Dawoud is using a much wider palette than 25 years ago, when her St Martins work was dismissively described, by fellow students as “typical of the rasta posters you see in Portobello.” Little did her fellow students know “as it was at the beginning, so shall it be at the end”. Suddenly ” black lives matter” in the 2020’s.
Karimah Bint Dawoud, born in Essex in the 1960s, Karimah Bint Dawoud is a late “baby boomer” and multi-heritage genius, maashaAllah. Her mother is white English. Her father is from South Africa; Indian, Bantu and Scottish.
From the age of 7, she wanted to be a fashion designer, but the Catholic school she attended was too oppressive. She’d been at Catholic School from 4 years old. So, at 16, she left to study hair and makeup and wig-making with a view to become a makeup artist for the BBC TV. She qualified too early for the application criteria and worked for large makeup companies in the West End London, building her portfolio. Eventually the buyer at Selfridges was fed up with her taking days off and gave her the sack. The following week she was the only makeup artist for Revlon, Alexon, Mulberry fashion show at Claridge’s central London. She worked as a photographic makeup artist for Gucci, Bride magazine, Reuters and was one of the top makeup artists for black skin in the 1980s. There was no photoshop in those days, so makeup artists who worked “cleaned” were highly prized.
WOCI Reading Group
WOCI (Women of Colour Index) Reading Group is currently organised and facilitated by co-founder, director: Samia Malik and guest facilitators. WOCI is a collection of slides and papers collated by artist Rita Keegan Indexing Women of Colour artists during the 1980s and 1990s. Reading Group sessions aim to improve the visibility of women of colour artists whilst using material in the archive to generate discussions, thoughts around practices of: anti-racism, anti-colonisation and political justice. All people of all backgrounds, genders, sexualities, religions and race are welcome.
Samia Malik is an artist and designer. In 2002, she launched her clothing label Samia Malik ihtgw, independently sold worldwide. In 2004, she studied MA Womenswear at Central Saint Martins, London. In 2007, she designed for musician M.I.A. From 2012–2014, she studied MFA Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. The central focus of Samia’s art practice has been on issues of: racism, sexism, Islamophobia and social injustice. She is the director and co-founder of WOCI (Women of Colour Index) Reading Group. She currently works for Shades of Noir at University of Arts, London as an Academic Support Lecturer and is writing a book about WOCI Reading Group contracted by publishers Book Works.
White supremacist coloniser must sustain control at all times, when coloniser sees a subject in conflict of interest such as exposing their crimes. One of the most effective ways to control that subject is to give them a job in the system to reinstate power and control over the subject.
On 14th June 2017, Grenfell Tower Fire perished more than 72 people including a black female artist Khadija Saye and her mother Mary Mendy. Seeing that this is posted on WOCI Reading Group’s webpage that aims to make visible histories of black and brown female artists, it’s pertinent to remember Khadija Saye and share her photography.
Peitaw, 2018, Khadija Saye
In June 2017, I was a volunteer on the ground initially helping to pack up supplies of donations, then as an artist I was directed by a friend to help out in the art area by the Wall of Truth. Where I met many people: who had lost their family and friends in the tower, artists, volunteers, media, etc.
6 years after the fire there has been no justice, it’s time to take a look at agendas and organisation of a community campaign that I worked with working in the strive for justice for Grenfell. It became evidently rife at an early stage, if you were not living in the area of North Kensington you were known as an ‘outsider’. Some of the local residents till this day have continued with this territorial frame of mind to drive away well meaning volunteers from other areas because of self motivated agendas, for gains of monetary funding and political objectives. Although it’s within reason to question local and outsider volunteers intentions and agendas because there is a lot of infiltration. Any volunteer local or outsider working towards truth and justice would keep a perspective, a critical thought process, ask questions, speak the truth, seek productive political knowledge, build networks with the community working towards truth and justice.
Grenfell has become a pinnacle symbol of the commodity of housing and gentrification. The same council and government that commodified Grenfell can just as well commodify people. Commodity is defined as when something or someone can be brought or sold. Commodities are usually associated with objects and brand names. The trendier the brand name the more is at stakes in terms of investment and commodity. For example the fashion designer items by Gucci, that use celebrities for media and marketing purposes to make financial profits. But Grenfell is not Gucci, so let’s take a look at the celebrity/ famous figures endorsement of Grenfell – how productive is this approach for gaining justice. When Grenfell campaigners are using commodity marketing means for justice for Grenfell – what are the agendas, aims of this type of campaigner and are these work methods appropriate for the purpose of justice.
Grenfell has highlighted brought to the forefront racial and social disparity, the super poor living next to the super rich. Black and brown working class communities in west London placed next door to serve the white middle class and the super rich. Black and brown working class migrants trying to make a survival, coming from colonised and terrorised countries by the British Empire. Black and brown working class migrants raising their children next door to the super rich, working class children growing up daily surrounded by extremes of classicism and racism. As these children enter adulthood they are also expected to conform, silently subserviently serve the white middle class and the super rich. But it doesn’t work that way – their journey involves: identity crisis, being taught by the warped imperial racist British nationalist education system, victimhood, envy, greed, lack of gratitude, unclear/ confused goals, idolising the rich, imitating the rich, carving their path way through inroads of counterculture, reclaiming identity and religion. And a false sense of pride, ego and arrogance about living next to the rich, so much so some residents of Ladbroke Grove believe they are of a higher ilk, class and creed than residents of Latimer Road. When the reality is they all live in the same conditions of social housing dictated by RBKC and usually are kept at more than an arm’s length distance by their rich neighbors.
Their migrant parents just wanted to survive, make no noise and make a living to feed their families. The children of these migrants don’t just want to serve and survive, they want to attain the unattainable in the white supremacist imperial system – they want respect, equality, financial equity and liberation but for the masses the white supremacist system is designed and structured for the opposite purpose.
Racism doesn’t end at white supremacy, whilst there is good solidarity amongst the black and brown community but tensions exist. Anti-Blackness from Arabs and Asians, anti-Arabness from Blacks and Asians, anti-Asianess from Blacks and Arabs. Co-existing with the struggle of Islamophobia that encompasses Black, Arabs and Asians. The rampant lack of literacy and education amongst black and brown men – not being able to read or write far often sways these men to the lifestyle of drugs and crime, leading to the destination organised and mapped out by the white supremacist imperial system – prison. Black and brown men who obtain an education, degrees, qualifications; they’re awaited by the glass ceiling, the lack of employment and limited relevant prosperous stable opportunities. The focus here is on men because we need to acknowledge the struggle of these men who become part of the glass ceiling for the struggles faced by black and brown women.
“The oppressed, having internalised the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom.” Paulo Freire.
Image below is of a shop window in Westfields White City organised for the 5th anniversary of Grenfell Tower Fire in 2022. If it wasn’t for the text, the green hearts in the window could easily be fitting for retail fashion visual merchandise. Westfield’s is part of the problem of commodified gentrification of North Kensington. The cladding on Grenfell Tower was a cause of fire spreading quickly. One of the reasons this cladding was enforced on Grenfell because people visiting Westfields complained Grenfell Tower looked ‘ugly’, the council’s solution was to add cladding for the appearance for shoppers on the flyover to Westfields. The surrounding area of Westfields, White City is a bank of gentrification.
Image – the green hearts and text in the middle are signed off by Grenfell Speaks. The co-founder of Grenfell Speaks, Faisal Metalsi is posing in the center. In June 2017, Grenfell Speaks began as a channel documenting the local community. The installation in the shop window is made up of 72 green hearts to remember the dead. The installation displays no explicit critique demonstrating the background of Westfields relationship with Grenfell Tower. To contextualise, Faisal’s legacy of opportunistic actions in the name of campaign Grenfell Speaks and installation in Westfields is another CV building exercise for Faisal, from that position installation is most certainly a mockery to the dead, survivors and the community.
Grenfell Green Heart Pin
Before the carnival in August 2017, Faisal approached me to help to resource art materials to make Grenfell banners for the carnival. Then I was introduced to artist Omar Ben, an old family friend of Faisal’s. Omar did the artwork for the carnival Grenfell banners, in the following months Omar and I continued to work together focusing on Grenfell art work. In October/ November 2017, throughout a series of meetings Omar explained to me the concept for art and design details of the green heart pin – Faisal was not present in any of these meetings. Faisal via Grenfell Speaks facilitated the manufacturing funds and distribution of the green heart pins. Whilst I did the legwork of meetings with manufacturers, organising orders and deliveries.
Original Grenfell green heart pin, 2017
Green heart pins were launched in December 2017 at the 6 month anniversary of Grenfell Tower Fire and by then due to personal circumstances Omar withdrew from his volunteer work at Grenfell. When Omar returned in September/ October 2018, the green heart pin had become a popular synonymous symbol of Grenfell and Faisal was employed by RBKC. Faisal was no longer an independent campaigner who was working to document the community for the community. Meanwhile, I continued organising the manufacturing and deliveries of the green heart pins. I had regular meetings with Faisal but he never mentioned he was employed by RBKC.
On Omar’s return he questioned Faisal about politicians and RBKC wearing the green heart pins – the same people that had burnt down the tower. Faisal stopped replying to Omar. Omar canceled a large quantity of green heart pin order. Instead he made artwork for new badges ‘Police Line Do Not Cross’. These badges were distributed by Omar and I.
Police Do Not Cross, 2018
Faisal was disappointed that I shared green heart manufacturer contact information with Omar that led him to cancel an order and Faisal asked me to withdraw from volunteer work at Grenfell Speaks. In one of the final meetings Faisal asked me to give him original design work of the Grenfell green heart pin because he claimed the pin was designed by him which was untrue. I never gave Faisal the original design work, I gave him a photocopy of the original design.
In the past 6 years, Faisal has continuously used the original design of the green heart pin to make new versions to be distributed at Grenfell yearly anniversaries.
In 2019, the Green heart pin was worn by Boris in the parliament. I exposed online the problems and co-option of the green heart pin regarding Faisal’s dishonest and unscrupulous work methods using the platform of Grenfell Speaks. Faisal contacted Omar to buy off the copyrights of the green heart pin and Omar refused. Faisal also had some interest in working with Omar again. Omar suggested that we should be working as a team again and that includes working with me (Samia) as well. But Faisal refused to speak to me. Faisal and Omar did not continue working together.
Between December 2019 and December 2020, Omar and I were in conversation. I funded several pieces of artwork for Omar to make for Grenfell; that Omar is still due to share with the rest of the community.
In 2022, by chance I saw Faisal and I told him: I would like to have been consulted about the production of the different versions of the green heart pins, he should be consulting and crediting Omar too. Faisal responded by saying: he does not need to consult Omar and I about the green heart pins because he (Faisal) designed it – which is untrue. As long as Faisal uses the original design concept of the green heart pin despite of how many different versions Faisal comes up with, the copyrights belong to Omar.
2023
We are 2 months away from Grenfell’s anniversary, recently Faisal on Grenfell Speaks was promoting Steve McQueens film about Grenfell that will be shown at the Serpentine in the coming month. Serpentine is an institutional fine art exhibition space that generally has not at all engaged with Grenfell in the past 6 years, even though it is one of the nearest institutional galleries to Grenfell. In 2022, Steve McQueen was given a knighthood by Charles (aka ‘king’ Charles).
The R in RBKC is an acronym for the word Royal, to elaborate Royal = Royal Family. Serpentine is historically directly linked to the royal family and located in the royal park. The royal family are the catalyst behind Grenfell tower fire, alongside having the blood on their hands of many worldwide colonial genocides throughout the decades and centuries. Royal family’s mouthpiece is the government – the right or the left; Tory or Labour, 2 wings of the same bird. RBKC are acting guardians of the royal, crown land of kensington and chelsea
Grenfell Speaks and Grenfell Archive
One of the last recent posts from Faisal on Grenfell Speaks is about Grenfell Archive. There are many more complaints about Faisal from the local community, however I will not go into further details. Archives are political tools and one can decide – with a track record of wrong and unsuitable work ethics for resistance and justice – it would be an addition to injustice to contribute to Faisals archival calls for Grenfell.
In autumn September/ October 1997, my friend recommended that I check out the Sensations exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. I was 17 years old, doing the final year of my A Levels and also in the process of starting to apply to go to art school. I had no idea what I was going to see at Sensations, my friend who was a year older than me and she was doing her Foundation course at Central St Martins, she invited me and spoke highly about this exhibition. So, I got on the tube with my friends and joined the long queue at the Royal Academy of Arts to see Sensations.
Keep in mind that my experience before I saw sensations was limited to GCSE and A Level Art at the Green School of Girls in Isleworth, in a corner of west London. My GCSE and A Level Art teacher Ms Stephens, Ms Nichols and Ms Douglas who I cannot ever credit enough and have immense gratitude for teaching me and helping me reach my goals at a young age. My educational experience at GCSE and A Level Art was traditional and to some degree conservative, I learnt a lot about drawing, painting and sculptors: Van Gogh, Matisse, Picasso, Cezzane, Joseph Beuys, many other white male artists who were made and kept visible in UK art education. Within this educational experience Frida Khalo, Georgia O’Keeffe were mainly the only female artists I was taught about and alongside a short glance of exposure to Cindy Sherman at the Tate. Sensations was the first time I saw ‘conceptual contemporary art’ – I was mind blown, without any exaggerations it felt like discovering a brand new planet. At the time, I did not know any of the artists whose work I saw at Sensations. I thought I had found something groundbreaking. The artwork I remember making a note of was Marc Quinn’s sculpture head full of blood titled ‘Self 1991’ and Tracy Emin’s Tent was of interest.
In the years between 1999-2002, during my BA Fashion degree years I became more familiar with Tracy Emin and often referenced her work in my degree course work. Emin was essentially one of the only female artists that seemed to be well documented and there was accessible material about her such as newspaper and magazine articles. Particularly as a fashion student; I had not signed up on a degree course that was going to broaden my female artist references and my continued interest in fine art was generally self initiated.
The raw, uneasy and uncomfortableness of Emin’s work grew on me; mainly due to the sheer accessibility to another female artist. Was I a real fan of Emin’s work I still am not sure, firstly because she has white washed herself, therefore it is apparent her narrative is not entirely authentic and honest. If I had accessibility to a wider range of female artists; would I have had any interest in Emin is something I question despite of holding an empathy, support towards her tenacity and position because I also do consider, if Emin claimed her identity as a mixed race person that makes her a women of colour, would she have survived, made it amongst the brutally racist YBAs (Young British Artists) and would she have been fated the same as the rest of YBAs (Young Black Artists) to be erased, censored and without no financial business. It would be interesting to see Emin tell her full truth beyond the Munch and Egon Schiele’s.
Identity politics is a dirty word for the YBAs (Young British Artists), they are also indoctrinated and self declared ‘Thatcher’s children’. Thatcher who made anti-racism in education against the law.
The definition of identity is how one places and recognises themselves. When a white male artist Micheal Landly makes an artwork titled ‘Breakdown’ (2001), this artwork was a reaction to consumerist society. In this artwork Landly destroyed all of his belongings to ‘smithereens’ as quoted by Landly. Breakdown artwork also includes an inventory; listing all the items that belong to Landly that he destroyed. If Landly was not a white male artist in London, would he have been able to contemplate such an idea, could he have afforded or had access to funding/ resources to produce, organise the machine that destroyed his items. If Landly was in Syria or Palestine he most probably would not own 5% of the items, let alone to have the choice and option to destroy items to turn into a public spectacle on Oxford Street in central London in the name of ‘art’. The artwork ‘Breakdown’ is a demonstration of the white male privileged identity.
Damien Hirst proudly says ‘All My Ideas Are Stolen Anyway’ is the title of a Frieze article (2018) about Hirst. The article continues “The artist claims that he was taught ‘don’t borrow ideas, steal them’ by Michael Craig-Martin at Goldsmiths”. Michael Craig-Martin was the teacher of many of the YBAs (Young British Artists). The British Empire is built on stealing and killing; stealing is an inherent condition of white supremacy. White supremacy could not survive without stealing, stealing is the constitutive and innate bone structure of the white supremacist identity. Hirst built his art practice through his identity as a white supremacist; seizing and using white supremacist identification and fundamental white supremacist colonial conditions and routines of stealing in the practice of his art. Landly and Hirst’s artwork is centered and conceived through their privileged identities. Conceding ‘identity politics’ into the identity politics of white supremacist privilege.
‘A look at the origins of the Young British Artists in the art schools of the mid-80s, a shocking and provocative movement which would culminate in the notorious 1997 exhibition Sensation.’ (Sensationalist, 2022).
In January 2023, I watched ‘Sensationalists: The Bad Girls and Boys of British Art’ on BBC iplayer, 3 episode documentary, each episode is 1 hour long, released in time for the 25th anniversary of Charles Saatchi’s group exhibition ‘Sensation’ in 1997 at the Royal Academy of Arts. I’m 42 years old, writing a book about censorship and erasure of black and brown female artists in the UK. The only black spokesperson in this documentary is Goldie. Goldie is exceptional, he deserves all the merits and credits for contribution to UK’s creative culture as an artist and musician but of course he was not the only black artist in London during the 80’s and 90’s. The main message of this documentary is to celebrate and to look at 80’s and 90’s portraying the YBAs (Young British Artists) as the ‘pioneers’ of the conceptual contemporary art scene in the UK and at the time they were not aligned with the art establishment. But they were very much part of the same machine of the racist UK art establishment. Cork Street in Mayfair, London is known for art galleries, it was also mentioned in ‘Sensationalists’ as the only other art at the time. Cork Street’s historical commitment to the establishment is not a farce but it is untrue to say that Cork Street was the only art present besides the YBAs (Young British Artists).
“Steve who moved to Amsterdam and always shied away from the media shebang, became the second consecutive Black Turner Prize winner after Chris Offilli in a contemporary British art scene from which many people of ethnic heritage felt excluded. Apart from a few Black, Asian and minority ethnic artist like Anish Kapoor, Mona Hatoum, Isaac Julien, Yinka Shonibare and Chris Offili, the mainstream British art scene was heavily white dominated, as can be seen from the Turner Prize nominations during the 1990’s, Talented minority ethnic British artists such as Rasheed Araeen, Sonia Boyce, John Akonfrah, Lubaina Himid, Babara Walker, Ingrid Pollard, Claudette Johnson, Sokari Douglas Camp, Maud Sulter, Sutapa Biwas, Donald Rodney, Sunil Gupta, Hew Locke, Denzil Forrester and many more remained on the sidelines during this period, despite producing thought provoking and visually arresting work.
Many of these artists had been part of a rich creative flourishing throughout the 1980s,” (Fullerton, 2021, p.137).
“A relatively successful artist such as Maud Sulter could pass away (as she did in 2008) with hardly anything in the way of acknowledgement and obituaries. And an artist such as Brenda Agard, relatively young though she was, could fall from view and pass into oblivion as if her stellar contributions were somehow insignificant and unimportant.” (Chambers, 2014, p.5).
The two quotes above highlight the erasure of black and brown artists. ‘The Story of the Britain Revolution Art Rage’ Fullerton looks at the rise of the YBAs (Young British Artist) and ‘Black Artist in British Art A History Since the 1950s’ Chambers exposes the historical presence of black and brown artists in the UK. Both of these books and quotes alongside WOCI provide concrete evidence of the strong presence of black and brown artists in 80s and 90s and also at the same time the erasure of black and brown artists in the 80s and 90s – which has been repeated all over again by the BCC’s Sensationalists in 2022. Prompting the urgency once again to state the repetition of racist, violent and terrorist white supremacist history to uphold the falsification of white supremacist identity, culture and art.
Samia Malik
Bibliography
Keith Allen. Min Clough. (2022). Sensationalist: The Bad Girls and Boys of British Art. BBC. iPlayer.
Eddie Chambers. (2014). Black Artist in British Art A History Since the 1950s. I.B. Taurus. pp.5.
Elizabeth Fullerton. (2021). The Story of the Britain Revolution Art Rage. Thames & Hudson. pp.137.
In News. (2018). All My Ideas Are Stolen Anyway. Frieze.
Join us for the Women of Colour Index Reading Group facilitated by Michelle Williams Gamaker and Samia Malik.
Address: The Lounge, 58 Atlantic Rd, SW9 8PY
Date: Monday 14th November 2022
Time: 5.45pm-8.00pm
Workshop reading text:
“The other two collective pieces were found towards the exhibition’s end, side by side, separate but complementary. The first, installed by Halina Zajac and Rhona Harriette in the passageway connecting the front and rear arches, felt anguished but strong, multi-layered yet clear and simple in the best sense. Black hands hang from chicken-wire wrists surrounded by dangling white ‘prison’ poles; sky blue, green grass and blood red were painted opposite colourful crayon drawings and photographs of dereliction and abandonment. To read the red text you had to walk from left to right, back and forth, uncomfortably reminiscent of prison guards pacing. The work used its rhythmic writing to effectively evoke a complex array of associations, while its colour and images worked symbolically to speak of child-like innocence, everyday life, persecution and social injustices”. Women in View Women’s Work VII Brixton Art Gallery, 16th July-8th Aug, Roxanne Permar, A chronicle of the group’s first two years.
WOCI Reading Group
WOCI (Women of Colour Index) Reading Group is currently organised and facilitated by co-founder, director: Samia Malik and guest facilitators. WOCI is a collection of slides and papers collated by artist Rita Keegan Indexing Women of Colour artists during the 1980s and 1990s. Reading Group sessions aim to improve the visibility of women of colour artists whilst using material in the archive to generate discussions, thoughts around practices of: anti-racism, anti-colonisation and political justice. All people of all backgrounds, genders, sexualities, religions and race are welcome.
Michelle Williams Gamaker is an artist working in moving image. She interrogates cinematic artifice, deploying characters as fictional activists to critique the imperialist storytelling in 20th-century British/Hollywood studio films. Her work screened at BFI FLARE LGBTQ+ Film Festival (2017), BFI’s LFF Experimenta (2018, 2021) and is in the Arts Council Collection. She is joint-winner of Film London’s Jarman Award 2020, which toured to LUX Scotland, Nottingham Contemporary, g39, Spike Island, Towner Eastbourne, Whitechapel Gallery, The MAC and AEMI. Her Dissolution Film Trilogy was premiered at Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland. She is recipient of the Stuart Croft Moving Image Award 2020 and a Decolonising the Archive Research Residency 2021 (UAL Decolonising Arts Institute). Her latest film The Bang Straws (2021) premiered at BFI LFF Experimenta, with a special jury commendation for the Short Film Award, and also featured at Aesthetica Short Film Festival, where it won Best Experimental Film. The film recently showed at the Whitechapel’s The London Open. Between 2016-19, she co-facilitated WOCI Reading Group together with Samia Malik and Rehana Zaman and is currently facilitator of the Jean Fisher Archive Reading Group at Matt’s Gallery.
Samia Malik is an artist and designer. In 2002, she launched her clothing label Samia Malik ihtgw, independently sold worldwide. In 2004, she studied MA Womenswear at Central Saint Martins, London. In 2007, she designed for musician M.I.A. From 2012–2014, she studied MFA Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. The central focus of Samia’s art practice has been on issues of: racism, sexism, Islamophobia and social injustice. She is the director and co-founder of WOCI (Women of Colour Index) Reading Group. She currently works for Shades of Noir at University of Arts, London as an Academic Support Lecturer and is writing a book about WOCI Reading Group contracted by publishers Book Works.
Join us for the Women of Colour Index Reading Group facilitated by Symrath Patti and Samia Malik.
Address: The Lounge, 58 Atlantic Rd, SW9 8PY
Date: Monday 24th October 2022
Time: 5.45pm-8.00pm
Workshop reading text:
“My work is about Indian female sexuality in the context of Indian traditions, rituals, caste, class and religion itself and the influences of a European setting.
The Indian female symbol of ‘Motherhood’ is placed in confrontation with itself. I make use of other symbols: skin whitening creams, jewelry, mannequins etc., in order to bring to the surface the juxtapositions of European and Asian female symbolism which confront each other and create conflicts between generations in a modern contemporary setting.
The relationship between the images and symbols is as complex as the relationship between Europe and India”. ‘The Complete Promise’ an exhibition by Symrath Patti, CentreSpace, 1991, Hounslow, Leisure Services.
WOCI Reading Group
WOCI (Women of Colour Index) Reading Group is currently organised and facilitated by co-founder, director: Samia Malik and guest facilitators. WOCI is a collection of slides and papers collated by artist Rita Keegan Indexing Women of Colour artists during the 1980s and 1990s. Reading Group sessions aim to improve the visibility of women of colour artists whilst using material in the archive to generate discussions, thoughts around practices of: anti-racism, anti-colonisation and political justice. All people of all backgrounds, genders, sexualities, religions and race are welcome.
Symrath Patti is an artist based in London and also one of the founders of Panchayat Archive. She is currently studying at Dartington Arts Trust. Her work is mixed media based, exploring the periphery and the intersectional of being in Black/ Asian in British culture; dealing with race, class, gender, culture and geography.
The early exhibitions and curating included: ‘Creation for Liberation’ 1985, ‘Artists Against Racism’ 1989, ‘Panchayat’ 1988 at Soho Poly Theatre, ‘Jagrati’ 1986, ‘The Complete Promise’ 1990, ‘Cuban Biennale’ 1991, ‘Cher Cher La Femme’ 1996. Throughout the 80’s and 90’s Symrath worked in arts development and education creating a space for dialogues, this included the Dominion Center in Southall, Asian womens arts group in Woolwich, here she was involved in developing policy from grassroots; to bring about change and representation into institutions.
She has been an advisor and worked for many different organisations, a few of them were Greater London Arts board and Campaign Organisations such as Southall Monitoring Group – networking and creating support also this included Watermans Art Center; setting up an Asian advisory group and she was the first Black/Asian member of the board.
In 2018, she exhibited at Kingsway Corridor at Goldsmiths University, showing work that explores Asian patriarchy in culture. Next year, she will be doing a solo exhibition at the muse gallery in west London.
Samia Malik is an artist and designer. In 2002, she launched her clothing label Samia Malik ihtgw, independently sold worldwide. In 2004, she studied MA Womenswear at Central Saint Martins, London. In 2007, she designed for musician M.I.A. From 2012–2014, she studied MFA Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. The central focus of Samia’s art practice has been on issues of: racism, sexism, Islamophobia and social injustice. She is the director and co-founder of WOCI (Women of Colour Index) Reading Group. She currently works for Shades of Noir at University of Arts, London as an Academic Support Lecturer and is writing a book about WOCI Reading Group contracted by publishers Book Works.
Join us for the Women of Colour Index Reading Group facilitated by Alina Khakoo and Samia Malik.
Address: The Lounge, 58 Atlantic Rd, SW9 8PY
Date: Monday 3rd October 2022
Time: 5.45pm-8.30pm
Workshop reading text:
“Security was a major issue for these groups. White beefy men in chunkier suits would be posted advantageously in the hotel corridors. They would squeeze their large muscular forms into reproduction antique chairs with arm rests and wait patiently. The exchanges between these men and the Gulf Arab women made a very distinct impression – miles apart culturally, linguistically, socially and financially, they nevertheless communicated well and shared humour.” Medina Hammad: New Works, 13 February – 13 March 1993, Angel Row Gallery, Medina Hammad, December 1992.
Medina Hammad is a painter and teacher, born in Middlesex. She studied at Chelsea School of Art, 1981–2, and Newport College of Art, Gwent, 1982–5. She went on to teach at Lincolnshire College of Art and Design. Much of Hammad’s work explored her Sudanese/English background with freshness, vitality and a bold use of colour. She exhibited at Usher Gallery, Lincoln, in 1988, and was included in the Norwich Gallery traveling show History and Identity, 1991–2. Hammad had a solo exhibition in 2002 at 4 Victoria Street, Bristol, curated by Eddie Chambers, another at the University of Leeds in 2004. Lived in Lincoln.
WOCI Reading Group
WOCI (Women of Colour Index) Reading Group is currently organised and facilitated by co-founder, director: Samia Malik and guest facilitators. WOCI is a collection of slides and papers collated by artist Rita Keegan Indexing Women of Colour artists during the 1980s and 1990s. Reading Group sessions aim to improve the visibility of women of colour artists whilst using material in the archive to generate discussions, thoughts around practices of: anti-racism, anti-colonisation and political justice. All people of all backgrounds, genders, sexualities, religions and race are welcome.
Alina Khakoo is a PhD researcher at the University of Cambridge, where she also teaches. Her thesis looks at South Asian diasporic artmaking in 1980s Britain, across the contexts of art education, art publishing, archives, and the display of art, thinking through concepts of groupwork, DIY artmaking, and the relations between aesthetics and politics. Her published work includes a chapter on Sutapa Biswas’ polemical video artwork Kali (1984) in Lumen: Sutapa Biswas (2021, Kettle’s Yard, BALTIC and Ridinghouse). She has also programmed a range of events on postcolonial and community aesthetics in Britain, including at Tate, Kettle’s Yard and Cambridge Central Library.
Samia Malik is an artist and designer. In 2002, she launched her clothing label Samia Malik ihtgw, independently sold worldwide. In 2004, she studied MA Womenswear at Central Saint Martins, London. In 2007, she designed for musician M.I.A. From 2012–2014, she studied MFA Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London. The central focus of Samia’s art practice has been on issues of: racism, sexism, Islamophobia and social injustice. She is the director and co-founder of WOCI (Women of Colour Index) Reading Group. She currently works for Shades of Noir at University of Arts, London as an Academic Support Lecturer and is writing a book about WOCI Reading Group contracted by publishers Book Works.
On 15/11/21 – Cambridge History of Art x Kettles Yard. Decolonising history of art with Alina Khakoo and WOCI Reading Group – Samia Malik. Looking at materials from Panchayat Archive and artist Symrath Patti.
WOMEN OF COLOUR INDEX READING GROUP 