WOCI Reading Group at Raven Row Open House
WOCI Reading Group installation, including artwork by Michelle Williams Gamaker – Elephant Boy, (2015, HD video) and Brown Queers (2017, HD video). Samia Malik – Art, Fashion and the Institution, 2019.
On: Saturday 4 May and Sunday 5 May, 12pm to 6pm
At: Raven Row, 56 Artillery Ln, Spitalfields, London E1 7LS
All Welcome!
W: https://wocireadinggroup.wordpress.com
FB: WOCI Reading group
Twitter: @WOCIReading
Join Women of Colour Index Reading Group with Michelle Williams Gamaker and Samia Malik at Museum of Impossible Forms, Helsinki; looking at an unique archive that charts the emergence of women of colour artists during the 1980s and 1990s. For some of these individuals, the Index is the only written record of their work. This session will be focused on Vision and Voice, December 1985.
Full address:
Museum of Impossible Forms,
PL 64
00940 Helsinki
Date: Monday 19th November 2018
Time: 11am – 6pm
AM session 11am – 1pm
– Welcome from Museum of Impossible Forms
– Introduction by WOCI Reading Group, describing how the group formed, ensuing – activity. Michelle Williams Gamaker and Samia Malik – artist presentation.
Break/refreshments 1pm-3pm
PM session 3pm-6PM – WOCI Reading Group explores Vision and Voice, December 1985.
Workshop reading text:
“I left the conference with a distinct feeling that in 1985, ‘black art is synonymous with Macho art. At the outset, it was suggested that black women’s art represented a possible ghettoization within a ghettoization. I’d always believed that the art of black women was recognised as a valid part of the struggle. ‘A Thin Black Line’ exhibition at the ICA was, to my mind, the ultimate confirmation of that fact. The Vision and Voice conference revealed that some black men refuse to understand black women’s art and are attempting to confine them to a sexual bantusan in much the same way that ethnic categories invalidate black art as a whole.
Women were patronised by the token presence of Rita Keegan – the only speaker dealing with ‘Women’s Perspectives’ – and the suggestion that black women had only began to practice art in the last ten years. When challenged about the former, the Chair Errol Lloyd claimed that within the day’s program there had not been the time nor space to “deal with everyone”. Sound familiar? With regards to the latter, one female member of the audience felt obliged to explain that black women throughout history have been producing functional art, be it embroidery on Indian garments or ceramics in the form of cooking utensils etc.” Vision and Voice, December 1985.
Link to full text: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10ciLlbSDA2CVAQeyT9aqLRgteg5w9c6jlowkAUH6a2E/edit
WOCI Reading Group
The Women of Colour Index (WOCI) Reading Group was set up in October 2016 by artists, Samia Malik, Michelle Williams Gamaker and Rehana Zaman. The WOCI Reading Group aims to improve visibility for women of colour artists whilst using archive material to generate discussion and practice around current social and political concerns.
The reading group meets on a monthly basis to discuss work within the Women of Colour Index (WOCI); a unique collection of slides and papers collated by artist Rita Keegan that chart the emergence of Women of Colour artists during the ‘critical decades’ of 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 discussion, thought and practice around current social and political concerns. All people of all backgrounds, genders, sexualities, (dis)abilities, religions and race are welcome.
This event is assisted by Never Done https://neverdone.org.uk and financially supported by International Curators Forum (ICF) and The Finnish Institute in London
Join Women of Colour Index Reading Group with Michelle Williams Gamaker and Samia Malik and guest contributor Joy Gregory who will talk about this unique archive that charts the emergence of women of colour artists during the 1980s and 1990s. For some of these individuals, the Index is the only written record of their work. This session will be focused on British artist Joy Gregory, who will discuss her current work and how the Index acts like a ‘time capsule’.
This event is part of Daylighting at the Welcome Collection, a four-day programme of events to challenge archives, change narratives and amplify new voices.
Full address: Reading Room on level 2, Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE
Event Date: Friday 19th October 2018
Time: 2.00pm – 3.30pm
Joy Gregory Bio
Born in England to Jamaican parents, Joy Gregory grew up in Buckinghamshire later studying at Buckinghamshire College of Higher Education, Manchester Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art. Since finishing college in 1986 her work has been exhibited all over the world, and featured in many biennales and festivals. Over the year she has received numerous awards for her practice including in 2002 a Fellowship from the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts.
Her usual medium is photography but she is an artist of ideas rather than material and was a short-listed artists for the Mary Seacole Memorial – a major sculpture Commission in London. Ranging from Still life and self portraiture in late 1980’s the work developed to include articles and accessories of dress, landscape – most especially sea and city-scape – portraits of others and more recently medicinal plants. Most importantly the different photographic processes are applied is a means of adding clarity to the ideas behind the work– 19th century cyanotype, for example, adds a dimension of time and suggests narrative structure. Often, as in Cinderella Story, where a pair of glamorous golden shoes finds itself in a variety of romantic cities, two subject strands will be pulled together in a delicately ironic or touching individual / universal experiences of life.
Joy Gregory’s work has been influenced by a combination of race, gender and aesthetics often reflecting on issues colonization and its effects on culture and identity politics. Underlying a variety of themes are explorations of beauty, gender, memory and place, and the issues of control and power in relation to constructed narratives of femininity, race and place. She is known for her work around issues of ‘beauty’ and the impact of the European colonial project on the everyday lives of ‘ordinary people’ in the contemporary world. Since 2003, Gregory has been working on the issue of language endangerment, The first of this series of related works was realised as the short film, Gomera, which premiered at the 2010 Sydney Biennale. The second of these works focuses on a small community based in the southern Kalahari whose experience of language loss echoes that of in Indigenous peoples around the globe. Their language N|u narrated through the lives of two sisters Keis & |Una and the experiences of their descendents.
Joy was a shortlisted artist for the UK General Election Artist Commission of 2015 and participated in the g 57th Venice Biennale 2017 as part of the Diaspora Pavillion. Examples of her work are featured in private and public major collections around the world including Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia, and Yale University, New Haven. She lives and works in London, UK most recently teaching at Slade and Camberwell College of Art.
Workshop reading text:
“DO YOU HAVE ANY OCCASIONS WHERE IT ACTUALLY AFFECTS YOU BECAUSE OTHER PEOPLE PUT THEIR OWN PREJUDICES ONTO YOU? Yes I do because people expect me to behave in a certain way which is why so much ATTENTION WAS DRAWN TO THE WAY THAT I was working at college because I wasn’t going out and photographing people in their environment so I wasn’t going my lot for the 4% of this country and I was in such a wonderful position to do it and to actually bring it all to light but it would have been really noble of me to do that but I’m selfish and I just wanted to get on with my work and left alone. It’s like typecasting and its a self fulfilling prophecy while people see that Black people may take better pictures of the Black community so they assume we must take pictures of the black community but they can take pictures of any community they choose.” Polareyes, Issue No 1, 1987
* photocopies of the extended version of this text will be available during the session
WOCI Reading Group
The Women of Colour Index (WOCI) Reading Group was set up in October 2016 by artists, Samia Malik, Michelle Williams Gamaker and Rehana Zaman. The WOCI Reading Group aims to improve visibility for women of colour artists whilst using archive material to generate discussion and practice around current social and political concerns.
The reading group meets on a monthly basis to discuss work within the Women of Colour Index (WOCI); a unique collection of slides and papers collated by artist Rita Keegan that chart the emergence of Women of Colour artists during the ‘critical decades’ of 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 discussion, thought and practice around current social and political concerns. All people of all backgrounds, genders, sexualities, disabilities, religions and race are welcome.
To book tickets please visit Welcome Collection Webpage: https://wellcomecollection.org/events/W5e6oSYAACMAMpqA
Full address: Bold Tendencies, Floors 7-10, SE15 4TG London
Event Date: Saturday 29th September 2018
Time: 2pm – 3pm
The WOCI Reading Group will share a selection of material from their personal archives and experiences. This session will map the individual journeys of members of the group in creating and engaging with politicised and anti racist artworks as a prompt for wider discussion with those present.
WOCI Reading Group
The Women of Colour Index (WOCI) Reading Group was set up in October 2016 by artists, Samia Malik, Michelle Williams Gamaker and Rehana Zaman. The WOCI Reading Group aims to improve visibility for women of colour artists whilst using archive material to generate discussion and practice around current social and political concerns.
The reading group meets on a monthly basis to discuss work within the Women of Colour Index (WOCI); a unique collection of slides and papers collated by artist Rita Keegan that chart the emergence of Women of Colour artists during the ‘critical decades’ of 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 discussion, thought and practice around current social and political concerns. All people of all backgrounds, genders, sexualities, disabilities, religions and race are welcome.
For tickets please visit: https://billetto.co.uk/e/eating-at-the-same-table-presents-phantasy-art-school-tickets-307927
To apply for free tickets please email: community@boldtendencies.com
Full address: Tate Britain, Library & Archive Reading Rooms, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG
Event Date: Friday 28th September 2018
Time: 10.30am – 1.00pm
In these collaborative monthly research sessions at Tate, the WOCI Reading Group will draw upon the Panchayat Special Collection during its anniversary year; collectively exploring and highlighting the unique material within this vital collection of rare publications and exhibition ephemera from the 1980s.
Workshop reading text:
“The Content
The overriding aim of this course was to put the girls at ease with their bodies and the changes they were undergoing. To get the girls used to the discussion environment we started with a less personal/threatening area. We encouraged them to look at similarities and differences amongst themselves, e.g. shape, colour, height etc. We followed this upon the next session by looking at the changes their bodies have undergone since they were born e.g. growth, spots, bodily hair etc. We had asked them to bring in baby photos of themselves to help facilitate a comparison. This put the sessions that were to follow into context: We were going to look look at specific changes, making clear that they were perfectly normal and necessary.” GEN, an anti-sexist education magazine, women’s education group.
* photocopies of the extended version of this text will be available during the session.
Panchayat Special Collection
Panchayat was co-founded by Shaheen Merali and Allan de Souza in 1988, after consultation with artists Bhajan Hunjan, Symrath Patti, and Shanti Thomas. Panchayat was first organised by its co-founders as a project based arts organisation whose focus was to create an archive of works by contemporary artists who produced issue-based work, often in relation to developing and addressing plurality in multicultural environments. As Panchayat developed it was involved in publishing, curating exhibitions, programming conferences, and workshops.
The Panchayat Collection consists of documentation and reference library material relating to the cultural activities and activism predominantly in Britain, mainland Europe, North America and SE Asia between the 1980s and 2003. The Panchayat archive’s collecting strategy focused on the growing interactions within a globalising artworld of Black and Asian artists, as well documenting their commitment to the intersection between race, class, gender, policed sexualities, and (dis)ability. Dr Janice Cheddie and Shaheen Merali were keepers of the Panchayat Archive at the University of Westminster 2002 -2015 and remain central to its future development.
In May 2015 the contents of the collection were donated to the Tate Library as part of its Special Collection and since then has attracted researchers from both the arts and the humanities, including newer audiences that are interested in diasporic connections, Black and Asian British artists 1988- 2003, curatorial practices that emerged in the late eighties and in the role of women of colour in the visual arts and education.
Symrath Patti
Symrath Patti is an artist based in London and also one of the founders of Panchayat Archive. She currently has a studio with ACAVA in Shepherds Bush. Her work is installation based and explores the site of the female body as a deconstructive process. 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. She was also advisor for Greater London Arts and Campaign Organisations such as Southall Monitoring Group. More recently she exhibited at Kingsway Corridor at Goldsmiths University and making new work exploring Asian Patriarchy/Matriarchy in the Punjabi language.
WOCI Reading Group
The Women of Colour Index (WOCI) Reading Group was set up in October 2016 by artists, Samia Malik, Michelle Williams Gamaker and Rehana Zaman. The WOCI Reading Group aims to improve visibility for women of colour artists whilst using archive material to generate discussion and practice around current social and political concerns.
The reading group meets on a monthly basis to discuss work within the Women of Colour Index (WOCI); a unique collection of slides and papers collated by artist Rita Keegan that chart the emergence of Women of Colour artists during the ‘critical decades’ of 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 discussion, thought and practice around current social and political concerns. All people of all backgrounds, genders, sexualities, disabilities, religions and race are welcome.
To book tickets please visit Tate Webpage: http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/talk/women-colour-index-reading-group
Join the Women of Colour Index (WOCI) Reading Group in exploring, activating and indexing representations of cultural identity within the Panchayat Special Collection at Tate, Session 4
Full address: Tate Britain, Library & Archive Reading Rooms, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG
Event Date: Friday 31st August 2018
Time: 10.30am – 1.00pm
In these collaborative monthly research sessions at Tate, the WOCI Reading Group will draw upon the Panchayat Special Collection during its anniversary year; collectively exploring and highlighting the unique material within this vital collection of rare publications and exhibition ephemera from the 1980s.
Workshop reading text:
‘(A) A perspective emphasising mainly Assimilation
This perspective has four main features:
(i) A belief that race relations in Britain are by and large good, that it is counter-productive to try to improve them too fast, and that problems are only caused by extreme right wing groups.
(ii) A belief that curricula of educational establishments should reflect at all times British traditions, history, customs and culture.
(iii) A belief that ‘children are all children’, and that teachers should pay as little attention as possible to racial and cultural differences amongst their pupils/ students, or to racism in education and society at large – the ‘colour blind’ approach.
(iv) A belief that black people, before they can possibly learn anything else or be integrated into the mainstream of the education system, need to learn to speak and write correct English.’
ILEA, Inner London Educational Authority. Race, Sex and Class, 2. Multi Ethnic Education in Schools, 1983.
* photocopies of the extended version of this text will be available during the session.
About the Panchayat Special Collection
Panchayat was co-founded by Shaheen Merali and Allan de Souza in 1988, after consultation with artists Bhajan Hunjan, Symrath Patti, and Shanti Thomas. Panchayat was first organised by its co-founders as a project based arts organisation whose focus was to create an archive of works by contemporary artists who produced issue-based work, often in relation to developing and addressing plurality in multicultural environments. As Panchayat developed it was involved in publishing, curating exhibitions, programming conferences, and workshops.
The Panchayat Collection consists of documentation and reference library material relating to the cultural activities and activism predominantly in Britain, mainland Europe, North America and SE Asia between the 1980s and 2003. The Panchayat archive’s collecting strategy focused on the growing interactions within a globalising artworld of Black and Asian artists, as well documenting their commitment to the intersection between race, class, gender, policed sexualities, and (dis)ability. Dr Janice Cheddie and Shaheen Merali were keepers of the Panchayat Archive at the University of Westminster 2002 -2015 and remain central to its future development.
In May 2015 the contents of the collection were donated to the Tate Library as part of its Special Collection and since then has attracted researchers from both the arts and the humanities, including newer audiences that are interested in diasporic connections, Black and Asian British artists 1988- 2003, curatorial practices that emerged in the late eighties and in the role of women of colour in the visual arts and education.
About the WOCI Reading Group
The Women of Colour Index (WOCI) Reading Group was set up in October 2016 by artists, Samia Malik, Michelle Williams Gamaker and Rehana Zaman. The WOCI Reading Group aims to improve visibility for women of colour artists whilst using archive material to generate discussion and practice around current social and political concerns.
The reading group meets on a monthly basis to discuss work within the Women of Colour Index (WOCI); a unique collection of slides and papers collated by artist Rita Keegan that chart the emergence of Women of Colour artists during the ‘critical decades’ of 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 discussion, thought and practice around current social and political concerns. All people of all backgrounds, genders, sexualities, disabilities, religions and race are welcome.
To book tickets please visit Tate Webpage: http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/talk/women-colour-index-reading-group
Full PDF of ILEA, Inner London Educational Authority. Race, Sex and Class, 2. Multi Ethnic Education in Schools, 1983. Race, Sex and Class pp.20-22
Join the WOCI Reading Group in exploring, activating and indexing representations of cultural identity within the Panchayat Special Collection at Tate with Janice Cheddie and Shaheen Merali
Date: Friday 29th June 2018
Time: 10.30am – 1.00pm
Address: Tate Britain, Library & Archive Reading Rooms, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG
The Women of Colour Index (WOCI) Reading Group aims to improve visibility for women of colour artists whilst using material in the library and archive to generate discussion and practice around current social and political concerns.
In these collaborative monthly research sessions at Tate, the WOCI Reading Group will draw upon the Panchayat Special Collection during its anniversary year; collectively exploring and highlighting the unique material within this vital collection of rare publications and exhibition ephemera from the 1980s. All people of all backgrounds, genders, sexualities, disabilities, religions and race are welcome.
Workshop Reading Text:
‘We should be concerned to provide an education for girls and boys together, for black and white children together, for children of all social classes together. Experience has demonstrated that a re-examination of educational provision from the point of view of a group of children disadvantaged by it produces a perspective of change and improvement of educational benefit to all the children, including those who are the apparent beneficiaries of the existing system. The current examination system for example does not simply disadvantage the “bottom 40%” it is an ineffective and inadequate method of recording the achievements of the sixty per cent who in some sense survive within it. It is not simply educationally undesirable that attitudes and values of educational institutions should be based on assumptions of differential provision in relation to gender, class or ethnic origin; the quality of the education itself suffers too’.
ilea (Inner London Education Authority) Race, Sex and Class, 1. Achievement in Schools, 1983
About the Panchayat Special Collection
Panchayat was co-founded by Shaheen Merali and Allan de Souza in 1988, after consultation with artists Bhajan Hunjan, Symrath Patti, and Shanti Thomas. Panchayat was first organised by its co-founders as a project based arts organisation whose focus was to create an archive of works by contemporary artists who produced issue-based work, often in relation to developing and addressing plurality in multicultural environments. As Panchayat developed it was involved in publishing, curating exhibitions, programming conferences, and workshops.
The Panchayat Collection consists of documentation and reference library material relating to the cultural activities and activism predominantly in Britain, mainland Europe, North America and SE Asia between the 1980s and 2003. The Panchayat archive’s collecting strategy focused on the growing interactions within a globalising art world of Black and Asian artists, as well documenting their commitment to the intersection between race, class, gender, policed sexualities, and (dis)ability. Dr Janice Cheddie and Shaheen Merali were keepers of the Panchayat Archive at the University of Westminster 2002 -2015 and remain central to its future development.
In May 2015 the contents of the collection were donated to the Tate Library as part of its Special Collection and since then has attracted researchers from both the arts and the humanities, including newer audiences that are interested in diasporic connections, Black and Asian British artists 1988- 2003, curatorial practices that emerged in the late eighties and in the role of women of colour in the visual arts and education.
Janice Cheddie was born in St. Lucia, West Indies and arrived in the UK with her mother and older brother in the 1960s. She is a London based researcher, writer and consultant who works across academia and cultural policy. She has a PhD in Cultural Studies. Janice Cheddie has published widely on issues of visual culture and difference. Between 2002-2015, she was, with Shaheen Merali, Keeper of the Panchayat Special Collection. She is currently an Associate Lecturer, at University of Greenwich. She was Visiting Senior Lecturer in Art History/Art Education, Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination, University of the West Indies, Cavehill Campus, Barbados (2009-2010). 2005-2009 she was the lead consultant for the Heritage Diversity Task Force, Greater London Authority (GLA), London and associate editor of ‘Embedding Shared Heritage’ GLA, (2009). 2006-2008, she was a core member of the Dress and African Diaspora Network collaboration between Victoria and Albert Museum, University of California, Davis, and Chelsea College of Art, University of the Arts London. Work of the Dress and the African Diaspora network, features in a special edition of Fashion Theory, Berg, 2010. 2000-2005, she was Arts Humanities, Research Council, Research Fellow on ‘Translating the Image’ Cross-Cultural Contemporary Arts’, Goldsmiths College, University of London, led by Professor Irit Rogoff.
Shaheen Merali is a curator and writer, currently based in London, who explores the intersection of art, cultural identity and global histories in his work. Previously, he was a key lecturer at Central Saint Martins School of Art (1995- 2003); a visiting lecturer and researcher at University of Westminster (1997- 2003) and the Head of Department of Exhibition, Film and New Media at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2003-2008) where he curated several exhibitions accompanied by publications, including The Black Atlantic; Dreams and Trauma- Moving images and the Promised Lands; and Re-Imagining Asia, One Thousand years of Separation. Merali was the co-curator of the 6th Gwangju Biennale, Korea (2006) and co-curator of Berlin Heist or the enduring fascination of walled cities for the 4th Mediations Biennale, Posnan, Poland (2014). His recent exhibitions include Refractions, Moving Images on Palestine, P21 Gallery, London; When Violence becomes Decadent, ACC Galerie, Weimar; Speaking from the Heart– The Polemic Sensibility from Iran, Castrum Peregrini, Amsterdam and Fragile Hands- A curatorial essay on stated subjectivities, University of Applied Arts, Vienna. Masterclasses in 2015 include a series of talks on Globalisation at the London School of Contemporary Arts (LCCA) and Collaboration Strategies for the Amsterdam-based collective The State of L3. In 2017, the first of a series of monographs edited by Merali has been released by Isolated Labs (Tavares Strachan) and forthcoming release by Carrots Publishing (JJ XI). His essays have been included in recent publications including, Conflict And Compassion: A Paradox of difference in Contemporary Asian Art Edited by Bashir Makhoul and Alnoor Mitha, HOME Manchester, 2016; The Live Art Almanac Volume Edited by Harriet Curtis, Lois Keidan and Aaron Wright, Oberon Books London; Contemporary Art from the Middle East, Edited by Hamid Keshmirshekan, IB Tauris, 2015; Dissonant Archives, Contemporary Visual Culture and Contested Narratives in the Middle East, Edited by Anthony Downey, I.B.Tauris, 2015; In FLUX, Contemporary Art from Asia, Edited by P.D.Mukherji, N.P.Ahuja, K.Singh, Sage Publications, 2013 and Public Notice 3: Jitish Kallat at the Art Institute of Chicago, ed. by Madhuvanti Ghose. Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago and Yale University Press, 2011.
About the WOCI Reading Group
The Women of Colour Index Reading Group was set up in October 2016 by artists, Samia Malik, Michelle Williams Gamaker and Rehana Zaman. WOCI sessions have focused on seminal exhibitions such as Testimony: Three Black Women Photographers (1986) and The Image Employed: The Use of Narrative in Black art (1987) and artists such as Zarina Bhimji, Martina Attile, Jagjit Chuhan, Sharon Curtis, Nina Edge, Maxine Walker, Sutapa Biswas, Sonia Boyce and Chila Kumari Burman.
The WOCI Reading Group follows keenly in the footsteps of Rita Keegan who compiled the index and Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski, Lauren Craig, Mystique Holloway, Gina Nembhard and Zhi Holloway, who as the formidable art and art research collective X Marks the Spot (XMTS), took the Index as the focus for their residency at the Women’s Art Library in 2012 culminating in the publication Human Endeavour.
To book tickets please visit Tate Webpage: http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/talk/women-colour-index-reading-group
