Women of Colour Index Reading Group Event with Alia Pathan

Women of Colour Index Reading Group Event with Alia Pathan

Join us for the next Women of Colour Index Reading Group with Alia Pathan, Michelle Williams Gamaker, Samia Malik and Rehana Zaman at ASC Gallery exhibiting Alia Pathan’s solo show ‘Fire Rooster'.

Full address: The Chaplin Centre, Taplow House, Thurlow St, London SE17 2DG
Event Date: Monday 18th December 2017
Time: 5pm - 7pm

The Women of Colour Index Reading Group was set up in October 2016 by artists, Samia Malik, Michelle Williams Gamaker and Rehana Zaman. 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, religions and race are welcome

Workshop reading text:

“AP As you walk into the show there’s 3 sound pieces from the White Tiger Project, a research project I started the beginning of this year, looking at second and third generation descendants of East African Indian indentured labourers, that came from India to East Africa which is the same as my heritage. I will at some point open that out to people who left East Africa at the same time (while it was under British colonial rule) and moved to other countries within Africa. But for the moment this archive is focusing on descendants who live in England because for these people they are often 80 - 100 years removed from their ethnic heritage. And the stories are focused on what their lives are like whether they can remember anything or their histories are cut off from them. For them it’s about creating a sense of home and identity for themselves. For example one of the participants says when people ask her where she is from she can’t answer truthfully about her provenance. There seems to be an insistence on provenance especially within contemporary art and in political discussions today…. And if you’re a diaspora… it feels untrue to call one place your home. That’s why this archive opens the show, and instead of a press release - their stories create my context when there isn’t already a context written for me”

Katharine Fry interview with Alia Pathan, Fire Rooster PV, ASC Gallery 17 November 2017, Press Release

Photo credit to Eleni Parousi

W: https://wocireadinggroup.wordpress.com
FB: WOCI Reading group
Twitter: @WOCIReading