Striking works of art by women artists from South Asia will go on display in Leeds next month as part of a national programme of events about art, conflict and feminism in the region.
The pioneering and multifaceted programme Between Kismet and Karma: South Asian Women Artists Respond to Conflict includes an exhibition, a symposium, an artist residency series and a film festival. It has been conceived through a curatorial partnership between Fareda Khan, Deputy Director Shisha, the international agency for contemporary South Asian crafts and visual arts and Dr Ananya Kabir, Senior Lecturer in Post Colonial Literature at the University of Leeds and enabled by an Arts and Humanities Research Council Knowledge Transfer Fellowship. Delivered in collaboration with cultural organisations nationally and internationally the programme will run between February and May 2010. For further details visit the Shisha website.
Its aim is to explore how women artists from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka respond to conflict specifically in relation to following themes: Bodies / Cities; Borders / Nation; Artist / Artisan / Activist.
The exhibition opens on Saturday 6th March at Leeds Art Gallery, which coincides with the symposium, ‘Beyond Borders’, which features speakers of national and international repute from the academic, artistic and activist sectors. The internationally acclaimed artist/curator Sutapa Biswas of Chelsea College of Art and Design in London is the keynote speaker.
The artworks displayed in Leeds Art Gallery include pieces by leading and emerging artists Naiza H Khan’s metal corsets and drawings (Pakistan), Anoli Perera’s show-stopping elastic dress installation (Sri Lanka) and Yasmine Kabir’s lyrical video work exploring the environmental degradation in Chittagong’s ship-breaking yard (Bangladesh).
Dr Kabir said: “The art works are visually fantastic and thought-provoking, exploring conflict in the environment, between religion and nationalism and modernity and tradition. Between Kismet and Karma demonstrates how expertise and knowledge both in the form of academic research and contemporary South Asian visual art and curatorial practice can come together regionally and nationally.”
Short and feature films will also be shown at The Cornerhouse in Manchester and art interventions held at London’s Southbank Centre as part of the programme, as well as residencies for artists at Wolverhampton Art Gallery, and the Gasworks in London. An international artistic exchange programme will see artists from Pakistan taking residencies at the Bluecoat in Liverpool and Liverpool Hope University; and artists from the UK taking residencies at Karachi in Pakistan.
The project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Arts Council of England and Association of Greater Manchester Authorities, Leeds Art Gallery. A full programme can be viewed on the Shisha website.
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Image: Anoli Perera, Elastic Dress, 2010. Artist Collection
For more information
AHRC Media Contact: Jake Gilmore, tel: 07970 994586
Notes to editors
Beyond Borders is a symposium that will coincide with the opening of the Between Kismet and Karma: South Asian Women Artists Respond to Conflict exhibition at Leeds Art Gallery, 6th March – 8th May. The symposium and exhibition are part of the wider Between Kismet and Karma programme, which explores how women artists from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka respond to conflict as it operates within different but interconnecting sites: Bodies / Cities; Borders / Nation; Artist / Artisan / Activist. This pioneering and multifaceted programme has been conceived through a curatorial partnership between Shisha, the international agency for contemporary South Asian crafts and visual arts, and the University of Leeds, and enabled by an Arts and Humanities Research Council Knowledge Transfer Fellowship. Taking place nationwide between February and May 2010, it includes the symposium, the exhibition, an artist residency series and film festival.
The symposium, Beyond Borders, will bring together academics, art critics, activists and South Asian artists to debate the themes and concerns that guide the exhibition’s curatorial agenda. Panels will explore the following topics:
• The South Asian woman artist as creative producer and activist, responding to multiple sites of conflict: the city, the nation and the body
• Diasporic South Asian audiences and cultural flows in multiple localities
• The potential of the arts as a means of fostering global and local partnerships across educational, creative and cultural sectors
• The implications of such strategic partnerships for emergent Knowledge Exchange and Impact agendas within the HEI landscape
Selected speakers and panellists from South Asia, USA and the UK include: cutting-edge documentary filmmaker, Paromita Vohra (Bombay); cultural/arts advocate and researcher, Irna Qureshi (Bradford); acclaimed writer Aamer Hussein (London); leading and experimental artists Tayeba Begum Lipi (Dhaka), Naiza H. Khan (Karachi) and Priya Sen (New Delhi); Dr Marta Bolognani, University of Bristol and Professor Kim Knott, Theology and Religious Studies, University of Leeds.
Tickets* (inclusive of lunch):
£40 organisations
£20 individuals
£15 discounted rate (students, unemployed, disabled and senior citizens)
*An additional transaction fee may be charged depending on payment method
Delegates will be invited to a special view of the Between Kismet and Karma exhibition on Saturday 6 March from 5–6pm at Leeds Art Gallery.
For booking enquiries and payments please contact Pippa Kenyon-Leigh, Project Coordinator at Shisha:
Email: pippa@shisha.net Tel: 0161 838 5253
• The 2008 Research Assessment Exercise showed the University of Leeds to be the UK's eighth biggest research powerhouse. The University is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. The University's vision is to secure a place among the world's top 50 by 2015.
• The School of English at the University of Leeds is one of the top-rated departments in the country. Judged 'excellent' in its teaching, and amongst the top 10 English departments in the country for research (RAE2008, GPA 2.95; RAE2001, 5*A). It has a distinguished history. G. Wilson Knight, A. Norman Jeffares and Geoffrey Hill were professors here, and J.R.R. Tolkien was a Reader. Alumni include world-renowned writers Wole Soyinka and Ngugi wa Thiong'o.
• Shisha, the international agency Shisha is the UK’s premier international agency for contemporary South Asian crafts and visual arts. Established in 2001 and based in Manchester, Shisha is at the vanguard of creative practice; programming landmark projects that have pushed boundaries, opened up critical dialogue and challenged perceptions in current artistic, cultural and socio-political discourses. Shisha supports artists and curators of South Asian descent through partnerships which include, programming exhibitions, residencies and educational projects, producing publications and providing professional development and consultancy services.
• Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC): Each year the AHRC provides approximately £102 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes approximately 700 research awards and around 1,350 postgraduate awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.
The AHRC Knowledge Transfer Fellowship Scheme is designed to support academics to undertake a programme of knowledge transfer activity in a flexible way. The knowledge transfer project should be planned around an existing piece of arts or humanities research which has the potential to make a significant difference beyond the world of academia. KT Fellows may work either on their own or as part of an academic team, to collaborate with, and bring tangible benefits to non-academic organisations through a process of knowledge exchange. These benefits may be economic, social or cultural in nature.