Preview: 6 - 8pm, Friday 14th April 2023

Exhibition Extended: 15th April - 2 June 2023

Open: 12 - 6pm, Wednesday - Saturday. 

 

dUh 

department of Unruly histories is an installation artwork produced by Meera Shakti Osborne and co-curated by Mariam Elnozahy consisting of a collective sonic and material archive built on post-colonial migration stories in London. The work takes on many forms, all emanating from ten audio pieces that document histories of a London that is familiar to many. 

In conjunction with the exhibition on-site at Cubitt, the full-length audio pieces will be available in ten different satellite sites around London for the duration of the exhibition. These sites have been chosen by the contributors.

Meera Shakti Osborne is a resident artist at Arts and Media School Islington, where Cubitt has managed four artists studios since 2018 and which is a key site for Reclaim Islington. Reclaim Islington is a two-year programme which supports Islington communities with lived experience of exclusion to collectively explore their narratives, stories and shared histories. Reclaim Islington is generously supported by Freelands Foundation’s Space to Dream and Art Fund’s Reimagine funds.

 

DUH AUDIO CONTRIBUTERS:

AHHAAHHA, Raju Rage, Jordan B. Minga, Larena Amin, Black Venus, Gayatri Thanki, Swati Patel, B.L, Lamya Sadiq, Angelica Udueni, Black Fly Zine, Buitumelo KM, Veronica A* Amon, Bloom Collective, Idman Abdurahaman, Giselle Richelieu, Lateisha Davine Lovelace-Hanson.

 

BIOS:

Meera Shakti Osborne is an art practitioner and youth worker from north London. Meera’s work focuses on collective healing through creative self-expression. Their practice engages with accessibility and confidence building in both formal education settings and casual encounters. Meera Shakti Osborne is a resident artist at Arts and Media School Islington, where Cubitt has managed four artists studios since 2018 and which is a key site for Reclaim Islington. Reclaim Islington is a two-year programme which supports Islington communities with lived experience of exclusion to collectively explore their narratives, stories and shared histories.

Mariam Elnozahy is a curator, researcher, writer, and close friend of Meera’s. She has curated exhibitions in Cairo and around Europe exploring histories of globalisation, development, and resource extraction. She also works to support artists at various stages of conceptualization and production of artistic works.

AHHAAHHA is a Sylheti writer born in E1, London, UK. AHHAAHHA is actually poor. AHHAAHHA does youth and care work, on the frontlines, in the shadows. AHHAAHHA is in the process of centering queerness and transness in everything. 

Raju Rage is proactive about using art, education and activism to forge creative survival. Born in Kenya, raised in London and living/working beyond. In the department of Unruly histories, Raju Rage collaborated with Parastou

Jordan B. Minga b.2001 is an artist, poet & tinkerer. He is a South London native growing up in Peckham. Beings diagnosed with autism. He is constantly exercising curiosity. He believes that self understanding  is a good way to understand the world & the people in it with you. 

Larena Amin a 23 year old London-raised poet and artist. Their main interests lie in ancient history, social culture, and emotional processes. 

Black Venus sex worker, martial artist, writer and performer. Venus is interested in how open dialogue and embodied action around the erotic and the sensual can be used as powerful tools in the universal will to freedom. 

Gayatri Thanki arrived in London from Kenya via India in 1970. She was invited to contribute to this project by her daughterMeera Shakti Osborne. - "I’ve lived here for 52 years and I still struggle with the question, where are you from?”  

Swati Patel, born in Kenya and of Indian heritage has lived in London for over 40 years. - "I grapple with who I am as I often get the feeling of being an outsider. I now work for a trade union where to a small extent I feel like I belong."

B.L is a Chinese disabled woman, born in South Africa and living in North London. B.L is a teacher, healer, self-taught artist, writer, practitioner of yoga, qigong and tai chi. Her work is inspired by community, nature, music, movement, language, meditation and dreams.

Lamya Sadiq loves love - she hopes that everything she creates will enable herself and those around her to feel their relation to one another more deeply.

Angelica Udueni, founder of Embracing Difference podcast and a co-founder of adhd babes. Their work is focused on amplifying black, queer and neurodivergent voices. 

BFZ ( Buitomelo KM + Veronica A* Amon)  Black Fly are a collective that centralise the thoughts and feelings of marginalised black and brown people in regard to their sexual health.

Buitumelo KM is an artist, poet and storyteller. they consider themself a futurist by force. they’re currently a member of black fly, a zine and art collective. buitumelo has been been writing short stories, doodles and gossip from the astral planes since childhood.

Veronica A* Amon is a researcher and artist. With a practice centering intimacy, memory and the flexing of time, Amon’s process is rhizomatic and contemplative, continuously making space for new gatherings and ways of making.

Bloom Collective (Idman Abdurahaman + Giselle Richelieu + Lateisha Davine Lovelace-Hanson) is a nature programme dedicated to platforming the experiences and teachings of black female and gender non-conforming nature practitioners whilst also providing safe spaces for black and brown people to be in community with each other and the earth.

Idman Abdurahaman is a black feminist food justice organiser. She is curious about the ways we get into the right relationship with each other and the land.

Giselle Richelieu is a creative channel who finds joy and healing wisdom in nature and community.

Lateisha Davine Lovelace-Hanson (they/b. 1989) is an interdisciplinary artist and social justice practitioner of Jamaican heritage. Lateisha's practice delves into spiritual - bodily - nature relationships as queered creative dreaming spaces.

 

PUBLIC PROGRAMME:

Preview: department of Unruly histories 

6 - 8pm Friday April 14th 2023

Preview evening of dUh at Cubitt featuring poetry readings from Jordan B. Minga, Larena Amin, Lateisha Davine Lovelace-Hanson, Buitemelo KM, a potluck iftaar, and a DJ Set by secret luvvr

 

Collective Walking Tour with Raju Rage

Dalston Curve Garden, 1pm, Saturday 15th April 2023

This walking tour is a collective unarchiving his/her/their stories around Dalston. This tour will expand on the topics discussed in Raju's text and audio pieces: Zines, Scenes, Squats, Anti-racism, Gender Everything and the Kitchen Table on self organised community spaces, gentrification of areas, spaces closing down, disappearances of community kitchens, migrant histories and various foundations for vulnerable people.

Artist, activist, and chef Raju Rage invites other dissidents who have a connection to Dalston to join them on a walk to explore memories of Hackney in the early 2000s or before.

Please register HERE for this event and include your interest, a bit about yourself, and your connection to the themes of the tour. 

 

Muktir Gaan film screening with Lamya Sadiq

Cubitt, 6.30pm, Friday 28th April 2023

Muktir Gaan [Bengali: মুক্তির গানThe Song of Freedom] (1995) directed by Tareque Masud and Catherine Masud. This is a documentary film which explores the impact of cultural identity on the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, where music and song provided a source of inspiration to the freedom fighters and a spiritual bond for the whole emerging nation.

 

The Art of Gathering with Bloom Collective

Wolves Lane Centre, 2 pm, Sunday 7th May 2023

A dreaming space to playfully create and redefine the ways we build and sustain community. In this session we’ll go back to basics: we will play, use our hands, and our voices to create collective memories that live on and make history. The session will take place outside in nature so wear comfortable clothing. Materials, snacks and refreshments will be provided, just come as you are!

Please register HERE for this event: This gathering will be capped at 25 people, with priority to those who have previously been involved with Bloom. 

 

Bodying and Writing into the 5th and 6th Houses with AHHAAHHA

6pm, Thursday 11th May 2023

Disability can create an ambiguous stance on living. This workshop takes an embodied, amateurish and creative approach to exploring this ambiguity through the 5th and 6th houses in astrology. These houses usually denote creativity, pleasure and children (5th) and health, health problems and work (6th).  We will use writing, mark making, drawing and meditation to further our relationships with these areas of life and/or our birth charts, taking inspiration from disability justice movements and astrology to explore and expand notions of care. No prior knowledge of astrology is required but if you are able to come with your birth chart / time of birth, that would enable more personal chart exploration. 

Please register HERE for this event.

 

Black Fly + Black Venus

7pm, Saturday 20th May 2023

dUh presents Black Venus and Black Fly for an evening of pleasure and place exploration. We will be marking the true norths of our sensual selves and allowing ourselves to be held by an unseen storyteller.  

This space is imagined to exist as both workshop and a performance art, we want to make reclamation to felt and imagined geographies, we will use existing archive text to situate ourselves in London, we will make and play with our grounded bodies at the centre with accompanying texts and narratives from artists who’ve called this place home at one point or another. 

Please register HERE for this event. This event will be capped at 15 people.

 

GRAPHIC DESIGN: Lauren-Loïs Duah

 

 

 

PRODUCED WITH: 

Map and Poster Design

Lauren-Loïs Duah is a multi-disciplinary designer of Ghanaian heritage working mainly as an artist, spatial-designer and writer. She graduated with a Master’s in Architecture from the Royal College of Arts in 2022.

Poster Designers

Mohammed Z. Rahman is a British-Bengali designer, painter, zinemaker and illustrator based in London.

José Luis Hernández is a Venezuelan graphic designer and visual artist based in Spain, whose work focuses on experimental typographic design and the development of graphic projects that use a variety of media, both analog and digital.

Rose Nordin is a British-Malay, Indonesian-Dutch artist and graphic designer from London. She explores the publication as a site of exchange and collaboration, print technologies as tools for union and letterforms as modes of magic.

Farah Fayyad is a graphic designer with two very particular interests: Arabic typography/lettering and silkscreen printing. Her work involves a lot of experimentation and play with the Arabic script and bilingual design. 

Firpal Jawanda is an artist and illustrator based in London who draws and abstracts chimeric & mythological scenescapes into plush speculative fictions and fantasies. 

Website Design and Visual Identity

Nancy Naser Al Deen is a Lebanese-Egyptian designer, urban researcher and performer based in Berlin

Website Coding and Animation

Marcus Baker is a coder and developer based in Miami, FL.

Audio Transcription

Sarah Maher (b.1989, Alexandria) is a DJ and writer based in Cairo. Her practice involves performing text, movement, cooking, swimming, crocheting and organising communal events.

Hania Mariam Luthufi a musician, composer and educator currently based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Her recent works include the gathering of folk songs and stories of the eastern and northern coasts of Sri Lanka.

Audio Supervisor

Alex Sushon aka Bok Bok - producer, sound engineer & director of London record labels Night Slugs and AP Life.

DOCUMENTATION: