This update covers some of the fantastic work done by the Cooper Gallery over the past few months.
We start with their ongoing project What I am Reading Now… a monthly digital publication, and critical platform dedicated to celebrating and disseminating current ideas and discussions by invited Black practitioners and practitioners of colour.
December 2024 Issue — Sutapa Biswas
Sutapa Biswas is an Indian-born, internationally known British artist who lives and works in London. Biswas came to prominence in the mid-1980’s when immediately following her graduation from the University of Leeds where she studied fine art, art history and the philosophy of science, her iconic undergraduate painting Housewives with Steak-knives (1983-85) and video Kali (1983-85) were showcased in the landmark ICA, London exhibition The Thin Black Line (1985) curated by artist Lubaina Himid. Kali and related archival material featured in Outside the Circle at Cooper Gallery.
January 2025 Issue — Elaine Mitchener
Elaine Mitchener is a British Afro-Caribbean vocalist, movement artist and composer working between contemporary/experimental new music, free improvisation and visual art. In Dec. 2024 she curated a major performance programme at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh.
She performed live at Cooper Gallery during Sit-in #3 of The Ignorant Art School project in 2023.
Sarah Shin is a writer, researcher, publisher and curator interested in dreams, myth and cosmic speculation. Her recent collaborations include: Bodies of Sound: Becoming a Feminist Ear co-edited with Irene Revell and with Sammy Lee, Mirror, a video game that journeys through a mythical world of correspondences. She is a founder of Silver Press, the feminist publisher, and Spiral House, a new imprint for art, poetry and ways of knowing; Ignota (2018-2024), the creative publishing and curatorial house; and New Suns literary festival at the Barbican Centre.
Sit-in #4 welcomed and engaged over 3560 visitors and participants in total.
An analogue slide show presentation and talk by Dr. Adele Patrick, co-founder of both Women in Profile (WiP) and Glasgow Women’s Library (GWL).
Patrick projected slides from GWL’s collection and discuss self-organised ‘Slide Criticism’ gatherings held in 80s Glasgow in response to the prevailing art institutional pedagogy that erased women’s lives and contributions to art and history formation. She discussed the significance of slides as a form of distribution in contributing to consciousness raising regarding women’s art, women artists and feminism. These gatherings were a precursor to the founding of Women in Profile (WiP) and subsequently Glasgow Women’s Library (GWL).
Inspired by the ethos of collective and self-organised learning that enthuses Black feminist and queer movements, the second of two workshops was facilitated in-person by writer and art historian Aurella Yussuf at CCA Glasgow that offered the participants a supportive environment for peer-to-peer exchange and meaningful, culturally aware feedback on the participants’ works, along with a platform for critical discussions on contemporary art.
A Resourcing Class: Erotics of the Earthworm
A participatory movement-based session exploring how we nourish our creativity, inspired by the digesting and aerating moves of the earthworm led by artist and dancer Rabindranath X Bhose. Bhose asked the participants to explore what ‘moves us’ in the gallery inspired by Audre Lorde’s essay Uses of the Erotic and guided by the movement and processes of the earthworm, enriching the soil they travel through by transporting nutrients on their path through their digestion.
Channelling feminist and queer ‘practices of knowing’ through a constellation of affective memories and critical reflections, Sit-in #4 of the Ignorant Art School culminated in the 12 Hour Acting Up International Symposium on Sat. 1 Feb with collective dance, keynotes, participatory sewing, collective listening, storytelling, in-conversations, performances, roundtables, screenings and street theatre workshop.
The event was successfully delivered by the Cooper Gallery team with support from DJCAD Events Production team.
The symposium featured 27 contributors from US, India, Thailand, Lebanon, Germany, Scotland, and the rest of the UK who work in the fields of activism, contemporary art, literature, social science, performance, theatre, film, HE, and public sector. Highlights include keynotes by Peter Tatchell (Human Rights activist and founding organiser of OutRage!), and Prof. Amelia Jones (American art historian, art theorist), performance reading by Shola von Reinhold (award winning author), a new performance commission by nussatari and in-conversation between Sam Ainsley and DJCAD tutor Erica Eyres amongst others. Over 400 attendees participated the symposium throughout the 12 hours.
