As a follow-on from Diversity Matters Awareness Week, we’re proud to bring you Diversity Matters Exhibit: Art.Music.Film 2nd June – 10th June at University of the Arts London (UAL). Sticking to the theme of diversity “Let’s Talk About Race“, we’ll be showcasing art works, written pieces and short films by UAL students, staff and external practitioners!
Join us for our private view 2nd June displaying art works by UAL students, staff and external practitioners, PLUS a fundraiser supporting charitable projects Art4Change & Pianist without Borders.
Live screen printing from our friends at DFT Printing Studio and live music from pianists Fabio Tedde and wizz kid aka Efe Ikeuseu on the piano (yes – we’re bringing in a piano which will be auctioned to raise money for Pianist without Borders project in Uganda). Come along and support! Food and drink provided.
CLICK HERE to RSVP via our Events Booking page – all welcome! Check out our pre-event videos and photos and don’t forget to “Like” Diversity Matters on Facebook!
Exhibitors:
Melodie Holliday:
Mother Country: “My piece explores the place in which an ethnic group holds a long history or deep cultural association. It poses questions as well as answers and highlights potential conflicts of cultures. Within the British Empire many natives in the colonies, as a result of propoganda came to think of England as the “ Mother Country” However this view was not shared by many in Britain, leading to racial tension as immigration increased. The piece also considers who I am as a human being and also cross references current tensions caused by recent immigration issues presented to us in the News.”- Foundation Course Tutor at LCC
Mariana Gordan:
“One of my landscape paintings from the ‘Twilight ‘ series , depicting a Sunrise instead of a Sunset…after contemplating the vastness of the Universe at night, The Sun brings back the landscape and the ground we stand on. The joy of awakening to appreciating what we have!… The indefatigable African spirit!” – External creative practitioner
Find out more about Mariana Gordan: www.marianagordan.com
Erwin Michalec:
“Diversity and combining seemingly contradictory cultures is visible trademark of all art of Erwin Michalec. His art has mixed media of ethnic influences. Erwin is fascinated with Haitian Voodoo and the connection between Poland and Haiti. Inspiration from Caribbean and African culture has become a signature element in his work, also throughout his his fashion collections. He plays with the idea of combining ancient mechanism with African culture, “What would happen if Leonardo Da Vinci lived in ancient Africa?” he poses and this idea is a subject of art work submitted for the exhibition of Diversity Matters.” External creative practitioner
Find out more: www.erwinmichalec.com
Lucretia Sexcius
“The first piece is titled Endangered Species: consists of a cap and a pair of trainers, covered in hair. The piece is designed to question, Black males are more susceptible to suffer violent deaths. The second piece is titled: Re-positioning Status, and consists of a cloak made from synthetic hair and braids.The idea was to create an object that represented an air of “Reagalness”, whilst also creating a sense of discomfort. The cloak is positioned, faces the the corner, relaying that something is wrong with this notion.”
Nia Hefe Filiogianni:
“In the last year I have been experimenting with different art practices based on feminism. Two months ago I started making illustrations for the first time and the theme was feminism based on my experiences in London the last 10 months. Developing my own approach on feminism, I started addressing cat-calling, street harassment and slut-shaming.
Having faced catcalling, street harassment and slut-shaming in London, I wanted my work to get people closer to a problem that is repeatedly happening. We must spread the message, support each other and give a feeling of empowerment to help us have a voice, raise our hands up and speak up for ourselves. Feminism is the absolute unity, diversity and self-respect.” – MA Communication Design, CSM.
Find out more at: www.niahefefiliogianni.com
Riah Charles:
“My work subtly comments on individuality, a quality often denied to black women through stereotypes. The mirroring image highlights how no-one else can fit into my outline or the same mould.” – BA Fine Art, CSM
Find out more at: www.cargocollective.com/riahjocelyn
Kershaw Lawrence:
“Kershaw’s sacred objects, known as vessels, aim to absorb traditional African and Afro-Caribbean sacred object making practises, reconfiguring these ideals into an individual and yet duelled mode of practice. A practice that is at once his own, and yet reawakens within him a bloodline of mystery and magic. Kershaw’s vessels are objects of ritual output, journeys that unite a duality between two worlds, red (hot) and black (cool), darkness and light, matter and energy. Kershaw is ripped apart by this divide, unable to claim what is real. A vessels production literally binds together this divide to form one reality, Kershaw’s truth. The vessels are made from a sorcerer’s brew of materials (bone, hair, wood, bodily fluids, rusted/junk metals and precious metals, sugar and herbs, etcetera).” – BA Drawing, Wimbledon
Find out more: r-e-d-b-l-a-c-k.com
Roshnee Desai:
Roshnee Desai, a LCC alumna, is a multi-media designer and motion film artist from India. She is currently the Design Lead and Channel Director at Culture Machine. Her work has been featured by BBC Radio, Vogue India, France 5, amongst others.
Find out more: www.roshneedesai.com or email: roshneedesai@gmail.com
Jacqui Ennis Cole:
“Jacqueline Ennis-Cole began her learning journey at UAL Wimbledon in 2015. These drawing meditations are a way of navigating her gaze towards the continent of Africa where she will be holding a participatory art residency with a group of single parent mothers. East Africa the place where she will journey, often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. She would like to share the transformative benefits of drawing and making with groups that would not normally be able to access the resources, time or space to engage.” – MA Drawing, Wimbledon
Julius Reuben:
“Deception is a story of a young woman who was robbed her innocence, youth and her woman hood for sake of a men ritual of love(lust). The whole collection was a journey of finding her self and her worthiness in society of men
I wanted to use a fabulous black woman, as growing up I saw my grandmother, mother and aunties becoming independent strong women. Independent strong women of colour tend to fight many battle and this is why they were my inspiration.
You will see i use a lot of thick fabrics and a few soft fabrics which are african inspired to show the strength of a woman. I used three colours to show the stages of her becoming.” -Julius Reuben, external creative. Photography by Erik Erxon
Find out more at: www.Juliusreuben.com /www.Juliusreuben.co.uk and www.erikerxon.com
Michael Bryan:
“Seaview”: relates to the Africville church which was reconstructed in 2002 as part of an apology to the African Nova Scotian community in Canada. Africville was a town on the outskirts of Halifax and was the dumping ground for the city’s facilities, before it was razed to the ground in the 1970s. The church was the community’s heart and has still stood to this day.
The painting is abstract as the story isn’t well known outside Canada so this is my contribution to widening the debate over representation in the arts. Art subjects no longer need to be “overtly black” for this to happen.
The research into the church formed part of the MEAD application that was as a result of Diversity Matters networking evening.” – MA Fine Art, CSM
Laura Alston:
Waves: The Afrobaby Zine: The first zine of the brand Afrobaby Movement, is a visual fusion of art, natural hair, and hip hop with content spanning from a rapper wordsearch to a hair moisturizer recipe. For more information on what the Afrobaby Movement brand is about. – BA Graphic Design, CSM
Find out more visit: www.Afrobabymovement.com
Christina Marshall:
“A handmade piece of work which is related to the idea of my epileptic condition (mental health condition) and how it affects my personal experiences which can display myself of feeling different, nervous and scared because of this. Within this piece of work I would like people to be more aware of what I am going through and allowing people to see my thoughts and feelings that I feel which can have an effect on who I am. I tend to write handwritten poems to reveal myself more because sometimes I can be incredibly shy to actually speak my voice out as to how I am feeling. This piece will be about A3 size and will be hand stitched with fabrics of words from my poems” – BA Fine Art, Chelsea College of Arts
Hanna Puskarz:
‘Convergence’ explores the topic of race and gender. Me and the team, that I created the shoot with, wanted to go against standard notions about sexualising female gender and also experiment with the position of races within the society. – BA Fashion Photography, LCF
Find out more at www.hannapuskarz.com
Lulu Ishaq:
The collection was part of my graduate work (2015),and explores to what extent does our true individual reality creep through the rigid social structure, expectation and cultural norms? This concept is a culmination of an exploration of the struggle between individuality and conformity, breaking down the illusion of a single identity and embracing the multi-facetted being.
I think this would work hand in hand with the issue of diversity and address what essentially is a complex and highly theoretical issue in a visual manner.
Ange Mukeza:
#Wonderworld series of paintings are created through a collaboration between the artist and the public. The location is always changing making it site specific.. This allows a diverse group of different communities the opportunity to participate and gain an insight into the artist process. The title relates to the site and/or community where each painting was created.
I use distinctive symbols in my paintings repetitively and obsessively. These are made up of 10 individual fragments inspired by the bright and bold patterns of African traditional dress and symbols of the written word from around the world. These fragments represent the elements of the ‘other’, and help the viewer understand that they have now crossed over into a different reality called ‘WonderWorld’
‘WonderWorld’ is a world that I have created to exist as a safe environment for all to escape and just be, whilst enjoying and exploring the beauty around us.
Find out more at: www.ange-mukeza.co.uk
Riccardo Girardi:
Acclaimed Italian artist Riccardo Girardi generously offered to voluntarily redesign a piano which will be sold at auction with all profits going towards Pianist With Borders and Art 4 Change awareness tour to support over 300 orphans in the Ugandan village of Kirowooza in Rakai district (near Masaka District/town).
Riccardo’s philosophy comes from a wide range of experiences that lead him to take difficult decisions in life. Women are a recurring theme, for the majority of people women are an enigma. To Riccardo, they are like an open book. He understands them immediately not without great emotional conflicts, though. His work often deals with social and political themes. He believes in art as a weapon to influence society.
Precision using ballpoint pen and pencil are the simple tools required by Riccardo to create masterpieces of art.
Find out more at: www.ledame.co.uk/riccardo-girardi
Tamika Kawabuchi:
“My work explores art diversity, music, drawing techniques, chemistry and love. It’s a melting pot with Japanese and African influences. Before moving to London I had never had to question diversity. Now it’s all around me.” – External creative practitioner, Foster + Partners
Dorcas Magbadelo & Kai Lutterodt
Kai Lutterodt, founder of Diversity Matters commissioned Dorcas Magbadelo to design illustrations inspired by her “Diversity Matters: Let’s Talk About Race” short film of interviews which was previewed during Diversity Matters Awareness Week 2016. Dorcas Magbadelo is a British-Nigerian creative and founder of Dorcas Creatives; creating thoughtful illustrations based on women of colour.
The images exhibited are characterised loosely on some of the students and staff who shared their views on what diversity means to them, and how it is reflected in the learning environment.
Find out more about Dorcas Creates: http://www.etsy.com/shop/DorcasCreates Find out more about Kai Lutterodt: http://www.diversity-matters.org.uk/about-kai
Performers/Speakers:
Keynote speaker: Stephen Reid – Deputy Vice Chancellor and UAL Race Equality Champion
Travis Alabanza – London-based performance artist @travisalabanza
Fabio Tedde/PianistWithoutBorders – Pianist @PianistWithoutBorders
Efe Ikeuseu – Pianist @EfeIkeuseu
Kai Lutterodt – Art4Change/Diversity Matters @makingkai/@diversitymattersuk
DFT Printing Studios live screen printing for sale with profits going towards fundraiser @DFTPrintingStudios
Supported by University of the Arts London – Teaching and Learning Exchange, GEMS (UAL BAME staff network), SUARTS, DFT Printing Studio, and Dorcas Creates.
Get your FREE tickets!
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And finally, stay tuned for “Diversity Arts Project“; the “apprentice”-style art project with workshops and selling opportunities… Keep any profit earned and the group with the highest earning gets a prize (trip to a design art fair)! 1st July – 15th July (coinciding with Graduates Futures Week) UAL students only. UAL staff and creative industry professional support needed! Email Kai k.lutterodt1@arts.ac.uk or diversitymattersuk@gmail.com if interested!
Diversity Matters 