…queering the idea of disabled labour…
We are delighted to be joined by artist and weaver Raisa Kabir for Special School on 20 April at 7:00pm. Raisa will discuss alternative weaving practices that can inform an embodied understanding of labour, queerness, disability and collective trauma.
Following this introductory talk, Raisa will lead a loom making workshop, producing a simple but functional loom, using clay (materials will be provided to participants, see details below).
By making her own looms with others, Raisa’s explores how colonial forms of textile production exclude the labour of disabled and queer people, and how we may reclaim these stories.
This event is split into two sections, with 30 tickets available for the talk and 12 for the talk and workshop. Workshop bookings must be completed a week in advance (bookings now closed for the workshop) and if you book a workshop ticket, Outburst will send you a package that will include the clay needed to make the looms.
The workshop is open to all disabled and non-disabled people. Please let us know about your access needs in advance.
Raisa Kabir:
Raisa Kabir is an interdisciplinary artist and weaver, who utilises woven text/textiles, sound, video and performance to materialise concepts concerning the cultural politics of cloth, labour and embodied geographies. Her (un)weaving performances comment on power, production, disability and the body as a living archive of collective trauma. She has participated in residencies and exhibited work at The Whitworth, The Tetley, Raven Row, Cove Park, Textile Arts Center NYC, and the Center for Craft Creativity and Design U.S. Her research into non mechanical looms, bodies and machines has taken her to Mexico and Bangladesh.
About Special School:
What can moving, making, writing and imagining teach us about disability and queerness?
Special School is a learning programme developed with curator Daniel Bermingham along with queer and crip (sick and disabled) artists and cultural producers. It is for the uninitiated and the curious as well as for those who bring their expertise to their own non-normative bodies.
Special School includes workshops in dance, writing, textiles and worldbuilding by queer crip artists. It is a space for those who are unsure in their bodies; for those who are looking to explore (their) disability and/or queerness through doing together; and a space to testngled in threads and question desire, pleasure and ability.
Image Description: Raisa sits on a pebble beach in a red and white garment. She is adorned in gold jewellery and her legs are tangled in red threads.
