Rehana Zaman: Rubus
Published
Rehana Zaman presents Rubus, a performance that takes up a multi-dimensional conversation on the social currencies and economies of industrial berry farming.
Performance
Time: 12 November 21:45
Venue: Østre, Østre Skostredet 3
Tickets: register in advance with TicketCo for a free ticket valid for entry until 23:00. Tickets at the door are 150 NOK.
Encompassing moving image, sound works and performance, Zaman has invited writers and poets Seán Elder, Nat Raha and Daniella Valz Gen to dialogue with Al Qazwini’s The Wonders of Creation and the Oddities of Existing Things; an influential work of Islamic cosmography from the 12th century. These newly commissioned texts, experienced out loud, alongside fragmented short films, orientate how relationships to land, configured through capital, are subverted and felt. The work emerges from over two years research in the berry growing regions of Scotland involving conversations with farmers, pickers and plant biologists, placed adjacent to the esoteric readings of Al Qazwini. At its heart is a provocation to examine the enduring legacies of Imperialist land use and proprietorship from multinational monopolies on farming practices and plant patents, to the relationship between dispossession in the UK and plantation economies in South Asia.
The film Rubus III, a part of the project, is on display at Østre 10-13 November 12:00-17:00.
Screening (Rubus III)
Time: 10-13 November 12:00–17:00.
Venue: Østre, Østre Skostredet 3
Rehana Zaman
Rehana Zaman is an artist based in London. She works predominantly with moving image to examine how social dynamics are produced and performed. Her work speaks to the entanglement of personal experience and social life, where intimacy is framed against structures of authority. Conversation and cooperative methods sit at the heart of her practice. Recent exhibitions include British Art Show 9 (UK touring), Trinity Square Video, Toronto, Boros International Sculpture Biennial, Sweden and Serpentine Projects, London, UK (forthcoming). Her films have been shown at Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh, Bergen Kunsthall, Norway; Liverpool Biennial 2018, Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018; Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival; Sheffield Doc/Fest; SAVAC, Canada; Oberhausen Film Festival, Germany; Whitechapel, London and Bétonsalon Paris. In 2019 she co-edited Tongues with Taylor Le Melle published by PSS and curated The Range, Eastside Projects, Birmingham. She was shortlisted for the Film London Jarman Award in 2019 and her films are distributed by LUX Artist Moving Image.
Dr Nat Raha
Dr Nat Raha is a poet, and queer / trans* activist-scholar, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her research addresses sexuality and gender, critical theory and Marxism, contemporary poetry and poetics, through creative and critical methods.
Seán Elder
Seán Elder is a curator, researcher and writer from the Scottish Highlands based in Birmingham, UK. They have worked with artists to develop events, writing and exhibitions for organisations including Jerwood Arts (London); BALTIC 39 (Newcastle); Grand Union (Birmingham); LUX Scotland (Glasgow); The Worm (Aberdeen). Previously Associate Curator at Grand Union, and Writer-in-Residence at Cooper Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee, in 2020 their project ‘The Birmingham Critical Film Forum’ was awarded the inaugural Stuart Croft Foundation curatorial award.
Daniella Valz Gen
Daniella Valz Gen is a poet, artist and Tarot card reader. Their work explores the interstices between languages, cultures and value systems with an emphasis on embodiment and ritual, through the mediums of performance, installation, conversation and text. Valz Gen is the author of the poetry collection Subversive Economies (PSS 2018). Their prose has been published in various art and literary journals such as ~lish, SALT. Magazine, PaperWork Magazine and The Happy Hypocrite, among others. They’re currently developing the next stage of their project (be)longing, a series of immersive elemental rituals. Valz Gen has been focusing the last two years on integrating their oracular practice with their art and poetry. They run monthly gatherings exploring poetics in relation to the symbolism of Tarot cards within the container of Sacred Song Tarot.
Image credits: Materials from Rubus and Rubus I courtesy of Rehana Zaman.