Dates:
1 Jul 2020 - 1 Sep 2020
People:
Alex, Adelaide Bannerman, Valentina Bin, Khaleb Brooks, Season Butler, Ibrahim Cissé, Anisa Daud, Naeem Davis, Claire Doherty, Vidisha Fadescha, Adam Farah, Naima Hassan, Jamila Johnson-Small, Rubiane Maia, Elijah Maja, Jillian Mayer, Aidan Moesby, Gorazd V. Mrevlje, JAŠA Mrevlje-Pollak, Simina Neagu, Tom Nóbrega, Bhavisha Panchia, Andrea Phillips, Marie-Therese Png, Rujunko Pugh, Rory, Jyotsna Siddharth, Leyya Mona Tawil, Françoise Vergès, Dominique White.
Location:
Online
In 2020, during the height of the global pandemic and mandatory isolation, ICF sought to continue contact with and support of its network in myriad ways – one of which was a new strand of activity titled Blue Skies.
Initiated as a conversation series, Blue Skies fostered one-to-one and group conversations led by practitioners working across multiple disciplines on a proposed topic that could take into account the immediate and long-term impact of Covid-19 upon creative practice, personal and/or public life.
If participants also felt it possible, we welcomed speculations and encouraged hearing about identifications of foreseeable changes that they would like to pragmatically cohere – the parameters constituting what those desired changes were or could be, left open for interpretation. In the midst of (and exacerbated by) the Covid-19 lockdown, the world was also confronted with the glaring reality of the inequalities embedded in our societies, which several participants in the conversation series have chosen to address in their analysis of our current moment and possible futures.
Blue Skies commenced with 14 conversations from participants based in Africa, Australia, Europe, India, South America, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, to be published in different audio-visual formats supported with closed captioning and downloadable transcripts between July and September 2020. These conversations form a public, collective dialogue around the capacity for this moment to elicit change.
Khaleb Brooks & Naeem Davis discuss the necessity for creating and nurturing ecologies of knowledge and support for the Black Trans community, with a specific focus on trans masculinity.
Season Butler & Françoise Vergès explore the potentials of truly internationalist, feminist, intersectional solidarities through dialogue and poetry.
Naima Hassan & Anisa Daud present a conversation on workers, wellbeing and care infrastructures in Nairobi and Oxford through an initial dialogue between the authors and 6 conversations with workers in both cities.
Vidisha Fadescha & Jyotsna Siddharth present a conversational album made in India during the pandemic considering what it means to care and have a family, notions around death and fear, the impact of borders and the digital, and expanded ideas of race and caste.
Rubiane Maia & Tom Nóbrega reflect on being unable to get back to their homeland Brazil during the pandemic and try to find some resonance amidst the overwhelming amount of information floating through the virtual space in a new artists film.
Rujunko Pugh & Marie-Therese Png hold a 5-chapter conversation between Sydney and Oxford about Afro-Asian perspectives and solidarities, reflecting on this historical period of Covid-19 and BLM.
Elijah Maja & Ibrahim Cissé invited Dominique White & Adam Farah to hold an open-ended conversation that threaded provocations and questions together to explore current mind-states, strategies and thoughts on care and collectivity.
Jamila Johnson-Small & Giorgia Ohanesian Nardin discuss their research into marginalised forms of knowledge production and strategies for holding space without violence and cringe.
Aidan Moesby & Claire Doherty discuss leadership, change and the significance of context in curating and producing in the UK.
Bhavisha Panchia & Leyya Mona Tawil exchange ideas between Johannesburg and Detroit around the potentials of sonic disruption and noise as response to nationhood, displacement and migration, through a composition of text, audio and video.
JAŠA Mrevlje-Pollak & Gorazd V. Mrevlje are an artist and psychiatrist, a son and father, whose conversation is a reflection on their relationship and recent political events in Slovenia.
Simina Neagu, Valentina Bin & Andrea Phillips speak about methodologies and practices for self-organisation in the UK arts sector, the future of arts education, devaluation, de-professionalisation and rethinking art institutions as community centres.
Alex & Rory are the anonymised names of an artist and researcher who speak about what change is necessary for reshaping the conditions of work and living for disabled and neuro-diverse people.
Jillian Mayer discusses her 2014 video work ‘You’ll Be Okay’ – which became the lead-image for the Blue Skies series – with ICF producer Adelaide Bannerman, reviewing its original intent and it’s reading in the moment of the pandemic.
People:
Alex, Adelaide Bannerman, Valentina Bin, Khaleb Brooks, Season Butler, Ibrahim Cissé, Anisa Daud, Naeem Davis, Claire Doherty, Vidisha Fadescha, Adam Farah, Naima Hassan, Jamila Johnson-Small, Rubiane Maia, Elijah Maja, Jillian Mayer, Aidan Moesby, Gorazd V. Mrevlje, JAŠA Mrevlje-Pollak, Simina Neagu, Tom Nóbrega, Bhavisha Panchia, Andrea Phillips, Marie-Therese Png, Rujunko Pugh, Rory, Jyotsna Siddharth, Leyya Mona Tawil, Françoise Vergès, Dominique White.
In 2020, during the height of the global pandemic and mandatory isolation, ICF sought to continue contact with and support of its network in myriad ways – one of which was a new strand of activity titled Blue Skies.
Initiated as a conversation series, Blue Skies fostered one-to-one and group conversations led by practitioners working across multiple disciplines on a proposed topic that could take into account the immediate and long-term impact of Covid-19 upon creative practice, personal and/or public life.
If participants also felt it possible, we welcomed speculations and encouraged hearing about identifications of foreseeable changes that they would like to pragmatically cohere – the parameters constituting what those desired changes were or could be, left open for interpretation. In the midst of (and exacerbated by) the Covid-19 lockdown, the world was also confronted with the glaring reality of the inequalities embedded in our societies, which several participants in the conversation series have chosen to address in their analysis of our current moment and possible futures.
Blue Skies commenced with 14 conversations from participants based in Africa, Australia, Europe, India, South America, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, to be published in different audio-visual formats supported with closed captioning and downloadable transcripts between July and September 2020. These conversations form a public, collective dialogue around the capacity for this moment to elicit change.
Khaleb Brooks & Naeem Davis discuss the necessity for creating and nurturing ecologies of knowledge and support for the Black Trans community, with a specific focus on trans masculinity.
Season Butler & Françoise Vergès explore the potentials of truly internationalist, feminist, intersectional solidarities through dialogue and poetry.
Naima Hassan & Anisa Daud present a conversation on workers, wellbeing and care infrastructures in Nairobi and Oxford through an initial dialogue between the authors and 6 conversations with workers in both cities.
Vidisha Fadescha & Jyotsna Siddharth present a conversational album made in India during the pandemic considering what it means to care and have a family, notions around death and fear, the impact of borders and the digital, and expanded ideas of race and caste.
Rubiane Maia & Tom Nóbrega reflect on being unable to get back to their homeland Brazil during the pandemic and try to find some resonance amidst the overwhelming amount of information floating through the virtual space in a new artists film.
Rujunko Pugh & Marie-Therese Png hold a 5-chapter conversation between Sydney and Oxford about Afro-Asian perspectives and solidarities, reflecting on this historical period of Covid-19 and BLM.
Elijah Maja & Ibrahim Cissé invited Dominique White & Adam Farah to hold an open-ended conversation that threaded provocations and questions together to explore current mind-states, strategies and thoughts on care and collectivity.
Jamila Johnson-Small & Giorgia Ohanesian Nardin discuss their research into marginalised forms of knowledge production and strategies for holding space without violence and cringe.
Aidan Moesby & Claire Doherty discuss leadership, change and the significance of context in curating and producing in the UK.
Bhavisha Panchia & Leyya Mona Tawil exchange ideas between Johannesburg and Detroit around the potentials of sonic disruption and noise as response to nationhood, displacement and migration, through a composition of text, audio and video.
JAŠA Mrevlje-Pollak & Gorazd V. Mrevlje are an artist and psychiatrist, a son and father, whose conversation is a reflection on their relationship and recent political events in Slovenia.
Simina Neagu, Valentina Bin & Andrea Phillips speak about methodologies and practices for self-organisation in the UK arts sector, the future of arts education, devaluation, de-professionalisation and rethinking art institutions as community centres.
Alex & Rory are the anonymised names of an artist and researcher who speak about what change is necessary for reshaping the conditions of work and living for disabled and neuro-diverse people.
Jillian Mayer discusses her 2014 video work ‘You’ll Be Okay’ – which became the lead-image for the Blue Skies series – with ICF producer Adelaide Bannerman, reviewing its original intent and it’s reading in the moment of the pandemic.
Dates:
1 Jul 2020 - 1 Sep 2020
Location:
Online
