Am I not a woman and a sister - a-n The Artists Information Company

Venue: International Slavery Museum
Starts: Friday, November 15, 2019
Ends: Saturday, February 15, 2020
Address: (Third Floor) Merseyside Maritime Museum, Royal Albert Dock, Liverpool, L3 4AQ
Location: North West England
Organiser: The International Slavery Museum

‘Am I not a woman and a sister’ is a new moving image installation by Manchester- based artist Elizabeth Kwant, co-created with female survivors of modern day slavery in partnership with Liverpool charity City Hearts.

The work is the culmination of a year long project researching the archives and collection of the Merseyside Maritime Museum and the International Slavery Museum Liverpool, seeking to better understand the history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and it’s connections to the North West of England – Kwant’s birthplace and the place she calls home.

Through her past work ‘In-Transit‘ – where the artist embodied and retold migrants stories through site specific performances staged across the Mediterranean – Kwant became interested in the therapeutic benefits of theatre for survivors of trauma.

The artist initiated a series of movement workshops in collaboration with British Barbadian Choreographer Magdalen Bartlett Luambia, giving female survivors of modern day slavery tools and agency to create their own performances. These embodied performances were shot progressively in a studio and then on location at Harewood House, built between 1759-1771 for wealthy plantation and slave owner Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood.

Through objects, actions, sound, and repetitive movements, the film reflects upon colonial slavery and its ongoing legacy in modern Britain, raising questions of colonial history and human trafficking today.

Elizabeth Kwant

Elizabeth Kwant is a Manchester based artist, researcher and curator who works in film, photography, print, and installation. Her work investigates contemporary geo-political and social issues; migration, immigration, legacies of colonialism, modern day slavery and the associated concerns of representation. She has, in partnership with local organisations, produced and participated in a number of socially engaged arts projects, with refugees and asylum seekers. Recent projects include Habeas Corpus (2018) a series of screen prints commenting, with playfulness and irony, upon British Immigration Removal Centres. The prints reference vintage travel posters and colours allude to institutional architecture and mass produced furniture found in public buildings while at the same time each records the capacity and number of detainees at each location. The prints have been realised as a series of flags, occupying a physical presence within the space and thereby embodying an act of protest. In-Transit (2017- ongoing) documents a series of site specific performances staged by the artist across the Mediterranean, re-interpreting through movement various migrants stories from those places. Working in partnership with a Manchester based charity, The Boaz Trust, the artist spent time listening to accounts from refugees and asylum seekers, requesting them to re-enact their journeys through movement. These accounts have been re-interpreted and embodied by the artist in the public realm. The performance is meant in part as activism, in part as memorial. Thus far, the artist has performed this work along the primary western migration route in the Mediterranean from Morocco to Spain (Casablanca 2018, Tangier 2018, Algeciras Spain 2017) - across the Straits of Gibraltar - documenting one of the deadliest migration routes in the world. Her current research, Surveying the Land: Legacies of Slavery (2019- 2020) a practice based research project in partnership with The International Slavery Museum Liverpool, was awarded Arts Council funding. The project will realise a new moving image installation co-created with female survivors of modern day slavery, making reference to the historical legacies of the trans- Atlantic slave trade through dance, movement, sound and film. Kwant has exhibited locally and internationally. Selected exhibitions include; Displaced (2019) Travelling Gallery, Scotland, Print: A Catalyst for Social Change (2019) Bury Art Museum, In-Transit (Solo 2018) Canada House Manchester, Radical and Real Film Shorts (2018) HOME Manchester, AIR Gallery (2018) Manchester, Waiting (2018) 35 Chapel Walk Sheffield, In-Transit (2018) Genesis Centre Paris, Across the Seas (2018) Sam Scorer Gallery Lincoln, IWAYA Community Arts Festival (2017) Lagos, Mediterranea (2017) DOK Artist Space, Edinburgh, In Nothing Flat (2017) Mark Devereux Projects, and Framing the Crisis (2017) System Gallery Newcastle. She is the Founder and Curator of Zellij Arts, an artist-led project highlighting the work of emerging artists working trans-nationally across geographic borders from Manchester to the Middle East. Kwant is an associate member of The Castlefield Gallery Manchester.