- Venue
- The Guildhall
- Date
- Tuesday, April 10, 2018
10:30 AM - Address
- 15 St Giles Street, Northampton, NN1 1DE
- Location
- East Midlands
- Organiser
- Dylan Fox
Art in the public sphere denotes discussion and openness, a need to be active, a need to command a space; not just to exist but to live. But when is art not enough? When do we need more?
This symposium, When Art is Not Enough: Activism for the Transgender Community, accompanies Dylan Fox’s solo exhibition A Manipulation of Terms at NN Contemporary Art. The symposium focuses in on the aims of Dylan Fox’s artistic practice by bringing together practitioners from the transgender and queer community to contemplate their individual experiences. The day investigates: what it means to be actively queer today, what needs to be communicated to activate a change in how society views gender and what kind of change that activism strives to achieve. Naturally, this discussion also questions how this activation could be communicated to a wider public, and how techniques of communication can be employed in the public sphere, online, and through the mode of open form.
The exhibition title, A Manipulation of Terms, stems from the overinflated truths within many forms of advertising and signage at British seaside towns. This manipulation, or miscommunication, of facts, is then related back to issues with transgender healthcare; by displacing aspects of seaside iconography, and resituating these in the Midlands, these issues can become relatable to a wider public.
Speaking at this symposium will be Northampton based artist Dylan Fox, London based experimental choreographer Malik Nashad Sharpe, London based artist and performer Liv Wynter, and flying in from Canada Montreal based Youtube activist Chase Ross.
Event Programme:
Registration opens at 10:30, all guests must arrive by 10:50.
Introduction by Catherine Hemelryk, Artistic Director, NN Contemporary 11:00-11:15.
Lecture by Chase Ross 11:15-12:00.
Artist talk by Dylan Fox 12:00-12:45.
Break (guests are free to visit the exhibition and get lunch during this time).
Artist talk by Malik Nashad Sharpe 14:00 -14:45.
Closing panel discussion led by Liv Wynter, with Chase Ross, Dylan Fox and Malik Nashad Sharpe 14:45-15:30.
Closing summary and questions 15:30-16:00
Before purchasing a ticket, if you need any special assistance, wheelchair access or need to be accompanied by a carer please contact the organiser. Unfortunately tickets are only available to purchase online, as we cannot sell any tickets on the door.
Proof of concessions will need to be provided at registration on the day.
About the Speakers:
Chase Ross
www.uppercasechase.com // Instagram // YouTube // Twitter
Chase Ross is a trans activist, speaker, educator, academic, and YouTuber, from Montreal, Canada. He makes videos about: transitioning, safe sex, mental health (how he overcame depression and anxiety by running), videos reviewing prosthetics and other items geared towards transmasculine people. He is currently studying an MA in Sociology at Concordia University. Chase has presented talks in the Utah, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, New York, Montreal and Toronto.
Dylan Fox
www.dylanfox.co.uk // Instagram // Twitter
Through a practice that is largely dialogical and participatory, Fox explores the physical, medical, emotional and social aspects of gender transition; specifically, the frustration felt with inefficient transgender healthcare pathways. His work is hinged on how social constructs effect people, aiming to question and shift these constructs, generating work through social interaction, working with other artists and the public. His participatory pieces are designed to replicate feelings of frustration and lack of control felt through the transition, with a focus on waiting, developing projects where participants endure a similar experience of ambivalence. These works are comprised of, but not limited to, printed matter, found objects, moving image & sound.
Since graduating in 2016 he has been featured in Aesthetica magazine online and holds an award for Best In Show at Free Range in The Old Truman Brewery, London. For the past year he has spent time as an associate artist working with Freee art Collective on Citizen Ship, City Club, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes. He has also partaken in group and solo exhibitions across the UK.
Malik Nashad Sharpe
www.maliknashadsharpe.com // Instagram // Vimeo
Malik Nashad Sharpe makes emotional choreographies that are less like descriptors of themes and more like worlds in themselves. Their work deals primarily with the social imprints and inflexions left on the body, existentialism, the necessity to proliferate pro-Queer and pro-Black aesthetics under neoliberal hegemonies, choreography as an expanded formal proposition, and allostatic load. Originally making work in DIY contexts across New York City (primarily in Brooklyn), their choreography considers aesthetic production and situational politics as radical forms of production. They consider choreography as a tool to suggest ulterior and subversive critiques of an otherwise phobic and unaccommodating world.
They have shown their work widely across the world and in a variety of contexts, in festivals, galleries and performance spaces in the UK and America. They have taught workshops and courses at the University of Illinois (USA), Gibney Dance Centre (USA), Disco Loco at Hackney Showroom (UK), and recently facilitated a Live Art Development Agency (UK) DIY workshop titled THE T R A P LAB.
Liv Wynter
www.livwynterartist.co.uk // Instagram // Twitter
Liv Wynter (Surrey, 1992) is an artist, educator, activist and writer from South London. She graduated from BA Fine Art at Goldsmiths in 2015 and has since become a notable voice within the political art scene. She is Artist in Residence at Tate Britain and Tate Modern on the Education Programme for 2017-18, and Artist Facilitator with Indigo Youth at Hackney Museum August 2017 – March 2018. She recently led a group show at David Roberts Art Foundation (May – July 17), and completed an arts council funded residency at The Royal Standard, Liverpool in 2016. She is a founding member of WHEREISANAMENDIETA and stands in solidarity with Sisters Uncut, London Anti Raids, Action for Trans Health and any other grassroots organisation fighting austerity and oppression. She is also in feminist punk band Militant Girlfriend.
Liv is a queer working class female artist. who through her anarchic and punk exploration of language, live performance, and text based practice, uses unique forms of story telling to create discussions around class, sexuality, gender, recovery from violent relationships and rebuilding yourself post trauma. Liv’s work is socially and politically demanding, holding both herself and her audience accountable. Liv’s work demonstrates a fluidity which allows her to move from established art institutions, to youth clubs, to community centers, to protests, all the way to museums with the same committed conviction. Liv uses emotive language without fear and embraces ideas of hysteria as a subversive way to tackle capitalist and patriarchal ideas of how women/femme people should behave.
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A Manipulation of Terms by Dylan Fox is on view from Saturday 7 April – 16 June 2018 at NN Contemporary Art, Number Nine Guildhall Road, Northampton, NN1 1DP. NN Contemporary is open Wednesday – Saturday, 11.00 – 18.00. Admission free. The exhibition is open specially to coincide with the symposium from 10:00 – 18:00 on Tuesday 10 April 2018.
This project is kindly supported by Arts Council England and NN Contemporary Art.
