Exhibition runs in the Winter Gardens / Mann Island Atrium from 12 November - 08 December and is open during building opening hours. Audio description is available from the Open Eye Gallery from 10am – 5pm, Tuesday – Sunday.
Elements of Displacement exhibition for DaDaFest International 2018 brings together two significant art commissions and a performance Rachel Gadsden has artistically directed during the last 18 months in Palestine, UK, Germany and Jordan.
Finding hope across borders It was Paradise is a collaborative art project created by British and Palestinian disabled artists addressing migration, asylum, disability and bereavement. It also explores the cross-cultural collaboration between artists located in London, Liverpool and the West Bank, inspired by the poem ‘Under Siege’ by Palestinian poet and author Mahmoud Darwish.
Narratives of Displacement project offers new perspectives on Muslim marriages by placing the experiences and voices of refugee Muslim women in UK, Berlin and Jordan at the centre of the presented artworks. Funded by the Centre for British Research in the Levant and the British Academy, Gadsden has been collaborating with ethnographer Dr Yafa Shanneik who is leading this Birmingham University based project.
The performance All at Sea looks at migration narratives explored with refugees to stimulate powerful evocative responses. Gadsden and composer Freddie Meyers have created a “live” art and music performance featuring Syrian oud player Rihab Azar which expresses the challenges and hopes of diaspora, how individuals survive harrowing migration journeys and also how these experiences authorise future existences and can ultimately bring strength and empower individuals.
Performance is Saturday 17 November at 2pm.
This project is supported by the Liverpool City Council Enhancement Funding.
Artwork credit - Lost at Sea (detail) 2018 Rachel Gadsden
Photo credit - Rachel Gadsden