Whose Histories: Artist talk and family archives workshop | Sine Screen

Event schedule:

11:00 - 13:00 | Family archives workshop (led by Emily Beswick)

14:00 - 16:00 | Artist talk (Margarita Galandina, Mehmil Nadeem, Clare Chun-yu Liu)

Date: 23 November 2024

Venue: Museum of the Home, 136 Kingsland Rd, London E2 8EA

Family photographs do not just tell stories about families, but also communities. They are valuable sources of information, especially for diaspora histories that are often absent from museums and archives. This 2-part event brings together the works of researchers and artists whose inventive use of family archives in their practice opened up alternative histories and de-colonial ways of seeing.

Margarita Galandina reinterprets her Buryad-Mongol heritage through performing and re-staging family albums and anthropological photographs of indigenous Syberians. Clare Chun-yu Liu’s artist films create imagined dialogues where her own family history intersects with the wider histories of chinoiserie to explore diasporic Chineseness. The playful collage of family photos in Mehmil Nadeem’s kinetic photo-sculptures and ceramics drew attention to the unreliability of memories while echoing Pakistan’s colonial history.

The artist talk will be preceded by a creative weaving workshop led by Emily Bewsick to explore the common themes amongst our family photographs. Together we will make weaving works inspired by Vietnamese American Artist Dinh Q. Lê, and reflect on the common threads that make up our collective histories.

Please note that as spaces are limited for the workshop, you will need to book a separate Pay What You Can ticket to attend the session.

We particularly welcome attendees who identify with diasporic communities. Participants will be invited to bring along their own materials (more information to follow upon successful booking).

Biography

Emily Beswick is a PhD researcher based at the University of Liverpool and Tate Liverpool. Her research investigates photographs of the Chinese and East and South East Asian communities in Liverpool. She is a trustee of Kakilang.

Margarita Galandina is a multidisciplinary artist and researcher from Siberia, currently based in London. She was raised in the Republic of Buryatia and maintains a strong connection with her homeland. She studied ballet and academic drawing in her early years before moving to the UK in 2017. Galandina holds a BA in Fashion Communication and Promotion from Central Saint Martins and an MA in Photography from the London College of Communication. Her work is deeply influenced by Indigenous Siberian heritage, particularly Buryat-Mongolian, and delves into themes of memory, indigenisation, migration, and cultural identity in postcolonial spaces. She has been recognised with several awards and has exhibited her work internationally. 

https://margaritagalandina.com

@mgalandina

Mehmil Nadeem is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in London. She’s the recipient of Bloomberg’s New Contemporaries 2022 and exhibited at Ferens Art Gallery and South London Gallery as a part of the touring exhibition. She is the recipient of the Bridget Riley Artist Development Programe supported by the Bridget Riley Foundation and Arts Council England. Her practice revolves around questioning the archive of memory and constructing identity in various ways in the wake of globalisation. Using film collaging, photography, familial objects, and traditions, she explores cross-cultural heritages and the creation of a hybrid identity that evokes questions about ideas of home, community, care and migration.

https://www.mehmilnadeem.com

@mehmil.nadeem

Clare Chun-yu Liu is a UK-based Taiwanese artist filmmaker and researcher. Clare is Research Fellow at Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and was Vice-Chancellor PhD Scholar at Manchester School of Art. She explores the Chinese diaspora, fluid identity and re-interpreting chinoiserie from a postcolonial perspective. Her films have been screened/exhibited internationally, including at the ICA London, Oxford University, EXiS, Image Forum Festival, Kasseler Dokfest, Taipei International Video Art Exhibition, Goethe Institut Lisbon and Ming sheng Art Museum Beijing. Her films are in collections at VIDEOTAGE Media Art Collection in Hong Kong and Asian Film Archive in Singapore.

https://www.chunyuliu.com

@clarechunyuliu

Vulnerable Histories

The event is part of Vulnerable Histories presented by Sine Screen, a series of screenings, artist talks and critical workshops exploring the entangled histories of East & Southeast Asia and beyond. The programme will be running from October 2024 to May 2025. Find out more.

Vulnerable Histories is generously supported by Arts Council England.

About Us

Sine Screen is a female-led emerging screening collective dedicated to showing curated programmes of independent cinema and moving image works from across East & Southeast Asia.

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