WHERE THE RESTLESS OCEANS POUND
23rd September – 7th October 2021
‘Where the restless oceans pound’ is a film programme that explores decolonial approaches to the ocean in order to tenderly renegotiate lost histories and call forth a future of affirmation. The programme takes its name and inspiration from the Audre Lorde poem ‘A Woman Speaks’. It features three short films ‘in the absence of ruins’ by Cairo Clarke, ' নীল. Nil. Nargis. Blue. Bring in the tide with your moon...' by Raisa Kabir, and ‘And The Seas Bring Forth New Lands’ by Ebun Sodipo.
Cairo Clarke ‘in the absence of ruins’ proposes a generative methodology, queering archival practices to “develop different relationships to a past we are currently making and a future also forged by us”. Clarke weaves together a layered narrative in which Pompeian materials – such as the carbonised remains of garlic, onion and lentils, as well as ancient marine shells – offer a starting point to read historical trade routes and geo-cultural exchanges across Europe, Asia and Africa through the lens of her own personal history as a British-born member of a family of Caribbean and Indian heritage
Raisa Kabir’s film uncodes the historical and material connections between Scotland, Bengal and the Caribbean. The work explores the watery languages of matrilineal trauma, and the attempts to find an emotional literacy, unspoken between generations and across diasporas.
Ebun Sodipo makes work for those who will come after: the black trans people of the future. Their sprawling practice, encompassing film, performance, installation, fiction, poetry, and sound, is focused on devising new language with which to imagine and speak about the body, creating new modes of thinking and feeling the past, and filling, in some way, the gaps and breaks of the archive(s) of modernity, all pertinent technologies for those with a subjugated history.
It is also part of Flatpack Festival and the BFI’s Film Feels Hopeful season, and we’re grateful for their support in making it happen.
To book an appointment to view the exhibition email chaosmagicspace@gmail.com.
Events:
Private View & Capoeira Performance
Thursday, 23rd September, 6-9pm
At Chaos Magic
Free
No need to book
Screening and Q&A
Saturday 25th September, 7-8:15pm
At MAC Birmingham - Hexagon Theatre
£10
Booking Essential
https://flatpackfestival.org.uk/event/where-the-restless-oceans-pound?perf_no=1700
Ancestral Waters Workshop
1st October, 8-9:30pm
At Chaos Magic
Free
Booking Essential
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ancestral-waters-workshop-tickets-168933359225
Traditional Chinese families that practiced ancestor worship believed the soul of someone who died consisted of two parts: the po (relating to yin energy and the grave) and the hun (relating to yang energy and ancestral tablets Chinese families would keep in their homes).
According to Chinese folk beliefs, a soul is split when a person dies. Part of it goes to an afterlife to eventually be reborn. The other component of a person’s soul (the hun) remains close to their ancestral tablet, a shrine for ancestors in a traditional Chinese family’s home.
This reflects the belief that ancestors remain among the living to a degree even after they die. Chinese families would worship them accordingly. This involved practices immediately after a family member’s passing, as well as over the years after their death.
In this meditative and creative session of affirmation, Wingshan Smith will lead rituals that will support you to re-root yourself to stories untold or imagined and reconnect yourself to a unique approach to ancestry.
Bring an object that has significance to you and an offering of fruit to the collective shrine.