usurp projects
PERFORMANCE - YAKSHINI
Bow Festival - Roman Roadparty
East End of Roman Road, Bow E3 (St Stephens to Cardigan Road).
Sunday 31 July 1-6pm
Poulomi will transform herself into a 21 st century bellowing Yakshini bestowing twisted blessings and encouraging your wishes and desires to be fed to the blissful skies of Bow by magic balloons and music, maybe to be found by someone who could fulfil them.
Behind Closed Doors
A challenging series of lightboxes and installations produced by Asian women who have faced domestic violence, highlighting personal narratives and exploring wider issues of domestic violence and global/state sanctioned violence.
BOOK - 'Red Threads'
This project continues to be developed in exploring the impact of the Terrorism Laws in our society, the new racial/religious stereotypes and phantasms being created about Muslim communities, and the increased surveillance/intimidation of political activists.
EXHIBITION - 'Identity'
Usurp presents a polemical celebration of recent resistance to neo-liberal imperialism in a group exhibition addressing identity covering five artistic disciplines from net graphics, painting, drawing, through to three-dimensional work, and sculpture. Artists will also run workshops for one day, working with the community addressing elements of identity within their practice.
30th August – 9th September 2003
Ecology Pavilion Mile End Park, Grove Road, Bow, London
E3 5TW.
WORKSHOP - 'Terrorizing Identities'
'Terrorizing Identities'
Workshop for young people aged 16-25.
This workshop takes a critical look at various ways both personal and collective identities are constructed and performed on the internet. In particular we shall focus on using the Internet to explore issues around global and local identities and how this has transformed the nature of political and artistic activity in the light of George Bush's 'War on Terror'.
Wednesday 3rd September 2003- Idea Store Bow, London E3 5TW.
Workshop facilitated by Usurp (Poulomi Desai and Simon Underwood)
For more information e-mail: id@usurp.org.uk
PROTEST - Disarm DSEi
SHUT
DOWN DSEi EUROPE’S BIGGEST ARMS FAIR
6-12 September 2003. London Docklands UK
DSEi (Defence Systems Equipment International) is one of the world’s biggest ever trade fairs for guns, bombs, military planes, small arms, mines and tanks will be held at the ExCeL Centre, London Docklands from 9 -12 September 2003.
Over 50 groups are working together to build what are set to be the biggest ever international protests against the arms industry. Thousands of activists will travel to London to take part in a week of protests and resistance aimed at shutting down the fair. Usurp will be working alongside many artists to help make this a truly creative yet radical event.
The protests will also serve as a European focus for anti-WTO protests in solidarity with demonstrators in Cancun, Mexico.
Disarm DSEi is a non-hierarchical umbrella group set up to facilitate discussion between organisations which will be taking part in demonstrations, direct action, vigils and other forms of resistance. For more info on the week of actions visit the website of the Disarm DSEi umbrella group: www.dsei.org
BRANDED
This
web project is part of the outcome of a short residency created by Poulomi
Desai with an award from the Year of the Artist Programme.
The residency, based at Community Premises in South Harrow Middlesex UK, was established to enable an initial interaction between artists and members of the refugee groups based there. It became an intimate discourse between artist, Poulomi Desai, poet Parm Kaur, and three participants relating the experiences on their journey to this country and their future aspirations.
Go to Branded here
CACOPHONY
Cacophony
is an adaptation for the web by Simon Underwood of a live randomly generating
multilayered sound installation by Poulomi Desai which was exhibited at
the Mead Gallery Warwick as part of Fresh Masaala in 2000. The web
version of Cacophony was commisioned by motiroti.
Cacophony motiroti version here