Manual Labours launch at the Showroom, London
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Manual Labours: The Office(less) Christmas Party
Friday 12 December 2014 6-9pm
The Showroom Gallery, 63 Penfold St, London NW8 8PQ
A call-out to all those freelancers, precariously employed and unemployed...
An invitation to all those with no office party to attend this Christmas...
Join the Manual Labours Office(less) Christmas Party!
At the party we will launch the first Manual Labours Film Club on the theme of The Complaining Body, with a screening of Live Nude Girls, Unite! (2000) directed by Vicky Funari and Julia Query, selected and introduced by artist Rehana Zaman, followed by a discussion, drinks and a Complaints Karaoke.
The event marks the second stage of the practice based research project Manual Labours initiated by Sophie Hope and Jenny Richards exploring physical and emotional relationships to work, and focuses our artistic activity in exploring the complaining body through a series of workshops with complaints teams within the UK. These workshops will inform three new commissions by visual artist Sarah Browne, choreographer Hamish MacPherson and writer Ivor Southwood and a programme of Film Clubs, Reading Groups, exhibitions and published texts developed in partnership with The Showroom, London; In Certain Places, Preston and Movement and Division of Labour, Worcester.
Rehana Zaman is an artist based in London. Her videos and performances take up anecdotes, vignettes and short stories to examine moments of particular socio-political resonance. Narratives are often generated through collaboration with individuals and groups, a process that determines both the subject and structure of the work. Solo commissions include Some Women, Other Women and All the Bittermen (2014) The Tetley gallery, Leeds; What an Artist Dies in Me/Exit the Emperor Nero OUTPOST, Norwich and I, I, I, I and I Studio Voltaire, London (2013). In 2013 Zaman was awarded a Gasworks International Fellowship to take up a residency in Lebanon. She completed her MFA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths and was a LUX Associate Artist 2012/2013.
Live Nude Girls Unite! Directed by Vicky Funari and Julia Query, (2000) 75 Mins
Julia Query, activist, comedian, lesbian and stripper at a club called the Lusty Lady, put in long hours on stage and in the peep booth along with fellow exotic dancers Decadence, Lolita and Octopussy. But when faced with no sick leave, unfair demotions, safety and privacy concerns, and racial discrimination, Query and her co-workers decide to organise and unionise the exotic dancers of the Lusty Lady.
Manual Labours is supported by Arts Council England's Grants for the Arts and Birkbeck University Widening Participation. To keep up to date or contribute to the project please email manual.labours@gmail.com or visit the new website www.manuallabours.co.uk