Project Arts Centre, Cinenova, and aemi present
The second of our events related to our current exhibition, Long time we’ve been working, features a performance by Alice Rekab and a screening of the Sistren Theatre Collective film, Sweet Sugar Rage.
Alice Rekab will present a bilingual reading of new work in response to the Cinenova program at Project Arts Centre. ‘time too-muh-fak-shuhn’ explores questions of agency and legacy through the experiences of two women, one from Ireland and one from Sierra Leone. Bringing together the lives of the artist’s grandmothers in a single narrative performance, the work will intervene in and change Rekab’s installation within the space.
Sweet Sugar Rage follows a popular theatre troupe who use theatrical improvisation as consciousness-raising tools for both rural and urban audiences. Their performances speak to the exploitation of women’s labour in Jamaica’s sugar cane fields and in the domestic space, and share the themes and methods of Sistren’s workshops and theatre in the context of their wider efforts in education, employment rights and community activism. We are delighted to be joined by Cinenova’s Charlotte Procter to introduce the film.
Accessibility
If you require assistance for your visit, please do not hesitate to contact us at access@projectartscentre.ie or call 01 8819 613. You can find the latest information about Project’s accessibility here.
Credits
Image Credits
Grave Side Wish (2022) Alice Rekab. Courtesy of the Artist, Commissioned by Museum Villa Stuck
2022
Sweet Sugar Rage (Sistren Theatre Collective, 1985). Courtesy of Sistren Theatre Collective and
Cinenova Distribution
Biographies
Alice Rekab’s work reflects on a shifting and expansive understanding of family and personal identity. A range of idiosyncratic references emerges through their sculptures and images, which combine hand-made clay objects, found and reclaimed furniture and ornaments, digital collages using their family photographs and writing. These disparate items are drawn together through Rekab’s Irish-Sierra Leonean heritage, as a way of re-forging a distinct family portrait. Their work is collaborative and by inviting, hosting and mentoring other artists Rekab reinforces an attitude of inclusivity and a broad perspective of what it means to be family.
Sistren Theatre Collective, which means ‘sisterhood,’ was founded in 1977 in Kingston, Jamaica by working class women in the social, cultural and political context of Jamaica’s socialist experiment of the 1970s following the first decade of independence. Since 1977, Sistren has used art as a tool for social change for the discussion and analysis of gender-based violence and to provide solutions through organisational networks. The founding members included Vivette Lewis, Cerene Stephenson, Lana Finikin, Afolashade (then Pauline Crawford), Beverley Hanson, Jasmine Smith, Lorna Burrell Haslam, Beverley Elliot, Jerline Todd, Lillian Foster, May Thompson, Rebecca Knowles and Barbara Gayle. Assisted by the actor and director Honor Ford-Smith, the Collective was forged through a government initiative to improve employment in Jamaica’s poorest communities. Plays like Downpression Get A Blow (1977), Bellywoman Bangarang (1978), Nana Yah (1980), QPH (1981) and Domestik (1982) along with community drama workshops, presaged the documentary Sweet Sugar Rage in 1985.
Charlotte Procter is collection & archive director at LUX, the UK’s most significant collection of artists’ moving image. In 2013 she joined the Cinenova Working Group, a volunteer collective formed to preserve and promote the feminist film and video collection Cinenova. She has collaborated on international research, preservation and curatorial projects, most recently at Tate Modern, UK, Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Spain and Anthology Film Archives, New York.
Funding
Project Arts Centre is proudly supported by The Arts Council and Dublin City Council.