Roo Dhissou
Artist/researcher Roo Dhissou works with communities, diasporas and her own histories. Using community engaged practice, craft, cooking, performance and installation she explores how communal and individual identities are formed.
Roo has worked with BMAG, New Art Gallery Walsall, Niru Ratnam, The Bluecoat, Tate Liverpool, Primary and internationally in Spain, Canada and Poland. Roo has work in permanent collections including Arts Council Collection. She is interested in DIY culture, care and ethics both in and outside of institutions. She currently runs a publishing press @jalebipress with a publication due to be launched July 2024.
Roo’s practice-led PhD is titled, “Cultural Dysphoria: British South Asian women artists beyond binaries” and is due for completion in May 2025.
Roo Dhissou b. 1992, UK
Studio - Grand Union, Minerva Works, Birmingham
SELECTED SHOWS
please note, the shows and work listed below are not a comprehensive list, please email for a full CV.
Autumn 2023 / Courses for Dis-course(s), Primary - Solo participatory show, Nottingham, UK
April 2023 / Courses for Dis-course(s), GLOAM Gallery - Solo participatory show, Sheffield, UK
October 2022 / Group show - breathe, spirit and life ????????, Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, UK
October 2022 / Conversations from Home, with Gugan Gill, Vivid Projects, Birmingham - Postponed
October 2022 / Summer Show, Eastside Projects, Birmingham
September 2022 - March 2022 / Cotton: labour, land and body, Group Show, showing work for Bharti Parmar - Crafts Council Gallery, London
September 2022 / Art Licks Launch, The Idea of a City, Recent Activity, Birmingham
April 2022 - December 2022 / Our Joy, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, UK
March 2022 / with Sahjan Kooner, ArtCore Gallery, Derby
December 2021 - September 2022 / New Art Gallery Walsall, The Twenty Twenty Collection, Walsall, UK
October 2021 / British Textiles Biennial, Drawings and Research for Kadhi, Solo Show by Bharti Parmar, Blackburn Museum, Blackburn, UK
October 2021 - January 2022 / Coventry Biennial, Hyper-Possible, Coventry and Warwickshire
July - August 2021 / with Jan Agha, Niru Ratnam, London
June 2021 / DOOM, Black Hole Club, Vivid Peojects, Birmingham
May - June 2021 / Traces of Others, Collaboration with melissandre varin and Ryan Christopher, Arcadia Gallery, Coventry
May 2021 / Ikon for Artists, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
September 2020 / MA Final Degree Show, Ikon Gallery Events Room, Birmingham
March 2020 / Aloo Waleh Parathe, Recent Activity, Birmingham
September 2019 / PLAY, Stryx Gallery, Birmingham
August 2019 / Pittu Garam, Stryx Gallery, Birmingham
June 2014 / BA Degree Show, Birmingham School of Art
RESIDENCIES
August 2022 / East Bristol Contemporary
November 2021 - January 2022 / New Midland Group Collaborative Residency with Sahjan Kooner, ArtCore Gallery, Derby
June 2021 - July 2021 / JOYA Arte + Ecologia, Sierra Maria, Almeria, Spain
April 2021 / 12ø Collective, Online Residency, #30works30days, Worldwide Web
April 2021 - May 2021 / DAAJ, Asylum Artists Quarter, Month Long Residency, Wolverhampton, UK
August 2020 / Storytelling with Roo, Stryx Gallery, Month Long Residency online, Birmingham, UK
PUBLICATIONS
Artlicks - The Idea of City / Searching for Sangat / ISSN:2046-9349
Nangal Pend-inc/DarkVillage.stl / Primary / ISBN: 978-1-7397790-0-9
A Very Special Place: Ikon in the 1990s / ISBN: 978-1-9111552-9-4
AWARDS AND ACCOLADES
2022 / AHRC UKRI - M4C Engagement Fund for Gramounce Food Cosmogonies and Expeditions
2022 / BCU PGR Research Development Award
2021 / AHRC UKRI - M4C doctoral funding award
2021 / Arts Council England DYCP Award
2020 / Tate Liverpool Artist Award
2020 / AIS Award An Indian Summer arts festival
2019 / Recipient of the Gertrude Aston Bowater Bequest Award
EDUCATION
2021-25 / PhD Fine Art, Cultural Studies and Critical Race Theory
2019-20 / MA Fine Art, School Of Art, Birmingham City University, UK
2011-14 / Fine Art BA (Hons), School Of Art, Birmingham City University, UK
WORK
May 2022 - Present / Board Trustee, DASH Disability Arts, UK
October 2020 - Present / Board Trustee, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK
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September 2022 - December 2022 / Lecturer in Critical Theory and Contextual Studies, BA 2nd Year, Birmingham School of Art
May 2021 - October 2021 / Studio and Research Assistant to Dr Bharti Parmar
April 2021 - August 2021 / Research Assistant, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK - funded by the Paul Mellon Centre
September 2020 - 2021 / Studio Teaching Assistant (MA), Birmingham School of Art, UK
February 2020 - August 2021 / Information Assistant, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK
July 2013 - February 2020 / Various Managerial, Projects and Store Roles - Lidl GB
MEMBERSHIPS
SAAC - Founder October / 2018 - Present
Blackhole Club, Vivid Projects / May 2021 - Present
EOP - ExtraOrdinary People, Eastside Projects, Birmingham April / 2020 - Present
STEAMhouse - European Regional Development Fund / May 2021 - June 2022