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who's gonna clean the mess in/of your garden?

By  n:u (melissandre varin) 2021 - 2022

performance arts

30 minutes

material: black synthetic hair, In Search of Our Mother's Garden by Alice Walker, bin bags

commissioned by: Grand Union, Hettie Judah, Coventry Artspace, Spill Yer Tea

(dis)placing, re-imagining, and harvesting.

Inspired by In Search of Our Mother's Garden by Alice Walker (1972), and the beings (in melissandre’s lineage) who clean(ed) other people's house/work space. This is an invitation to honour invisible work(ers) and the (im)possibility to heal wounds created by systemic subordination.
Photo : black synthetic hair on floor with audiences walking on them or carrying them during performances and workshops in Liverpool, London, Coventry, and Birmingham (GB)

Images credit: Ayesha Jones , Aleksadra Moras, and Jazamin Sinclair, who’s gonna clean the mess in/of your garden?, Coventry Artspace, Grand Union, Spill Yer Tea (GB), 2021, and 2022
Credit: Ayesha Jones, Aleksadra Moras, and Jazamin Sinclair

Credit Mandip Singh Seehra 1756123077 n:u (melissandre varin)

de la boue et des racines

anointment

by n:u (melissandre varin) and Jérémie Priam

Digital Video

duration 08 min 29 second

supported by Oustide In (GB)

Presenting the Caribbean banana trade as a site of desire and displacement, n:u and Jeremie’s audio-visual assemblage spans 4,000 miles. On Martinique (FR), Jeremie’s aunt Lilianne shares her knowledge of growing organic bananas. On the island, toxic pesticides sprayed on banana crops have contaminated the landscape…

Handle with care/ prendre avec soin

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