SUMMER RESIDENCIES 2016
Uzma Kazi - The Square Chapatti Club
at Gallery II, University of Bradford 11am - 4pm
Monday 13th - Friday 17th June
Monday 20th - Friday 24th June
Specific workshops are on:
Monday 20th June 12:30pm - 2:30pm (mixed)
Thursday 23rd June 12:30pm - 2:30pm (women only)
Thursday 23rd June 5:30pm - 7:30pm (women only)
If you would like to bring a group, please contact me for specific arrangements. Some aprons will be provided for those who like to get stuck in and equally happy to chat with those who don't like to get messy! Gallery II is based in the Chesham Building, which is off Great Horton Road, near the Unique Sports & Lifestyle Centre.
Square Chapatti Club
…Perhaps we need to make a few square chapattis before we get the perfect round ones!?
The Square Chapatti Club is a creative art project, with an emphasis on dialogue, connection and sharing stories of being and becoming.
From Summer 2015, I have been kindly supported by Touchstone Bradford to run pilot sessions, which have enabled Women to come together to share experiences of expressing our individuality amidst the complexities of personal and social interactions. The facilitated sessions have been about offering a safe, open and respectful space to voice for ourselves and listen for others.
“Is there enough salt in it?”….”What happens when there are too many cooks in the kitchen?” are just some of the questions we have been pondering on! It isn’t easy to share stories that are absolutely and personally ours; sometimes they are deep, or of rebellion, or involve the dynamics of our close ones, but what we have felt is that through these expressions there are far more common experiences that connect us and offer exploration of the wider assumed notion of what our ‘womanhood’ is to us today.
Some of the themes we have conversed and shared personal experiences of are:
‘negotiating changing identity’, ‘life transitions’, ‘growth’, ‘meeting challenges and achievements’, ‘cultural matters’, ‘voice’, ‘lived experiences’, ‘faith & spirituality’, ‘roles, responsibilities and duties’, ‘challenging stereotypes’ ‘womanhood’, ‘universal connection’, ‘friendships & relationships’ and wider social issues around poverty, justice, loneliness, education and making change locally.
We chat (dialogue), we laugh (connect), we eat (not the chapattis!) and we make (create) a whole array of ‘alternative’ shaped chapattis, which represent the stories of their individual makers. There are some the shape of animals, bubbles, a shoe, England-shaped, pretending squares, irregular triangles, hearts, leaves and all sorts!
The project hopes to continue to make connections with individuals and groups, families and organisations, exhibition and sharing spaces, locally and in wider communities, too. Sessions have been carried out in women only and mixed groups.
From 13th – 24th June 2016, 11am – 4pm (weekdays only), at Gallery II, University of Bradford, I will be visually developing the project, playing with the materials and getting my head around some of the themes that have come out of the sessions. I would like to invite you to join me – let’s have a conversation, let’s make some more square chapattis! There will also be some facilitated sessions – details below – please confirm attendance.
I would like to thank staff at Touchstone Bradford, Two28, Wur Bradford, Bradford Council and Gallery II who have supported the project in its initial phase. This residency activity is part of University of Bradford’s research and development for a Centre for Socially Applied Arts, supported by Arts Council England.