Diving Into Gender workshop
Adebayo Quadry-Adekanbi May 28, 2023
Diving Into Gender explores the connection between gender and African art from a queering perspective. By acknowledging the historical influences on gender in Africa and taking inspiration from the fluidity of water, we will engage in a session that challenges rigidity and disrupts power structures related to gender norms. Through explorations of selected artworks, such as Tabita Rezaire's 'Ultra Wet – Recapitulation,' and Adeju Thompson’s 'Odu Oseetura', we ask "What can we gain if we park conventional ideas of gender in how we create, read, and analyse contemporary art, and what do we lose? How might gender be as dynamic as water, taking the shape of what it is in?" To capture this fluidity, we will end the workshop with the making of clay vessels to hold the shape of your understanding of gender.
Adebayo Quadry-Adekanbi (he/him) is a Sociology PhD researcher. His research explores the intersectional politics of queer activism and feminism in Nigeria, along with principles of postcolonial and Black queer feminist theory. He analyses the cultural and socio-political dimensions of various subjects, from mainstream pop culture, politics, and art to academic debates.
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This event forms part of Water Laboratory: Experiments in Swimming and Drowning – a space of artistic experimentation and creative ideation that explores the watery disruptions and connections of people of African descent. Curated by Tracian Meikle during the second half of her curatorial residency at the Treehouse, it takes the form of a series of performances, presentations, installations and conversations; with the aim of learning what water does together.
