I had such a strange dream last night... We were all hanging laundry in the garden, and a massive dinosaur was just chilling there, bottle-feeding my grandma some milk in its lap!? Then these sirens went off and it started raining confetti – the whole thing turned into a giant garden-party with ALL our friends
Does it feel cosy?
Curated by Rita Aktay and Ritika Biswas
Exploring what it means to feel at home within and outside of oneself, Does It Feel Cosy? looks at the female body, domestic space and planetary ecologies as sites of anxiety, rumination, and kinship. In holding space for joy and grief to co-exist, this oneiric journey meanders across the emotional and political landscapes of care and crisis, survival and belonging.
By playing with what feminist, socially-engaged, or ecological art might mean, the exhibited works eventually render such categories porous. Women speak to glaciers, household objects become alien, racialised bodies break their silence, and monsters become intimate. Through humour, exaggeration, modification, beautification, and intervention, the works activate curiosity and solidarity, creating infinite portals between lived and imagined worlds.
Bringing together works from the British Council Collection as well as the works of international contemporary artists, we share visions of community, collective survival, and cross-species nurture, especially as the global pandemic continues to unfold its fundamental, unsettling effects.
In assembling this digital exhibition, we considered what it means to curate with care by enabling multiple journeys for each viewer. By clicking on single or multiple emojis, you not only reveal charged and weird interrelations of solidarity across the works, but also filter the intensity of your engagement with these narrative worlds.
Artists (in alphabetical order):
Sharon Aivaliotis, Shirley Baker, Ursula Biemann, Elif Biradlı, Flo Brooks, Chila Kumari Burman, Helen Chadwick, Jayashree Chakravarty, Tacita Dean, Rohini Devasher, Suki Dhanda, Ayçesu Duran, Anna Fox, Lubaina Himid, Siobhan Hapaska, Jun Hasegawa, Sibel Horada, Shirazeh Houshiary, Delaine Le Bas, Clare Leighton, Goshka Macuga, Paula Rego, See Red Women's Workshop, Charlotte Schmitz, Eda Sütunç, Madame Yevonde, Zadie Xa
Curators:
Rita Aktay (b.1997, Istanbul) is a curator based between Istanbul and London. Currently a Curatorial Fellow at the Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, she recently completed an MFA in Curating following a BA in Fine Art and History of Art at Goldsmiths University. In 2019, she curated the exhibition “Ubiquitous Surfaces” as part of her residency with Open Space in Istanbul. After setting up the screening website “Roses, Rocks, Dust and Dances” in 2020, she is currently working on launching an online publishing platform supported by the Arts Council England. She has previously worked for various London based galleries and hosted workshops at the Slade School of Fine Art and Deptford Moving Image Festival.
Ritika Biswas (b. 1995) grew up in Kolkata, India and holds a Liberal Arts degree from Yale-NUS College, Singapore, and an MPhil in Film and Screen Studies from the University of Cambridge. She was, until recently, a curator, and touring and special projects producer at New Art Exchange in the UK. She is currently the Artistic Director for the Busan Sea Art Festival 2021, which will be held this October-November. Her creative and socio-political practice exists at the nexus of deep research, eco-critical play, collaborative kinships, and justice, particularly within the Global South.
