Diasporic Creative Exchanges: India – Birmingham

Organised by Craftspace in collaboration with Ikon Gallery and generously supported by the British Council.

Drop in and meet Break the Mould artist in residence Roo Dhissou and artist Shalini Dam in the galleries at Ikon Gallery for activity and engagement drawing on the theme of diaspora, care-based practices and clay as a site of experimentation.

This day of activation draws on Craftspace’s Made in the Middle exhibition which aimed to reflect on how Midlands culture and creativity is influenced, strengthened and enriched by individual and community connections to a global diaspora.

In this context notions of diaspora deploy expansive and pluralistic world views and a sense that collective wellbeing recognises the need for interdependencies, multi-lateral co-operation and shared values.

About the Artists

Artist and researcher Roo Dhissou‘s practice spans sculpture, installation, moving image, craft, and community-engaged collaboration. Rooted in care, cultural context, and integrity, her work challenges dominant narratives and reflects deeply on disability, lived experience, social, environmental and material justice. Through reflective processes and ethical research, Dhissou values relationship-building and intuition, prioritising process over product to create thoughtful, impactful work.

Shalini Dam lives and works in Goa, India where she has her home studio. Dam’s work addresses contradictions and dualities hidden under the surface, communicated directly through her unusual technique which results in lenticular effects. She manipulates the surface of clay to create an optical illusion that animates the surface. As the viewer walks across the work or around it, the image changes, making the viewer’s engagement and interaction integral to the artwork. She is interested in themes of care and connection within communities and hyper-local stories. She has also been exploring film as a medium to record site specific transient and performative clay work.