ICF’S DIASPORA PAVILION 2: LONDON
presented in partnership with Block 336

10th March – 10th June 2023
Thursday – Sunday, 12 – 5pm

Block 336 is pleased to present, Diaspora Pavilion 2: London , in partnership with ICF who are currently in residence at the gallery. In this iteration of DP2: London, we are showing two new, site-specific, solo installations by artists Sonia E. Barrett and Kashif Nadim Chaudry.

The exhibition will be the final presentation in a series of peripatetic events culminating in ICF’s Diaspora Pavilion 2 (DP2) project. This trans-national, collaborative project advances ICF’s engagement with diaspora as a critical concept following the first Diaspora Pavilion during the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017. DP2 interrogates and complicates the term diaspora across various curatorial formats as part of an ongoing mapping of the rich and complex material cultures, mythologies, alternative histories and re-imagined landscapes that are born from the distinct and yet shared reality of belonging to a diaspora.

For the exhibition, Sonia E. Barrett will present Here Tell, Quantum Black, which consists of a new sculptural installation and moving image work addressing the material histories of flint, the black sedimentary rock used in Britain to construct tools, property and weaponry.

For his installation Char Bagh, Kashif Nadim Chaudry brings together new and existing sculptural works to stage his first solo presentation in London. Spanning over ten years of his practice, these works showcase Chaudry’s long-term engagement with the colourful and sensual fabrics of South Asia, as well as his fascination with embellishment, adornment and decoration.

Image: Kashif Nadim Chaudry, Char Bagh (2023), ICF’s Diaspora Pavilion 2: 2023, Block 336, installation view

Following the success of ICF’s DIASPORA PAVILION 2: LONDON presented in partnership with Block 336 in 2022, we are delighted to announce that ICF and Block 336 are extending their collaboration. We have invited ICF to participate in a year-long curatorial residency at the gallery that will take place from December 2022 – 2023.

Whilst in residence at Block 336, ICF will present a programme of exhibitions, workshops and events that dialogue with their wider programme and ongoing exploration of diaspora as a critical framework through which they address and complicate public discourse and critical issues. ICF will use this time to nurture meaningful engagements with Brixton communities and local partners over a sustained time, as well as create more opportunities for artists and curators to gather, experiment and share work.

Image: genre pain -ting ; An Ode to Brixton by Andrew Pierre Hart, 2022. Part of: ICF’s DIASPORA PAVILION 2: LONDON presented in partnership with BLOCK 336

Spekyng Rybawdy | Melanie Jackson

In May 2022, Block preseneted, Spekyng Rybawdy, the most ambitious incarnation of Melanie Jackson’s ongoing project of the same name that explores the transgressive narratives and explicit symbolism of Medieval pilgrim bawdy badges. Through a carnival of colourful, erotically charged characters, Spekyng Rybawdy encouraged a re-examination of our ideas about who took part in the production and circulation of imagery in the medieval period – but also how this might enable us to reconsider the origins of dissenting representations, sexual politics and our attitudes and behaviours today.