Page 6 - Dimple B Shah - Presentation-2019_Neat

A Laboratory for Survival

“…seeking a now that can breed
futures” – Audre Lorde*

The current social and political conditions have the ability to
undermine our resolve and break our spirit. A makeshift
laboratory is presented here as a site for self-reflection and
care. Artists Cole Ndelu and Dimple B Shah arrive in
Wakefield as artistic explorers from afar, they bring with
them experimental approaches and metaphysical ideas that
may help us.

Ndelu addresses intimacy and close personal relations
through photography. She works with layers of materiality
and extends the photographic plane beyond its two
dimensions. Her work suggests a re(dis)covery of the self in
light of disembodiment brought about by our social and
online personas. Shah offers techniques and rituals through
nature, materials and alchemy. Processes of healing and
self-care can be meditated upon through her responses to
Wakefield’s surroundings and through processes carried out
in the Art House’s printmaking workshop. Her work is finally
realised in this lab, and during performances where she
takes shamanistic form offering public consultations on self-
preservation.

*Audre Lorde, A Litany for Survival, 1978.

Cuated by Sunil Shah