A landscape image of feet walking on a shiny concrete floor, in a room with bright yellow walls. The floor is covered in braid's of dark hair, that the feet step on and amongst.

A landscape image of a person with dark brown skin and short braided hair reading from a book. The person wears a thick, cream, cable knit sweater and stands in front of a black background.

A landscape image of dark hair piled on a grey concrete floor in front of a dark green wall. To the left of the image, legs clad in slim black trousers and shiny black shoes stand next to the hair.

A landscape image of a group of people sitting around a large, circular table in a space with wide windows partially curtained off by black fabric. The people engage in conversation, and the table is spread with glasses and various objects.

‘Who’s gonna clean the mess in/of your garden?’, workshops by melissandre varin, at Grand Union, November 2022. Image by Ayesha Jones.

‘whos going to clean the mess in/of your garden?’ workshop with melissandre varin, Grand Union, Birmingham. Image by Ayesha Jones, 2022.

melissandre varinWho's gonna clean the mess in/of your garden?

Grand Union5 November 202212pm - 3pm

We are excited to present ‘Who’s gonna clean the mess in/of your garden?’ – a performative workshop by melissandre varin for black and global majority beings taking place at Grand Union gallery on Saturday 5 November, 12-3 pm.

Get your hands dirty with braiding, (dis)placing, shifting, and harvesting. Inspired by ‘In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens’ by Alice Walker (1972), and the beings (in melissandre’s lineage) who clean(ed) other people’s house/working space. This is an invitation to re-imagine, re-model, and re-form worlds into braids.

melissandre varin is an undisciplined artist investigating love, intimacy, and tenderness in collectives/clouds from an Afro and Caribbean diasporic context. Relation, displacement, multiplicity, interdependency, and language emerge from their work.

As there are limited spaces on the workshop, we ask that you please send an expression of interest to info@grand-union.org.uk and we will get back to you in due course.

Lunch will be provided as part of the workshop, please let us know if you have any dietary requirements in your email.

‘Who’s gonna clean the mess in/of your garden?’ forms part of the public programme for ‘We gather and dream of new congregations’, an exhibition by Alberta Whittle.

Images by Ayesha Jones.

Find out more about Alberta Whittle's exhibition here →