Unmasking || Remapping was a series of events designed and planned by students from the MA Art History and Curating course at University of Birmingham, responding to our exhibition, ‘Love is Real, and It’s Inside Of My Computer’ by Babeworld x utopian_realism.
Alongside many exciting events; such as a Masked Ball with performances from utopian_realism and Naoibh McNamee; workshops with Babeworld and Bunny Bissoux; an emotional mapping workshop with Lee Mackenzie; and a screening and Q&A with Babeworld and Anne Duffau in collaboration with Flatpack Film Festival, the students commissioned a new publication, produced by The Holodeck.
This publication features new writing by three Birmingham based artists, Roo Dhissou, Bunny Bissoux, and Naoibh McNamee. These short pieces of writing can be read and downloaded below.
Roo Dhissou
Artist/researcher Roo Dhissou works with communities, diasporas and her own histories. Using community engaged practice, craft, cooking, performance and installation she explores how communal and individual identities are formed. Roo has worked with BMAG, New Art Gallery Walsall, The Bluecoat, Tate Liverpool, Primary and internationally in Spain, Canada and Poland.
Bunny Bissoux
Bunny Bissoux is an artist and illustrator currently active as an Artist-in-Residence for Grand Union x Bruntwood. They work in a variety of mediums exploring recurring themes including popular culture, gender, queer identity, consumerism, nostalgia, and obsession. Drawing, collecting, and zine-making are all integral parts of their creative practice.
Naoibh McNamee
Naoibh McNamee’s practice focuses on queer and disabled themes; following their own personal experiences in an attempt to understand and explore their position within the world. Naoibh’s work plays with viewers’ expectations and perceptions of disability and queerness, drawing attention to the very things that other them in society while celebrating the communities they find their home within. The artist’s most recent works have explored their queer, autistic and Brummie-Irish existence, using alien and non-human forms to illustrate their very human experiences.
Unmasking || Remapping was designed to respond to questions of neurodiversity, inclusivity, and accessibility, exploring how cultural institutions can centre neurodiverse accessibility and inclusivity in the arts.
The programme engaged with this question in different ways, both interrogating and modelling how institutional action can foster inclusion and creativity in artistic spaces. The three texts above demonstrate each of the artists exploring their own practices in relation to these ideas, and interrogating how the neurotypical pressure’s of the art world influences their work. These responses are intended as a resource that centre neurodivergent experiences and voices in Birmingham’s art sector.
![a still from ‘Derby Day’. A blurred, out-of-focus image of a football pitch and the stands sits on a plain black background. A caption, written in a white text against the black background reads ‘And they were going to let their old, decrepit gooner, their leader, kill me.]](https://cms.grand-union.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Screenshot-2024-06-04-at-14.21.46.png)