Karenjit Sandhu’s gestalt is a new poetry collection shaped by her research into the Panchayat Collection at Tate Library. Founded in London in 1988 by Shaheen Merali and Al-An deSouza with Bhajan Hunjan, Symrath Patti and Shanti Thomas, Panchayat was a pioneering group of artists engaged in artmaking, activism and communal archiving. The Panchayat Collection brings together books, catalogues, magazines, videos, slides and ephemera that reflect this collective history and capture a wide range of artistic, cultural and political experiences, often focusing on race, class, gender, and memory.
In gestalt, Sandhu responds to the Panchayat Collection through visual poetry, drawings, and performance instructions, creating an alternative documentation of its legacy. The book, published by The87press (an Asian, LGBTQIA+, and neurodiverse collective), also features artwork by Panchayat artists Bhajan Hunjan, Permindar Kaur, Rita Keegan, Symrath Patti, and Shanti Thomas.
Sandhu will perform from gestalt, accompanied by a soundscape composed by Christopher Sarantis. Guest poets Azad Ashim Sharma, Bhanu Kapil, Iain Morrison and Redell Olsen will bring distinct yet connected perspectives: from explorations of diasporic identity and experience to experimental approaches to archives, memory and documentation.
The event will also feature a show and share of materials from the Panchayat Collection, celebrating its 10th anniversary at Tate.
2pm Welcome; Panchayat Collection show and share
3pm Readings: Azad Ashim Sharma, Bhanu Kapil, Iain Morrison, Redell Olsen
4pm Break
4.15pm Talk: Azad Ashim Sharma
4.20pm Live performance: Karenjit Sandhu
Karenjit Sandhu
Karenjit Sandhu is a poet and performance artist. Her publications include gestalt and young girls! (the87press), Poetic Fragments from the Irritating Archive (Guillemot Press), and Baby 19 (Intergraphia). She is a Lecturer in Art at the University of Reading, and her performances have been staged with institutions including the ICA, Barbican, Arnolfini, Christie’s, and Flat Time House.
Azad Ashim Sharma
Azad Ashim Sharma is the director of the87press and serves as poetry editor at Philosophy and Global Affairs and the CLR James Journal; he is also the commissioning editor of The Hythe Review. He is the author of three poetry collections, most recently, Boiled Owls (Nightboat Books, 2024) which was shortlisted for the Jhalak Poetry Prize. His second collection Ergastulum: Vignettes of Lost Time (Broken Sleep Books, 2022) was the recipient of the Caribbean Philosophical Association’s Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista Outstanding Book Award.
Bhanu Kapil
Bhanu Kapil is an Extraordinary Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge. She has been awarded a Windham-Campbell Prize from Yale University and a Cholomondeley Award from the Society of Authors, both for poetry. Her most recent book of poetry, How To Wash A Heart (Pavillion Poetry) won the TS Eliot Prize. Her newest book, Autobiography of a Performance, is co-authored with Blue Pieta and published by the87press.
Iain Morrison
Iain Morrison is a poet based in Edinburgh, where he is part of Fruitmarket’s curatorial team. His I’m a Pretty Circler was shortlisted for the Saltire Prizes in 2019, and his Moving Gallery Notes, accompanied by a film installation, was published by John Hansard Gallery in 2018.
Redell Olsen
Redell Olsen makes work across poetry, bookworks, visual and performance texts. Her poetry collections include Film Poems (Les Figues, 2014), Punk Faun: a bar rock pastel (Subpress, 2012) and Secure Portable Space (Reality Street, 2004). She is Professor of Poetry and Poetics at Royal Holloway, University of London.
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