ANTHOLOGIES OF CARE | PREVIEW
It’s a reasonable bet that you’ve heard more about ‘self-care’ in the last few years than at any point before that: neither the term or the concept is new, but varying forces have helped manoeuvre it into a more or less mainstream lexicon. By definition, self-care allows for a personal interpretation, so is perhaps hard to definitively misuse – but, certainly, it’s ripe for exploitation by what is sometimes called the ‘wellness industry’, people and companies who sit quite a distance from the movement as it was first conceived.
Cardiff artist-run group Gentle / Radical, who on Sun 15 Nov host an online afternoon of films, talks and conversations with themes relating to self-care, underline their position by way of a quote from Black activist writer Audre Lorde: “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” Accordingly, the individuals behind Anthologies Of Care – Gentle / Radical’s Rabab Ghazoul, Roseanna Dias and Holly Muse – and the artists and thinkers they’ve enlisted approach it with an activist ethos, analyse it through an intersectional lens and acknowledge that self-care can have particular meaning for people or communities of colour.
The event, broadcast via Zoom, will be split into four ‘chapters’ interspersed with short films and spoken word. In Nenekuş (Meditating With Flowers) [top], Turkish filmmaker Elif Fatima Gorken profiles her grandmother, who since becoming widowed seeks solace in tending to her house of plants; The Baths [below], directed by Anouska Samms and Sofia Pancucci-McQueen, is set in a steam baths in London and eschews a narrative as such, but portrays a zone of relaxation with a multicultural clientele. Bristolian wordsmith Malizah will weigh in with some poetic contributions also.
Of Anthologies Of Care’s longer segments, there’s a discussion between Karen Larbi and Adeola Dewis which uses Six Ways To Overcome Feelings Of Eco Anxiety, an article written by Larbi, as its jumpoff point. Cardiffian community worker Tony Hendrickson speaks to Will Taylor about redressing schisms in our understanding of masculinity and self-care – which is often seen, in the popular imagination at least, as the preserve of women. Zahra Ash-Harper, talking here to Adibah Iqbal, further attempts to refocus the practice as one rooted in combatting oppressive structures. And Mary Anne Roberts (speaking to Ghazoul and Dias) considers how such habits have been passed down through generations, and what the implications might be of intergenerational living becoming less commonplace.
A certain enforced irony, that there are healthier ways of spending a Sunday than looking at a monitor for four and a half hours, has not escaped Gentle / Radical’s notice. Coming at a time where the option of getting together in meatspace to discuss one’s headspace is still just over the horizon, the organisers promise “breaks, moments of reflection, and invitations to step away from our screens and restore ourselves.”
words NOEL GARDNER
Anthologies Of Care, online, Sun 15 Nov. Tickets: £1-£6 (book here). Info: [email protected]
