Bold Resilience and Rightful Restoration (KAREN McLEAN)

Guest artist KAREN McLEAN joins Elizabeth Fullerton to chat about her work via Colson Whitehead's 2016 novel 'The Underground Railroad' published by Doubleday. The historical fiction tells of 19th century slaves Cora and Caesar and their attempts to escape to freedom in America's south west.   Starting with her intensely researched art practice, Karen McLean and Elizabeth explore stories of rebellion and suffering amongst individuals and the collective, including female power, body ownership, intergenerational identity, mental illness and a vast knowledge of plants used as a method of resistance. They also delve into the structural legacies created by the sugar, cotton and indigo industries; colonialism, covert operations, syncretic religions, and the rise of the blue devil.   (This episode is co-produced by Jillian Knipe and Elizabeth Fullerton with music by Griffin Knipe and image by Joanna Quinn of Beryl Productions)   KAREN McLEAN instagram karenmclean_art karenmclean.co.uk 'Blue Power' 2021 Block 336 'Ar'n't I A Woman' 2021 Block 336 'The Precariat' 2017 Lewisham Arthouse ARTISTS Anish Kapoor Donald Judd Doris Salcedo El Anatsui Eva Hesse 'Contingent' 1968 Gees Bend Quiltmakers, Alabama Ibrahim Mahama Joseph Beuys Kara Walker Louise Bourgeois Paul Goodwin Sheila Gowda Teresa Margolles Theaster Gates Tracey Emin BOOKS ACTIVISTS THEORISTS Alan Krell 'The Devil's Rope: A Cultural History of Barbed Wire' 2002 Alice Walker 'Everyday Use' 1973 Bell Hooks 'Ain't I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism' 1981 Deborah Grey White 'Ar'n't I A Woman' 1985 Edward Said (Professor of Literature, Columbia University) Emily Zobel Marshall 'Anansi's Journey: A Story of Jamaican Cultural Resistance' 2012 Harriet Tubman, 'Harriet' film 2019 Hilary Beckles 'Natural Rebels' 1989 Homi Bhabha 'Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse' 1984 Jacques Lacan (psychoanalyst) Sojourner Truth (abolotionist, women's rights activist) 'Ain't I A Woman' speech 1851 Toni Morrison 'Beloved' 1987 GALLERIES LOCATIONS RESOURCES Afterprojects, Julie Bentley Birmingham City University Black Cultural Archives, Brixton UK Block 336, Brixton UK Gees Bend Quilting Retreat Goldsmiths University of London UK King's Cross Station, London UK Shakespeare's House, Stratford UK The Gale Plantation, Jamaica, Caribbean The New Art Gallery, Walsall UK The Steamhouse, Birmingham UK Trinidad & Tobago, Caribbean    

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