WOCI (Women of Colour Index) reading group

WOCI (Women of Colour Index) reading group

SAMIA MALIK ACTIVIST/ARTIST/ACADEMIC.

In October 2016 I founded the WOCI Reading Group with Michelle Williams Gamaker and Rehana Zamen. Before I explain the journey of starting the WOCI Reading Group, I will first discuss initial history and background of WOCI. WOCI was collated in early 90’s by artist Rita Keegan, who has a lineage of documentation within her own art practice. WOCI index’s around 120 Afro-Caribbean and Asian diaspora female artists. Index documents art history between 80’s and early 90’s. Many of these female artists explicitly and boldly made artwork fighting against institutional racism, white supremacy and patriarchal structures. WOCI is kept at WAL (Women’s Art Library) currently located at Goldsmiths University. In 2015, X Marks the Spot produced a publication called Human Endeavour, a series of projection displaying slides and artefacts from WOCI. Human Endeavour was an excellent, integral introduction and also functioned as a guide book to work through WOCI.

My initial research with WOCI was followed by an artist residency at Morpeth Secondary school in Bethnal Green, igniting and raising urgent and alarming questions about censorship of Afro-Caribbean and Asian diaspora female artists histories - why have I never been taught about these female artists? Why are these art histories not taught in institutional art education? Where are the artists in the Index? Why are many artists collated in WOCI not alive?

In early 2016, I ran two curatorial projects at WAL, inviting women of colour artist to look at and respond to WOCI. Both artists were hugely inspired by the index but also alarmingly disturbed and concerned about the hidden histories. From these two projects WOCI’s lack of visibility became more evident and the quest to improve WOCI’s visibility became imperative.

Since October 2016, with two other women of colour teachers and artists, Michelle Williams Gamaker and Rehana Zaman, we’ve been organising and facilitating WOCI Reading Group monthly in educational institutions and art galleries. WOCI Reading Group started at WAL, with the aim to make Afro-Caribbean and Asian diaspora art history a compulsory part of the art educational curriculum. WOCI Reading Group also focused on making visible WOCI’s rich and confrontational histories fighting for social justice. Institutional racism is a prevalent problem in art education, hence the censorship and non acknowledgement of black art history is not unexpected. To progress, develop and for more of a humanised civilisation to exist institutional racism needs to be eradicated.

In the past year, through running WOCI Reading Group once a month at Goldsmiths University, during academic year October 2016 - June 2017, we’ve had some excellent feedback. The Reading Group was also referred to by many BA Fine Art students as one of the most important, informative and inspiring parts of their arts education in the past year. Goldsmiths University has invited WOCI Reading Group to run a module, which we continue to work on as a long term plan. In the current academic year we’ve received Chase funding for research, development and support to continue to run reading groups. We will also invite artists from WOCI as guest speakers to the Reading Group, in an attempt to further expand WOCI and women of colour artists.