Kaleidoscope Network: Soft Boundaries, Hard Walls

In this online talk ‘Soft Borders, Hard Walls’, Deeqa Ismail will explore how her artistic practice connects with family archives, particularly through materiality and sound, to create sonic worlds that extend beyond time and space. She will consider what diversity in spaces looks like for emerging artists beyond the performative and institutional framework. Drawing on her experience as a Somali-British artist and curator from London, now living in the North West. In this conversation, she will interrogate the gap between institutional claims of inclusion and the realities faced by emerging artists navigating hybrid cultural identities.

Her work in galleries has included developing exhibitions and public programmes at Tank Gallery in South London, KALEID Editions in East London and Agora Collective in Berlin, Germany. Currently doing a practice-based research degree at Manchester School of Art and Design.