Bridging histories, a Conversation between Hanahiva Rose & Ben Lignel
December 21, 2021
In January 2019, following the success of its jewellery-mentoring platform, HANDSHAKE Project launched a pilot craft writers’ programme, running from January 2020 to December 2021, and selected curator Hanahiva Rose and writer Elle Loui August as its inaugural participants.
Originally designed to nurture the writing skills of craft and art professionals through a series of readings and assignments, the Handshake Writing program pivoted within six months of inception towards a coaching model. This was motivated by need – Hanahiva and Elle both came with projects that swallowed the entirety of their working hours – as much as opportunity: given the experience of both participants, it seemed that anchoring our interaction on ambitious, real-life projects was just as useful -and more rewarding- than following a syllabus. The participants were accomplished writers to begin with, and I mostly accompanied them on their ongoing development, and let the nature of their two projects shape our timetable, and exchanges.
These consisted in written feedback on submitted papers and working drafts, one-on-one work sessions, triangular discussions around given texts. Though they leave almost no tangible traces, critical conversations were one of the most rewarding aspect of the program. The work of “thinking together” allowed connections to be made across world representations, and led to extensive sharing of reading references, that together constitute an imaginary library with three imaginary custodians and readers.
The following conversation was recorded a few weeks after the closing of Stars Start Falling, the exhibition dedicated to Teuane Tibbo that became the focus of Hanahiva Rose’s work within the writing program. Our discussions, over the project concluding months, centered exhibition conventions, and how curators have challenged these conventions to contest the bias they carry, but also the role that text could play in providing polyphonic and divergent perspectives on this diasporic painter’s work.
Many thanks to Simon Gennard at the Govett-Brewster for sharing images of Stars Start Falling with me, and to photographer Cheska Brown (@cheska.brown) and art director Tyrone Ohia (@tyrone.ohia) for so generously giving me permission to use their images of This is a Library, and the Stars Start Falling exhibition guide, respectively.
- Ben Lignel