Parallel State
The Parallel State is a breakaway state - a space to collectively imagine alternative solutions to life on earth - free from the oppositional constraints of the failed states in which we live. The Parallel State is building new alliances through a series of events that will lay the foundations for a Parallel State Summit.
Public Art Forum on Friday 6th August
As part of the Public Art Forum, the Parallel State in collaboration with Doncapolitan have invited a number of people to respond to the following provocation:
What Does a Northern Town Look Like in the Parallel State and what happens in it’s public spaces?
All citizens in the Parallel State are equal and not bound by geographical restraints and prejudices. The Parallel State has no geolocation. Without a north:south binary, how will Doncaster’s past inform a reimagined version of itself?
Expect speakers, performances, thoughts from young people, a backroom polling station, crocheting and a temporary tattoo parlour.
Co-curated by Eelyn Lee & Helen Kilby Nelson of the Parallel State together with Olivia Jones of Doncapolitan, a citizen-led publication and movement in Doncaster.
CONTRIBUTORS
![Work in Progress [Birdsong Commission]_edited.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/c6e477_28e15738791942348903c26163a6ba6c~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_180,h_126,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2/Work%20in%20Progress%20%5BBirdsong%20Commission%5D_edited.jpg)
SARAH SMIZZ
ReSurfAcing
‘Smizz’ will reimagine Doncaster in the Parallel state as a place that lives by the ocean. Resurfacing is a story of giving back to one's community and the benefits of exploring: To enthusiastically embrace repeated failure.
Sarah Smizz is an artist, live-illustrator, NHS qualified therapeutic-radiographer, newly elected councillor for Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council and is undertaking a practice-led PhD at Sheffield Hallam University. Her practice is motivated by understanding and questioning care and justice in the systems that we work and live within. She does this by using drawing and socially engaged art methods to establish authentic connections; gain visibility for others; interrogate the spaces within and make information understandable.
Smizz has shown her work at Postmasters Gallery, NYC, Site Gallery, Sheffield, UK and Tate Britain and has been commissioned by the BBC, NHS England, Channel 4, Sports England, The Guardian, TED, and others. She has previously won the National UK Award for Radiotherapist of the Year (2016/17), a Guardian Education Award (2018), the South Yorkshire Regional Impact Award (2020) and is publishing a book with Macmillan Cancer Services (2022).
Twitter: @smizz
Instagram: @smizzlikesyou
BIPOLAR ABDUL
Dear Doncaster...
To mark Doncaster’s Pride Week, Bipolar will read postcards from Doncaster in the Parallel State written by local LGBT+ communities.
Bipolar Abdul is a performance artist and founder of Fluidity - Doncasters only drag group.
CLARE DEVANEY
How Does Doncaster Function as an Economy Without Borders?
Clare will be asking, what does an economic system look and feel like in the Parallel State, when the 3-dimensional boundaries of our spatial and temporal perceptions, their centres, peripheries and polarities are stripped away? What happens to Doncaster’s identity as a Northern Town and to the public spaces within the town when space breaks the fourth wall; when insularity faces outward; when competition is replaced by collaboration; when othering is replaced with holism; when productivity is replaced with purpose, and when the accumulation of (monetary) wealth is replaced with the accumulation of time?
Dr. Clare Devaney is a researcher, strategist, thinker and practitioner whose academic work explores the dynamics of time and place as the foundation for a new organisational system and progressive measure of success. Clare is Strategic Lead for Place and Culture in the North of England, working with the NP11 group of 11 northern Local Enterprise Partnerships and a strategic partnership which brings together Arts Council England, Historic England, Heritage Fund and the Environment Agency. A two-time TEDx speaker, Clare’s professional experience includes roles with the Royal Society of Arts, Tech North, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and FACT, Liverpool.
Twitter: @ClareDevaney
OLIVIA JONES
Representing The Parallel State’s Ministry of Public Opinion
Olivia Jones will present the findings of street and tele canvassing carried out in Doncaster that asked, what would Doncaster look like in the Parallel State?
Olivia Jones is lead organiser of BLM Doncaster and Creative Director of Doncopolitan, a citizen-led journalism movement. As co-curator the Parallel State event, Olivia says,
“... Join the faux political party of the Parallel State that has been created for and by the people of Doncaster. Follow us as we explore the ideals of our hometown, immerse yourself in our interactive polling day installation and engage with our guest speakers as they respond to the idea of Doncaster in the Parallel State…”
Instagram: @doncopolitan
JJ CHAN
JJ will present a series of rhetorical questions around imagining and unimagining the social, economic, and political contexts of the prevailing now. Just over a year ago, Mark Rappolt wrote in Art Review Asia, that the devastating impact of Covid-19 “makes art, and the communities that engage with it, more worthy of preservation than ever”. In a critical response JJ wrote in ArtAsiaPacific: "what’s worth preserving?" "As we start to rebuild our normalities," they continued "we need to ask ourselves what our past normalities had neglected, what they had marginalized, and what we might bring with us into the newly emerging." As we emerge out of lockdown, what normalities are we going to accept? In the Parallel State, are we all migrants... what of our culture, of our Donny, will we bring with us?
JJ Chan is an artist working across and amidst sculpture, moving image, and writing. Their work draws from their own lived experiences and stories stolen from eavesdropped conversations on trains and at bus stops, to explore the edges of our realities in constructing identity. Through storytelling and world-building, the work (re)searches for an alternative space beyond aggressively progressive capitalist time, seeking new worlds from the ashes of the present. Born in Doncaster (1994) they grew up in Skellow behind the counter of a Chinese Takeaway on Skellow Road. They are currently the inaugural 'Blueprints for the Otherwise' Artist in Residence at Bloc Projects in Sheffield. JJ is now based in London, and is Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Kingston School of Art. They are a co-lead of Material:Pedagogy:Future, a member of the collective A Particular Reality, and a member of The Rising Buns.
Instagram: @jjchan
NATASHA CLARKE X MOTHER HOOKERS
The Making of a Parallel State Rosette
In the weeks leading up to the Public Art Forum Natasha Clarke and Mother Hookers have been working in collaboration to design a Parallel State rosette. Informed by conversations over crocheting, stories and ideas from over 20 women have shaped the design that will appear in various forms on the day - including a crocheted version of course! Natasha, Katy and Bea will tell the story behind the design.
Natasha Clarke
Natasha Clarke is an artist, curator and creative based in Doncaster. Her creative practices often focus on representing marginalised groups and investigating themes around identity politics and dual heritage.
https://www.natashaclarkeart.com
Mother Hookers
Mother Hookers are a crotchet social group running hookups in Doncaster’s New Wool Market and Coffee at Flora’s in Balby. Convened by Bea and Katy.
Twitter: @MotherHookers
Instagram: @mother_hookers
Backroom Polling Station and Tattoo Parlour
In the backroom of the Unitarian, attendees of the Public Art Forum are invited to view the Future Manifesto for Doncaster, written by young people. Devised in a workshop led by Olivia Jones, young people have reimagined Doncaster in the Parallel State with equity as a guiding value. The Backroom is a place for you to share your views about Doncaster in the Parallel State, cast a vote and get your temporary Parallel State tattoo.