ROOT-ed Zine: Retrospect, Reality, Reform

07 Oct 22 – 22 Jan 2023

The Tetley , Leeds

The Jerwood Tetley Commissions offer three artists or curators based in the North of England the opportunity to develop a significant body of work or curate a group exhibition with the support of a dedicated mentor, a research & development budget and institutional backing. At the end of 2020, we announced Emily Hesse, Samra Mayanja and ROOT-ed Zine as the selected artists / curators.

ROOT-ed Zine now present Retrospect, Reality, Reform, which responds to numerous contemporary social, political, economic, and environmental issues that have encouraged and forced a lot of people to pause and reflect on the past, the present and the future.

ROOT-ed Zine’s co-founders and collaborators Amber Akaunu (she/her) and Fauziya Johnson (she/her) are artist-curators who established the magazine and social platform in 2017, with a commitment to supporting Black, Asian and People of Colour creatives that are from, or based in the northwest England.

For their exhibition at The Tetley, they have selected new and existing work in a variety of media by early-career artists from, or based in, the North of England. Four artists have been commissioned to examine the ideas of retrospect, reality, and reform, offering a platform for reflective, unfiltered, and liberating perspectives from artists of colour. The exhibition includes work by Yasmin Ali (she/her), Liverpool-based filmmaker and photographer; Simone Yasmin (she/her), Leeds-based writer, spoken word artist and vocal soul; Hanna Gwynn (she/her), comic artist and illustrator based in Liverpool; and Linnet Panashe Rubaya (she/her), Leeds-based figurative artist.

The exhibition also includes a free limited-edition zine, amplifying the practices of more Northern artists and providing insight into the thoughts, ideas and research behind the artworks and curation of the show. This will sit within a reading room alongside an archive of Root-ed Zines, dating back to 2018.

The exhibition will be open at The Tetley 7 October 2022 – 22 January 2023, free entry.

The Jerwood Tetley Commissions are part of our Development Programme Fund that provides funding for arts organisations who, with vision and skill, can deliver transformational development opportunities for artists, curators and/or producers.

Issue one of ROOT-ed Zine, 2018. Courtesy ROOT-ed Zine