Cora Sehgal Cuthbert

more 🎀🎀 gorj scans from the zine I made for my exhibition at @the_herbert_cov last year 📖 including a pic of my best friend dad and some text he wrote for the Coventry community magazine which he produced in the 80’s 🧸🧸 designed by my fave @anna_c.i ❤️‍🔥 printed by @pagemasters.co 💗 all the graphics have been made from ephemera I found around coventry and in the archives 📒

Join us for an afternoon of communal henna and film to raise funds for @raedhanyqr a young man from Gaza, to attend university. We will be screening Leila and the Wolves (with English subtitles) while we adorn our hands with henna together. Stencils, tea, and snacks provided! 2.30 - 4.30pm, Saturday 7th February The Rum Factory, 49 Pennington St, London E1W 2BD Tickets £6-£16, book via the link in bio. All ticket sales will be donated to Raed. Leila and the Wolves (1984) is a feminist film by Lebanese director Heiny Srour. It uses archival footage, fiction, and folklore to explore women’s crucial, overlooked roles as heorines and martyrs in anti-colonial resistance movements during 20th century Palestine and Lebanon.Watch out for scenes of a henna party in the film <3 Drawing on the Palestinian, Lebanese, and Punjabi heritage we have between us, adorning our hands with henna together has been a regular ritual throughout our friendship. During these horrific, apocalyptic years, henna has been an act of self-love. It makes us feel empowered and protected; we take pleasure in how these motifs infiltrate our every move, tainting mundane gestures with deep, enchanted signifiers. There is a profound dignifying power in covering oneself with such beauty; we hope we can share in this together with you. All ticket sales go to Raed, a 20-year-old from Gaza who has been displaced with his entire family. While surviving an ongoing genocide, he completed high school and earned a university scholarship, but he needs a laptop to attend his online course. We’re raising funds to support his education and future.

Christmas time makes me sad so here are some happy pics from this year !!!

💭💭💭 thoughtsssss 🤔

Two uncles of mine, Uncle Gary and Uncle George died during my residency/commission at the Herbert. I found a bench at my Uncle George’s grave covered in ‘ribbons of peace’ - anyone could tie a ribbon to the bench as a way to remember someone they’ve lost. To honour my uncles, in the exhibition at the Herbert, I’ve included a bench covered in ribbons that are free for anyone to take away. Coventry used to be famous for its ribbon weaving trade, so woven into the ribbons are lines from the oral history interviews that also feature in the video I made for the show. I think all the lines are beautiful. They say: my spirit takes to things and takes to people - Babs I think life’s about caring - Mavis you’re as important and worthy as anybody else - Babs I could never see me ever leaving Coventry - Babs I’m looking forward to my life - Ewan I wrote about it all in the zine too 💌

a prayer for coventry life starts here opened @the_herbert_cov last week <3 It’s on till October 12th! here’s an install dump 🧸🧸 The exhibition is made up of a video, a zine and ribbons which all centre six oral history interviews found in the Herbert’s archive. All of the interviews were recorded around the millennium and are with people from Coventry or who were living in the city at the time. The oral histories archive at the Herbert is like a treasure trove! Full of the life stories of everyday people of Coventry. I wasn’t doing tooooooo well in the head while I was doing most of this project and the oral history collection reminded me that life is special, listening to the interviews is like listening to the life advice of elders. The work also features text from and about my grandad and my grandad Coral who are from Coventry <333 I still don’t really know how to describe the work. It’s kinda simple in that it’s sorta just about life - but then again life is really complicated sometimes?? This project was commissioned by the Decolonising Arts Institute. In the context of decolonising, through centering oral histories, as ephemeral manifestations of lived experience, the work seeks to challenge the traditional hierarchy of historical/academic knowledge. The way the work, especially the video, interweaves different people’s lives, questions the way museums (and humans!) categorise people, identities, experiences and life. Life is HUGE and messy and I don’t know if you can pin it or bits of it down. The main aim is to showcase the love, loss and beauty present in life and Coventry. And, it’s just been soooo lovely to get to know the place where my Dad grew up. The work could not have happened without original music from @rubykyri , sound design @mso_4rt , mixing and mastering by @dj__bok , zine designer @anna_c.i zine , printers @pagemasters.co , my amazing access support worker and friend @lauren_e_phillips , generous mentoring from @yuenfongling all my family and friends !!! 💌💌💌💌

Read some text out about my family in my talk @chelseaspace and crieddddd in front of everyone !!!! Yay for crying in talks !!! The text was from my zine that will be free to take away as a part of my exhibition @the_herbert_cov opening in 10 days xoxoxo Here are some scans !!! Designed by the loveliest most talented @anna_c.i and printed by the most patient and helpful @pagemasters.co will say more about the acc exhibition sooooooon xoxo

Just about finished a residency/commission with UAL Decolonising Arts Institute and @the_herbert_cov It’s taken two yearssssss (wasn’t meant to take this long?!!! but family members died and I have ADHD?!!!) I’ve made (or am still making oooops), a longgg video (featuring family histories and oral histories from the museum) a zine and some ribbons 🎀 I’m doing a talk about the work and the process next week, Thurs July 10th, at @chelseaspace tickets are freeeee, it will be chill vibes with food! would love to see you there 🫂 I’ll be chatting about how special life is, what family and belonging and love means, how nothing is ever the end, how everything is connected, how archives are always alive, how feelings can be valid epistemology, how messy life is, how weird it is that institutions and the West try categorise people, identities, experiences and life so much, whether decolonising actually means anything (the way it’s used in the cultural sector now) and whether it’s possible to make meaningful art (about decolonising or not) while genocides are being committed in front of us. You can see all the acc work at The Herbert in August, get ready for me to spam u 💌 image 1: meme from @uncrustable.memess - this is how i felt in the museum archives and about life image 2: ribbon I made for the project, it says ‘I’m looking forward to my life’. This is a quote from Ewan, whose voice is in my video (I found his voice/story in the oral histories collection at The Herbert) image 3: screenshot from my vid image 4: screenshot of zine tests, written by me designed by the amazing @anna_c.i image 4: scan of a magazine my dad published in 1984 image 5: some text that @yuenfongling wrote about my work, thank you Yuen

drawings my Grandad sent to me when I was kid. Celts also have love knots ❤️

sun, moon, rising !!!! Always ! ♊️♋️♌️

My Nan would normally be in London at this time of year. For various reasons she’s not here yet. Missing her ! Here are more !!! bits of documentation from a show I did with Siwss Church a couple of years ago all about my nan and I and love and loss etc etc 💌

Memories 💒💒💒