Housewarming Artist Residency: Shehzil Malik

We’re delighted to welcome Pakistani artist Shehzil Malik to Rabbits Road Press for a 6 week virtual artist residency! As part of Housewarming, Shehzil will be collaborating with members of the press to inform and develop a new piece of art, the residency is created through a collaboration between Create London and the British Council.

Shehzil Malik is a Lahore based designer and illustrator whose work focuses on human rights, feminism and South Asian identity. Her bold illustrations are internationally recognisable, she has made work for Aurat March (Women’s March), collaborated with Rachita Taneja (Bangalore) on a series of posters in response the Kashmir Lockdown, has been involved in Mil Ke Chai, a ‘friendship across borders’ artist cafe, and has more recently produced work to address and warn against the effects of high levels of pollution in Pakistan and misinformation around Covid-19.

Earlier in 2020 we exhibited a selection of Shehzil’s work at Rabbits Road Press as part of Mil Ke Chai’s London edition, we have also recently printed Women’s Work, a book about imaginative and enterprising women across South Asia, which she also contributed to. We’re very hopeful that Shehzil will visit the UK and Rabbits Road Press for real later this year as part of the residency.

Over a six week period, Shehzil will be in conversation with Louisa Tock, Sahra Hersi, Sadie St Hillaire and Naila Tasnim to learn more about each other’s work and to share insights and feeling on what it’s like to live in cities which are so far apart. The paid collaborations will help to inform Shehzil’s work which will be developed partly at the press and partly digitally. Shehzil will receive a virtual Risograph induction and be sent scans of her printed work to incorporate into a larger artwork. The logistics of facilitating and supporting the residency, which has been made virtual due to Codid-19, poses exciting opportunities for the press to test out and develop new ways of working remotely with artists.

As part of the residency’s public programme, we have invited Naila Tasnim, a photographer, writer and member of DIY Rabbits collective with as interest in socially engaged art, to interview Shehzil about her practice. As part of the public event, a pre-recorded interview will the pair will be broadcast on ZOOM and we will invite members of the audience to participate in a live Q&A . More details to follow.