BLM RESOURCES – FUNDS, TOOLKITS, REPORTS
TRANS RIGHTS – GUIDES, PETITIONS, FUNDS
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reneehelena92@gmail.com / they/them / virgo sun cancer moon scorpio riiiising
click titles for links to recent bits…………..
Writer and translator Kate Briggs’ commissioned response to Rebuilding Urania by Renèe Helèna Browne: ‘Tell Me About It’ in UNCHORUS, a publication by Freelands Foundation.
UNCHORUS 2023 features the practices of the twenty artists who have participated as the third cohort of the Freelands Artist Programme. It contains commissioned texts by 21 writers, poets, philosophers, artists and curators, as well as artists’ interruptions and a lexicon of artist development. Photos by Andy Stagg.
Browne presents a new drawing Urania Dreaming at ‘In the Same Breath’, a group exhibition at Freelands Foundation, London.
‘In the Same Breath’ is an exhibition of work by 20 artists in the third cohort of the Freelands Artist Programme. 23 March–29 May 2023. More info here
Renèe Helèna Browne shortlisted for the 2023 Margaret Tait Commission from LUX Scotland
The shortlist for the 2023 Margaret Tait Commission comprises Isabel Barfod, Renèe Helèna Browne, Rhona Mühlebach, and George Finlay Ramsay. The shortlisted artists have been invited to submit a proposal for the £20,000 commission, which will premiere at Glasgow Film Festival in 2024, and will subsequently tour with LUX Scotland alongside a solo exhibition at LUX’s space in London. More info here
aemi & Project Arts Centre present: The Early Works of Cheryl Dunye, selected and presented by Renèe Helèna Browne, 2023
4 February 2023 / 18:30 / The Cube, Project Arts Centre, Dublin
In-person screening programme + introduction by Renèe Helèna Browne
The first screening in Ireland of the early works of Cheryl Dunye, the director of the seminal The Watermelon Woman and innovator of a new form of cinema about Black lesbian life. Selected and presented in-person by artist Renèe Helèna Browne as part of Rebuilding Urania (2021-ongoing).
T-Rex in Town by Renèe Helèna Browne features in Before Law by BAMBOAT | MITCHELL, 2023
Before Law is a website that features new and adapted works by artists, scholars, poets, thinkers, and performers. Before Law brings together practitioners invested in questioning the systems and narratives surrounding interspecies relations.
In their poetic narration, Browne muses on the figure of the T-Rex as an embodied form of abstraction, allowing us to think through and attend to the body, sex, gender and desire.
Before Law home: https://before-law.com/
T-Rex in Town by Renèe Helèna Browne: https://before-law.com/projects/t-rex-in-town
Rebuilding Urania Episode Two: A Strange Eight, Intermedia Gallery, CCA Glasgow, 2022
A Strange Eight is an exhibition of new work by artist Renèe Helèna Browne. The show contains drawings by Browne, and a soundscape produced with invited contributors Oreet Ashery, Sharlene Bamboat, Aaron Goddard, Mason Leaver-Yap, Tako Taal, Roy Claire Potter, Hamshya Rajkumar, and Aman Sandhu. The vocal soundscape also contains a score by Malin Lewis titled ‘Are We’, appearing courtesy OVER / AT E.P.: FOLKS’ SONGS. Along with the soundscape and drawings, Browne presents a hand-painted mural using the journal’s manifesto that appeared in all issues.
A Strange Eight is the third episode of an ongoing oral archiving project called Rebuilding Urania. Beginning with their research into Urania, a historic printed journal that foregrounded fluidity as an ideal model of gender and sexuality. Each issue began with the statement, “There are no ‘men’ or ‘women’ in Urania.” Privately distributed and published in London from 1916 – 1940, it was built by reprinting articles from newspapers around the world along with new contributions from its editors and invited writers. With poetry and prose, Urania provided readers with an alternative scientific and cultural basis for expression on androgyny and love.
Rebuilding Urania has involved Browne connecting with people that feel instinctually right to share this thinking with. This simple process built further friendships and in a sense manifested a new network, brought together through a shared interest in the work of revisiting the original journal. In the invitation, Browne asked each contributor the following:
I’d like to ask you to record yourself reading the article and then to respond to it. It doesn’t have to be anything laborious, just saying how you felt about it. Did it make you think of anything else? Were there any points of connectivity for you? Were there the opposite? I’d love if you could think about where you might be in space to do the reading and maybe mention these decisions after in your response; are you on a walk, outdoors sitting down, in your bed, in the aisle of a shop? Is there a song playing in the background (random or chosen) or is it silent? What feel right to be sharing the text aurally? If it’s something you want to read together with another person(s) and discuss, or on your own, then please do whatever feels good.
Along with the soundscape, Browne presents a series of new colouring pencil drawings responding to the articles of Urania and a hand-painted mural using the journal’s manifesto that appeared in all issues.
Biographies of contributors:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hC-wgXEpDkYX_tmKZ–vKMfFBpG6YdYVpoyamk-mW4Y/edit?usp=sharing
if you would like to listen to any contributions please email moi
Photos: Patrick Jameson.
Benches: Jon Young.
Tech support: Kenny Christie
Thank you to Emmie McLuskey, James Clegg, Letitia Browne, Aaron Goddard, Esther Draycott, Beth Hayden, Annie Hazelwood, Eithne Browne, Jon Young, Kenny Christie, Mason Leaver-Yap, Helen Browne, Edward Browne, Ragini Chawla, Hey frens its renee group chat (Georgia dabizz, Daniel Tuomey, Hannah Fitz), Calum Sutherland, Emma Haugh, Jess + Matt at Sundays Print, and Siri Black.
Rebuilding Urania (2021 – ongoing) is a long-term multi-platform project by Browne. It began with Browne’s research into Urania, a historic printed journal that focused on gender and was privately distributed and published in London from 1916 – 1940.
Rebuilding Urania takes the form of multiple episodes with public presentations across radio, gallery and online contexts. The development of the project has involved Browne connecting with invited people to respond via sound to articles from the original journal and in doing so starting to build a community and friendships around ideas in the work.
The first iteration, Rebuilding Urania: Pilot (2021) was produced with Mason Leaver-Yap, Sharlene Bamboat and Hannah Fitz, with an outro by Malin Lewis’ Are We appearing courtesy OVER /AT E.P.: FOLKS’ SONGS. The Pilot was supported by Digital Radio’s Alternating Currents Festival (2021), Cove Park Residencies, and screened with Lux Scotland ‘One Artist One Work’, and Book Works UK for the Happy Hypocrite radio show on Resonance FM.
Episode One premiered at TULCA Festival of Visual Arts, Galway in 2021 as a place to sit, read and listen. This episode was produced with Oreet Ashery, Marian Mayland, Mason Leaver-Yap, and Hamshya Rajkumar. Episode Two will be made public at the Intermedia Gallery, Centre of Contemporary Art Glasgow in 2022. ‘Rebuilding Urania’ was first commissioned by the Project Arts Centre in 2020 for the Haven Commissions.
Rebuilding Urania Episode One installed at TULCA Festival of Visual Art 2021. Photo credit: Ros Kavanagh Model: Kate McSharry
READ Clay AD’s writing on Renèe Helèna Browne’s ‘Rebuilding Urania’. Clay AD is an interdisciplinary artist, writer and somatic bodyworker living and working in Glasgow.
For the next online event in the ONE ARTIST | ONE WORK series with LUX Scotland, Renèe Helèna Browne will discuss their long-term multi-platform project Rebuilding Urania (2021–ongoing). Thursday 25 November, 6pm. Tickets are free!
ONE ARTIST | ONE WORK screening with LUX Scotland: Renèe Helèna Browne, Rebuilding Urania: Pilot (2021). Rebuilding Urania is an oral archiving project of Urania, and takes the form of multiple episodes with public presentations across radio, gallery and online contexts. The development of the project has involved Browne connecting with invited people to respond to articles from the original journal and in doing so starting to build a community and friendships around ideas in the work.
Am I an Object, part IV: I didn’t think it would turn out this way An exhibition of artists’ moving image by Glasgow-based artists David Dale Gallery at P/////AKT Amsterdam: Featuring work by Aman Sandhu, Anne-Marie Copestake, Clarinda Tse, Margaret Salmon, Mathew Wayne Parkin and Renèe Helèna Browne, with Harriet Rose Morley and Bo Wielders. 14 November – 19 December 2021. Zeeburgerpad 53, 1019 AB Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Rebuilding Urania: Episode One by Renèe Helèna Browne will premiere at TULCA Festival of Visual Arts, titled there’s nothing here but flesh and bone, there’s nothing more, curated by Eoin Dara. Festival dates: 5 – 21 November 2021. Galway, Ireland.
Rebuilding Urania: Pilot Episode Renèe Helèna Browne at Alternating Current, Dublin Digital Radio. Thursday October 28th 15:00 GMT & 21:00 GMT
‘Working from Feeling to Feeling’: a public conversation between Renèe Helèna Browne and Emma Wolf-Haugh with Project Arts Centre. Project Arts Centre is delighted to host a public conversation related to our current exhibition, Domestic Optimism Act One: Modernism–A Lesbian Love Story & Act Two: Radclyffe Hall–The Lazerbeam Theirstory Projects. This conversation will depart from the ongoing correspondence between Browne and Haugh that has informed both of their practices. Considering shared concerns around writing and the use of anecdote as a different kind of knowledge production; histories and archives that don’t give you what you want; and messy, queer practices enacted across time and space, this conversation promises to enrich our understanding of both artists’ work as well as of Irish literary and theatrical experimental and avant-garde practice.
Rebuilding Urania: Pilot Episode by Renèe Helèna Browne premieres on Without Reduction – a twelve-hour radio broadcast by Book Works. Without Reduction is a twelve-hour radio event to mark the twelfth and final issue of The Happy Hypocrite – Without Reduction, issue 12, edited by Maria Fusco. It will be broadcast on Resonance Extra on 25 September 2021, from midday to midnight. Rebuilding Urania: Pilot Episode (2021) was produced with Mason Leaver-Yap, Sharlene Bamboat, and Hannah Fitz. Malin Lewis’ ‘Are We’ appears courtesy OVER / AT E.P.: FOLKS’ SONGS. Rebuilding Urania (2020-ongoing) is comissioned by the Project Art Centre, Dublin.
Daddy’s Boy (2020) by Renèe Helèna Browne wins the 2021 Sunset Kino Award for excellence in film from the Salzburger Kunstverein. Jury: Omer Fast, Aziza Harmel, Bernardo de Souza. Introduced by Séamus Kealy, Director, Salzburger Kunstverein.
The House of the Rising Sons (2021) by Renèe Helèna Browne: Published by Mirror Lamp Press Issue 2. An explorative response to ‘The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions’, a fantasy novel by Larry Mitchell. The narrative of this uncategorisable ‘libidinous fairytale-cummanifesto’ is used by Browne as a guide for their own arts practice.
Lessons from Urania (2021) by Renèe Helèna Browne Commissioned by Generator Projects. New long-form text work. Interlacing achievement anxieties and archival pearls, the Lessons from Urania takes an extraneous tour of Browne’s (un)working methods as they search for intimacy and connection amid figures of the past.
Browne awarded an Experimental Film and Moving Image Residency in partnership with Cove Park, Lux Scotland and Alchemy Film & Arts
Artist Conversation: the European Media Art Festival No. 34. Legacy Files between Renèe Helèna Browne, Marian Mayland and Oreet Ashery. Moderated by Mason Leaver-Yap
Daddy’s Boy screens at the European Media Art Festival No. 34 in the programme Legacy Files with Marian Mayland and Oreet Ashery.
Renèe Helèna Browne is shortlisted for the Kleinwort Hambros Emerging Artist Prize 2021
TEENAGE FANBOY – Artist Profile in Visual Arts Ireland News Sheet. Gwen Burlington discusses the work of Irish artist Renèe Helèna Browne Visual Arts Ireland News Sheet
Review of Daddy’s Boy by Kiah Endelman Music for Nothing Personal: Pilot Issue, 2021
Testo Rex (2020) – A new risograph edition by Renèe Helèna Browne is an A3 150gsm print. Printed by sundays_print in an edition of 40 at £12. All proceeds go to @ubuntuwomenshelter. Ubuntu Women Shelter is a Glasgow-based charity dedicated to meeting the short term, 72 hours – 1 week/ emergency accommodation needs of women with no recourse to public funds. If you need emergency housing only, please call 07570 877817. For sales please email info@lunchtimegallery.co.uk OR make a donation to Ubuntu directly and send over a screenshot of your donation. @lunchtimegallery
Propositions: Renèe Helèna Browne In Conversation, Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival 2020. Renèe Helèna Browne discusses their new film ‘Daddy’s Boy’ with poet and trans / queer activist Nat Raha as part of BFMAF 2020 Propositions Strand. They were joined by programme fellow Christina Demetriou, 2020
URANIA (Upcoming 2021) is a research and moving image project centered on a journal of the same name published from 1916 to 1940 by artists and activists Eva Gore-Booth, Esther Roper, and Irene Clyde that sought to undermine gender stereotypes and promote the ‘abolition’ of gender. URANIA is commissioned by the Project Arts Centre (Dublin) Future Forecast: HAVEN Commission.
Daddy’s Boy (2020) is a personal exploration of the influence of paternal lines on bodily experiences of gender. The film combines reflections on the contemporary legacy of the Tyrannosaurus Rex and a visual portrait of my father in an entangled, fragmentary account of inheritance and intimacy, monstrosity and family. ‘Daddy’s Boy’ has been undertaken as part of a Research Associate position with the Centre of Contemporary Art Derry. ‘Daddy’s Boy’ is commissioned by Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival 2020.
Full duration: 22 minutes. Written, filmed, edited: Renèe Helèna Browne. Colour grade and sound mix: Natalie Mc Gowan. SDH captioning: Matchbox Cine.
Marla: Notes on Daddy’s Boy by Esther Draycott. Long form writing in response to ‘Daddy’s Boy’ by writer Esther Draycott.
Daddy’s Boy (2020) still
Sacred Disease (2019) is a two colour animation with voice-over essay. This voiceover, written and performed by Browne, is an exploration of language and its power when consumed by the performance of romantic partnership.
Sacred Disease, Glasgow School of Art 2019 MFA Degree Show, projected HD voice-over video. Photo: Jack McCombe
Sacred Disease: Epilogue (2019) is a monologue by a wronged lover as she details her revenge fantasy on her beloved utilising her voice as an infectious weapon through text, colour and sound. Text developed from Cydippe’s letters to Acontious in ‘The Heroides’ by Ovid (5CE).
A Wall or Bridge Disappears Abruptly at the Hinge (2019) is a writing experiment focused on ‘Le Destin’, a folding screen made in 1913, and its maker, Irish architect and designer, Eileen Gray (1878-1976). Akin to a train of thought, the texts meander in different directions, some in the form of fragments and others as longer considerations. Each one varies in approach, ranging from analysis, anecdote, fiction and fact.
Deboned Voices (2018) is a five-part sound installation commissioned by the Edinburgh Art Festival for Platform: 2018 at City Arts Centre examining power structures related to accent.
Love Song to Drake (2018) is a vocal soundscape about the ear, desire, and manipulation. Through the deconstruction of Hip hop artist Drake’s lyrical aesthetic, Browne considers the all consuming nature of fandom, performing an ode to the artist and his music through the ear.
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