Climate and Community Justice through Food with GramOunce
Made in the Middle
Courses for Dis-Course(s)The Podcast and Publication
Material Matters- Bloomberg New Contemporaries
- Manji, Charpai, Daybed x Greenwich & Docklands International Festival
Don’t play with your food - Jalebi Press
- Hospital Rooms x Sandwell CAMHS
- Rhythm with Osman Yousefzada Aftercare with Liverpool Biennial
- Comrades (Midlands) with Outside In x EXPLORERS project
2023 ++ - Courses for Dis-Course(s)
- Quisse of the Komagata Maru
- Khao, peyo, aish karo, but don’t hurt anyone’s heart
- Care Work ft Desi and Disabled
- But what if I gave myself an ounce of the care I show for others?
2022 ++ - DIY Disability
- (Astral Village) slooooowwwww with Sahjan Kooner
- Nangal Pend-ing/ DarkVillage.stl with Sahjan Kooner
- Daybed Charpai Manji Very Modern Stylish
- breathe, spirit and life 呼吸、靈魂與生命 with Katherine Ka Yi Liu
- Searching for Sangat with Artlicks
2019 - 2021 ++
Diva BLEEP!- Rankin x Water Aid
- at Niru Ratnam with Jan Agha
- Joya: arte + ecología / AiR
- As round as the Son with Sharonjit Sutton
Khadi with Bharti Parmar - Cold Comfort and Cultural Identity
- The Encyclopaedia of Cultural Dysphoria
- Nangal Khera
- Coordinates - curating beyond the crisis
- The Anthropology of the Self
- Cooking in Crisis
- Ghar
- The art world Birmingham as seen by Franny
- Panj Din
- Cha Wali
- Everything, Everywhere all at once
- Pittu Garam and other stories
About
©2024 Roo Dhissou and Jalebi Press. Please ask for permission when referencing my writing because it may contain original references to my PhD, or using my images as they may belong to one of my many photographer friends.
B. 1992 Birmingham, UK/Raised Punjab, India
Studio - Grand Union, Birmingham
2024
Hospital Rooms - Sandwell CAHMS
2023
Courses for Dis-Course(s)—GLOAM, Sheffield
Courses for Dis-Course(s)—Primary, Nottingham
Khao peyo aish karo, but don’t hurt anyone’s heart—Eastside Projects, Birmingham
2021
SHEDDING, SHIFTING, SLIPPING—The New Happiness, Birmingham
2025
Made in the Middle—Leicester Gallery, UK
Inbetweeners—Galeria EL, Elbląg, Poland
Bloomberg New Contemporaries, ICA London
2024
British Art Fair 2024, Saatchi Gallery
Greenwich Docklands & International Festival
Bloomberg New Contemporaries, Plymouth
Don’t play with your food, Sunny Bank Mills, Leeds
There is Strength in Softness, Hospital Rooms x Sandwell CAMHS, Birmingham
Rhythm with Osman Yousefzada—Ikon, Birmingham
2023
Concealed/ Reveal, with Curating for Change— Bristol Museum and Art Gallery
GET WELL SOON—Ormston House, Limerick, Ireland
Jaag Collective—Soho House, Birmingham
2022
explorers, zines and DIY culture with Hamja Ahsan— Tate Liverpool, UK
breathe, spirit and life 呼吸、靈魂與生命— Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool
Conversations from Home with Gugan Gill—Vivid Projects, Birmingham - Postponed
Summer Show—Eastside Projects, Birmingham
Cotton: labour, land and body, showing work for Bharti Parmar—Crafts Council Gallery, London
Art Licks Launch, The Idea of a City—Recent Activity, Birmingham
Landedness in collaboration with BLK SWN Society & MADEYOULOOK/ documenta 15—Primary, Nottingham
Regenerative Neighbourhood Festival: Home & Heritage: Panjab—Civic Square, Birmingham
The Big Lunch—Civic Square, Birmingham
Our Joy— Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, UK
Art Track—Dudley, UK
(ASTRAL VILLAGE) slooooowwwww—ArtCore, Derby (duo show with Sahjan Kooner)
Best Seat in the House curated by Rankin—Oxo Gallery, London
Coventry Biennial, Hyper-possible—Coventry and Warwickshire
2021
Welcome to New Earth ( ARC_Artist Rehab Club, with Larissa Shaw)—Vivid Projects with Black Hole Club, Birmingham
Best Seat in the House curated by Rankin—Oxo Gallery, London
Coventry Biennial, Hyper-possible—Coventry and Warwickshire
The Twenty Twenty Collection—The New Art Gallery Walsall, UK
Drawings and Research for Kadhi by Bharti Parmar, British Textiles Biennial— Blackburn Museum, Blackburn, UK
SAAC bazaar II—The Hive, Birmingham
SHOW UP—Allotment show, crated by Sofia Niazi, with Sahjan Kooner, Fred Hubble, Sarah Taylor-Silverwood, Aleesha Nandhra and Larissa Shaw
The Big Lunch—Civic Square, Birmingham
Revolution with melissandre varin—Arcadia, Coventry
Duo Show with Jan Agha—Niru Ratnam, London
DOOM, Black Hole Club—Vivid Peojects, Birmingham
Traces of Others: Collaboration with melissandre varin and Ryan Christopher—Arcadia Gallery, Coventry
Ikon for Artists—Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
Speculating—Arcadia, Coventry
2020
AIS festival—Leicester, UK
Unavoidable—Birmingham School of Art, UK
Peep at Stryx—Stryx Gallery, Birmingham
2019
PLAY—Stryx Gallery, Birmingham
Pittu Garam—Stryx Gallery, Birmingham
Pittu Garam—Arhus, Denmark
SAAC Summer Show—Ward End, Birmingham
2014-2019
Gave up on art worked for Lidl—Glasgow, Birmingham, Wales, Manchester, London, UK
2014
I make therefore I am, BA Show—Birmingham School of Art
Roo has hosted multiple artist talks, featured on panels, hosted and chaired panels, academic and non-academic conferences, hosted various workshops and facilitated workshops for the last 5 years. Notable partners include Tate Liverpool, Ikon Gallery, Project Artworks, Explorers Project, Liverpool Biennial, and AN assembly to name a few.
2024
Bloomberg New Contemporaries Award
Material Matters with Civic Square and Material Cultures
2023
Jerwood Survey III Nomination
Arts Council England Project Grant Conviviality and Access Grant for Courses for Dis-Course(s)
Grain Projects Residency/ Bursary Award: A Voyage on Water—Vancouver/ Surrey, BC, Canada
Government Arts Collection Nomination
2022
Residency with East Bristol Contemporary
AHRC UKRI - M4C Engagement Fund for Gramounce Food Cosmogonies and Expeditions Residency with Bursary
Food Hygiene and Mass Catering award Level III
BCU Post Graduate Research Development Award
2021
New Midland Group Collaborative Residency/ Bursary Award with Sahjan Kooner
JOYA Arte + Ecologia—Sierra Maria, Almeria, Spain
Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice Award
12ø Collective, Online Residency, #30works30days
DAAJ, Asylum Artists Quarter, Residency/Bursary Award—Wolverhampton
AHRC UKRI - M4C Doctoral Funding Award
2020
AIS Inaugural Award An Indian Summer Arts Festival
Tate Liverpool Artist Award
Storytelling with Roo, Stryx Gallery, Residency/Bursary
2019
Recipient of the Gertrude Aston Bowater Bequest Award
Arts Council Collection, UK
Surrey Art Gallery, Canada
New Art Gallery Walsall, UK
Courses for Dis-Course(s), published by Primary and Jalebi Press ISBN: 978-1-7397790-3-0
Launching August 2024
Stages #12: Being in the World, Care Work, Published by Liverpool Biennial, ISSN 2399 9675 (link)
Commissioned text in response to Emii Alrai’s ‘The Courtship of Giants’ (link)
Nangal Pend-ing/DarkVillage.STL published by Primary, written by Sahjan Kooner and Roo Dhissou
ISBN: 9781739779009
A Very Special Place: Ikon in 1990’s Published by Ikon, ISBN: 9781911155294 (link)
ArtLicks Issue 28 - The Idea of a City, Published by Art Licks ISSN: 2046-9349 (link)
PMC Notes by Paul Mellon Centre - Cold Comfort and Cultural Identity (link)
Book Review: Movers and Makers: Uncertainty, Resilience and Migrant Creativity in Worlds of Flux (link)
Board Trustee, DASH Disability Arts, UK
(Since 2022)
2023
Board Trustee, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK
(2020 - 2023)
2022
Lecturer in Critical Theory and Contextual Studies, BA 2nd Year, Birmingham School of Art
(Sep 2022 - Dec 2022)
2021
Studio and Research Assistant to Dr Bharti Parmar
(Mar 2021 - Oct 2021)
Research Assistant, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK - funded by the Paul Mellon Centre
(May 2021 - Sep 2021)
Studio Teaching Assistant (MA), Birmingham School of Art, UK
(Oct 2020 - Aug 2021)
2020
Information Assistant, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK
(Feb 2020 - Sep 2021)
2019
Various Managerial, Projects and Store Roles - Lidl GB
(Sep 2012 - Feb 2020)
COMRADES (2022- Present)
SAAC South Asian Arts Collective (2019 - Present)
Black Hole Club (2021 - 2023)
New Midland Group NMG (2021 - 2022)
Bhaina (2019 - 2022)
BA hons, MA, PhD pending
Contact
Email roodhissou@gmail.com
Twitter @roodhissou
Instagram @roodhissou
Studio - Grand Union, Birmingham
2024
Hospital Rooms - Sandwell CAHMS
2023
Courses for Dis-Course(s)—GLOAM, Sheffield
Courses for Dis-Course(s)—Primary, Nottingham
Khao peyo aish karo, but don’t hurt anyone’s heart—Eastside Projects, Birmingham
2021
SHEDDING, SHIFTING, SLIPPING—The New Happiness, Birmingham
2025
Made in the Middle—Leicester Gallery, UK
Inbetweeners—Galeria EL, Elbląg, Poland
Bloomberg New Contemporaries, ICA London
2024
British Art Fair 2024, Saatchi Gallery
Greenwich Docklands & International Festival
Bloomberg New Contemporaries, Plymouth
Don’t play with your food, Sunny Bank Mills, Leeds
There is Strength in Softness, Hospital Rooms x Sandwell CAMHS, Birmingham
Rhythm with Osman Yousefzada—Ikon, Birmingham
2023
Concealed/ Reveal, with Curating for Change— Bristol Museum and Art Gallery
GET WELL SOON—Ormston House, Limerick, Ireland
Jaag Collective—Soho House, Birmingham
2022
explorers, zines and DIY culture with Hamja Ahsan— Tate Liverpool, UK
breathe, spirit and life 呼吸、靈魂與生命— Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool
Conversations from Home with Gugan Gill—Vivid Projects, Birmingham - Postponed
Summer Show—Eastside Projects, Birmingham
Cotton: labour, land and body, showing work for Bharti Parmar—Crafts Council Gallery, London
Art Licks Launch, The Idea of a City—Recent Activity, Birmingham
Landedness in collaboration with BLK SWN Society & MADEYOULOOK/ documenta 15—Primary, Nottingham
Regenerative Neighbourhood Festival: Home & Heritage: Panjab—Civic Square, Birmingham
The Big Lunch—Civic Square, Birmingham
Our Joy— Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, UK
Art Track—Dudley, UK
(ASTRAL VILLAGE) slooooowwwww—ArtCore, Derby (duo show with Sahjan Kooner)
Best Seat in the House curated by Rankin—Oxo Gallery, London
Coventry Biennial, Hyper-possible—Coventry and Warwickshire
2021
Welcome to New Earth ( ARC_Artist Rehab Club, with Larissa Shaw)—Vivid Projects with Black Hole Club, Birmingham
Best Seat in the House curated by Rankin—Oxo Gallery, London
Coventry Biennial, Hyper-possible—Coventry and Warwickshire
The Twenty Twenty Collection—The New Art Gallery Walsall, UK
Drawings and Research for Kadhi by Bharti Parmar, British Textiles Biennial— Blackburn Museum, Blackburn, UK
SAAC bazaar II—The Hive, Birmingham
SHOW UP—Allotment show, crated by Sofia Niazi, with Sahjan Kooner, Fred Hubble, Sarah Taylor-Silverwood, Aleesha Nandhra and Larissa Shaw
The Big Lunch—Civic Square, Birmingham
Revolution with melissandre varin—Arcadia, Coventry
Duo Show with Jan Agha—Niru Ratnam, London
DOOM, Black Hole Club—Vivid Peojects, Birmingham
Traces of Others: Collaboration with melissandre varin and Ryan Christopher—Arcadia Gallery, Coventry
Ikon for Artists—Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
Speculating—Arcadia, Coventry
2020
AIS festival—Leicester, UK
Unavoidable—Birmingham School of Art, UK
Peep at Stryx—Stryx Gallery, Birmingham
2019
PLAY—Stryx Gallery, Birmingham
Pittu Garam—Stryx Gallery, Birmingham
Pittu Garam—Arhus, Denmark
SAAC Summer Show—Ward End, Birmingham
2014-2019
Gave up on art worked for Lidl—Glasgow, Birmingham, Wales, Manchester, London, UK
2014
I make therefore I am, BA Show—Birmingham School of Art
Roo has hosted multiple artist talks, featured on panels, hosted and chaired panels, academic and non-academic conferences, hosted various workshops and facilitated workshops for the last 5 years. Notable partners include Tate Liverpool, Ikon Gallery, Project Artworks, Explorers Project, Liverpool Biennial, and AN assembly to name a few.
2024
Bloomberg New Contemporaries Award
Material Matters with Civic Square and Material Cultures
2023
Jerwood Survey III Nomination
Arts Council England Project Grant Conviviality and Access Grant for Courses for Dis-Course(s)
Grain Projects Residency/ Bursary Award: A Voyage on Water—Vancouver/ Surrey, BC, Canada
Government Arts Collection Nomination
2022
Residency with East Bristol Contemporary
AHRC UKRI - M4C Engagement Fund for Gramounce Food Cosmogonies and Expeditions Residency with Bursary
Food Hygiene and Mass Catering award Level III
BCU Post Graduate Research Development Award
2021
New Midland Group Collaborative Residency/ Bursary Award with Sahjan Kooner
JOYA Arte + Ecologia—Sierra Maria, Almeria, Spain
Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice Award
12ø Collective, Online Residency, #30works30days
DAAJ, Asylum Artists Quarter, Residency/Bursary Award—Wolverhampton
AHRC UKRI - M4C Doctoral Funding Award
2020
AIS Inaugural Award An Indian Summer Arts Festival
Tate Liverpool Artist Award
Storytelling with Roo, Stryx Gallery, Residency/Bursary
2019
Recipient of the Gertrude Aston Bowater Bequest Award
Arts Council Collection, UK
Surrey Art Gallery, Canada
New Art Gallery Walsall, UK
Courses for Dis-Course(s), published by Primary and Jalebi Press ISBN: 978-1-7397790-3-0
Launching August 2024
Stages #12: Being in the World, Care Work, Published by Liverpool Biennial, ISSN 2399 9675 (link)
Commissioned text in response to Emii Alrai’s ‘The Courtship of Giants’ (link)
Nangal Pend-ing/DarkVillage.STL published by Primary, written by Sahjan Kooner and Roo Dhissou
ISBN: 9781739779009
A Very Special Place: Ikon in 1990’s Published by Ikon, ISBN: 9781911155294 (link)
ArtLicks Issue 28 - The Idea of a City, Published by Art Licks ISSN: 2046-9349 (link)
PMC Notes by Paul Mellon Centre - Cold Comfort and Cultural Identity (link)
Book Review: Movers and Makers: Uncertainty, Resilience and Migrant Creativity in Worlds of Flux (link)
Board Trustee, DASH Disability Arts, UK
(Since 2022)
2023
Board Trustee, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK
(2020 - 2023)
2022
Lecturer in Critical Theory and Contextual Studies, BA 2nd Year, Birmingham School of Art
(Sep 2022 - Dec 2022)
2021
Studio and Research Assistant to Dr Bharti Parmar
(Mar 2021 - Oct 2021)
Research Assistant, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK - funded by the Paul Mellon Centre
(May 2021 - Sep 2021)
Studio Teaching Assistant (MA), Birmingham School of Art, UK
(Oct 2020 - Aug 2021)
2020
Information Assistant, IKON Gallery, Birmingham, UK
(Feb 2020 - Sep 2021)
2019
Various Managerial, Projects and Store Roles - Lidl GB
(Sep 2012 - Feb 2020)
COMRADES (2022- Present)
SAAC South Asian Arts Collective (2019 - Present)
Black Hole Club (2021 - 2023)
New Midland Group NMG (2021 - 2022)
Bhaina (2019 - 2022)
BA hons, MA, PhD pending
Contact
Email roodhissou@gmail.com
Twitter @roodhissou
Instagram @roodhissou