Art / Confluence
Four new artists added to the final stage of MAYK’s ‘Confluence’ residency programme
In the final stages of its residency programme Confluence, MAYK has announced four new artists to the project that explores ‘Bristol’s shifting currents’.
Dhaqan Collective, Howl Yuan, Iman Sultan West and Ramelle Williams will be channelling their unique creative responses to their evolving relationship with the city.
They join initial artists Asmaa Jama, Verity Standen, Travis Alabanza, Ryan Convery-Moroney, and most recently, Esther May Campbell, whose Kitchen Table Photo Club group exhibition 378,432,000,000 seconds of exposure took place in December 2024 at St Anne’s House.
is needed now More than ever
A photo from ‘378,432,000,000 seconds of exposure’, the Kitchen Table Photo Club exhibition at St Anne’s House, December 2024: A black and white image of children in Nightingale Woods. They sit and lie together, one boy shirtless and looking directly to camera – photo: Esther May Campbell
Dhaqan Collective – intergenerational feminist art collective of Somali women
Based at Watershed’s Pervasive Media Studio and Spike Island, Fozia Ismail and Ayan Cilmi lead the collective harnessing textiles and everyday objects to create joyful and healing places to “centre the full range of Somali diasporic experiences”. Their work has been widely exhibited in the UK and Europe, and they were selected for Columbia University’s ‘Digital Dozen Breakthroughs in Digital Storytelling’ in 2024.
Cilmi: “It (Bristol) is my home, not my place of birth but where I have spent most of my life minus three years which means I’m a ‘proper Bristolian’. Whatever that means. I have moved across the city, living in most of its pockets, experiencing each part of the city and getting to know its very many facets. I have lived in St Pauls, Bishopston, Fishponds, Bedminster and Montpelier. I keep all of its parts with me as I move and navigate the city knowing what it means to belong and be other.”
Ismail: “For me, Bristol is complicated. I love its radical history, access to beautiful green spaces, amazing food produce and stunning waterfront. However, it was the first place that I experienced racism (direct and indirect). I grew up in a very diverse part of London and although the city is very diverse there is still segregation that plays out.”
Fozia Ismail and Ayan Cilmi, Dhaqan Collective – photo: MAYK
Howl Yuan – Taiwanese performance maker, writer and curator
Amongst his many creative preoccupations, Yuan often explores “transcultural identity, mobility, space/place/site, and decolonised discourse”. Making work that blurs the boundaries of performance, he has presented his work at theatres, galleries, festivals, and natural environments.
“My Google Maps saves more locations in Bristol than Taipei, where I was born and grew up. Bristol’s like my palm prints, entangled, intricate and all connected to me.”
Howl Yuan – photo: MAYK
Iman Sultan West – artist, poet and curator
As the founder of the Shiiku Community of creatives in Bristol, Sultan West brings people together by curating events around the city. Their poems draw on both levity and darkness to examine “heritage, neurodiversity, mental health and relationships”. They believe in the power of a curious mind.
“Currently, Bristol means home, means work, means friends. Means unearthing its histories and questioning the land we live on. Means missing my family. Means walking 20 mins into town because my bike has a flat tire. Means sending off applications and performing for audiences who don’t know me. Means performing to audiences who do know me, means hugging them at the end of a wild show of impromptu laughter and poems about poo. Means getting home soaking from the rain. Means hosting poetry workshops in my living room, squashed in by the Christmas tree and our noisy cat. Means my favourite panini from Cafe Amore. Means super expensive bills but super fluffy slippers.”
Iman Sultan West performs, accompanied by a guitarist – photo: MAYK
Ramelle Williams – dancer, teacher and choreographer
Williams first fell in love with street dance growing up in Bristol. In his teens, he formed the Jam Collective with his peers, a crew that he cites as hugely formative to his unfolding journey as a dancer. Relocating to Cardiff and London, where he found success in the competitive dance scene, he always felt drawn back to where it all began.
“From day one, Bristol has shown me love. It’s brought me closer to myself, provided opportunities, and given me a sense of family and belonging that I couldn’t have dreamed of. Bristol has become my home – a place filled with life and wholesome moments I feel are rare elsewhere. Whether it’s someone stopping to help a homeless person or strangers exchanging a genuine hello, these small moments of kindness remind me that Bristol thrives on human connection.”
Ramelle Williams – photo: MAYK
Visit www.confluence-bristol.com for further details and updates about the project, or follow @maykithappen.
Confluence is a production by MAYK, commissioned by Ginkgo Projects for The Glassworks with the support of Fresh, and for Redcliffe Quarter with the support of Grainger plc.
MAYK is undertaking a major fundraising campaign to continue their work. You can donate here.
Main photo: Marta Celio
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