LANGUID HANDS




 



Languid Hands
is London-based artistic and curatorial collaboration between filmmaker and DJ Rabz Lansiquot and artist and writer Imani Mason Jordan. The duo explore collaboration, curation, black study and experimentation across exhibitions, moving image, text, performance, publications and public programming. They were Lead Curators of the Artistic Programme at 198 Contemporary Arts & Learning in Herne Hill 2023-4.

In 2023 Languid Hands curated Ebun Sodipo’s Nasty Girl (The Sharpest Girl In Town) at V.O. Curations, London. No Real Closure, their programme as Curatorial Fellows at Cubitt, London (2020-2) featured the work of numerous artists, including R.I.P Germain, Ajamu X, Camara Taylor and Shenece Oretha. In 2021, Languid Hands curated the LIVE programme for Frieze London, commissioning new performances from Rebecca Bellantoni, Ebun Sodipo & Ashley Holmes.

Languid Hands began collaborating in 2015, through their work with the collective sorryyoufeeluncomfortable (SYFU). SYFU projects included public programming in a variety of institutions and community spaces in the UK and Europe, as well as co-curating the BBZBLKBK Alternative Graduate Show 2018 at Copeland Gallery, London and (BUT) WHAT ARE YOU DOING ABOUT WHITE SUPREMACY? at Many Studios as part of Glasgow International Festival 2018. 

In 2019, Languid Hands curated the group exhibition away, completely: denigrate, at narrative projects, London. That same year, they made their first collaborative film work, Towards A Black Testimony: Prayer/Protest/Peace, commissioned by Jerwood Arts for the group exhibition Jerwood Collaborate! And also as a solo exhibition & extended public programme at Stroom Den Haag, NL. Towards A Black Testimony is an ongoing artistic and curatorial project that has been exhibited and explored in various iterations internationally, most recently as part of the group exhibition Codes of Silence at Slash, San Francisco, 2022, curated by Leila Weefur.







Rabz Lansiquot is a filmmaker, programmer, curator, and DJ.  In 2023, they curated Across-Over-Beyond, a group exhibition showcasing the work of 20 trans* artists at SS65, London, as part of the extended programme for Fringe Queer Film & Arts Festival. Rabz is convener of the BA module Diversity in British Film & Media with the University of Pittsburgh at Birkbeck (2023/4) and has previously lectured on Black Liberatory Cinema for the MFA at Goldsmiths UoL (2022/3). They are the author of “Circumventing the Spectacle of Black Trauma In Practice” published in Black Film British Cinema II (Goldsmiths Press, 2021).

Rabz was a programmer for Sheffield Doc Fest 2021 and on the selection committee for the same festival in 2020. They have also curated film programmes at the ICA, SQIFF, Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival and others. In 2019, they were a programme advisor for London Film Festival’s Experimenta strand, as well as Curator-In-Residence at LUX Moving Image, developing a public and educational programme around Black liberatory cinema. Their film where did we land, an experimental visual essay exploring the use of images of anti-black violence in film and media, was on view at LUX in Summer 2019.

Rabz is also co-founder of South London dyke night WET, and has had a monthly show on Balamii Radio since 2017.


Imani Mason Jordan 
is an interdisciplinary writer, artist, editor and curator interested in poetics and performance.

Imani has written numerous articles, reviews, essays, poems, plays and love letters, some of which they have published. Since 2016, they have developed a keen interest in poetics, oration, experimentation and practices of reading aloud, from which they have synthesised a performance practice that centres writing and collaboration as well as using the speaking voice as an instrument.

Imani is currently working on their debut poetry collection, THE BOOK OF SLASH POEMS and their solo performance work TREAD/MILL. Recent performance/audio projects include: EARTHLY ACCOMPLICE (2023) with Felix Taylor at MACBA, Barcelona & Crosness Pumping Station, London; ATLANTIC RAILTON: LIVE (2021) with Ain Bailey at Serpentine Pavilion, London & WELCOME NOTE IN A WELCOME SPEECH (2019) with Libita Sibungu at Gasworks, London & Spike Island, Bristol.

After completing their MA in Forensic Architecture at Goldsmiths in 2019, their pamphlet OBJECTS WHO TESTIFY was published by Taylor Le Melle at PSS. Imani is Director of PAPERFLESH PUBLISHING, a multi-genre small press and editing studio for the intellectually rigorous, politically minded black writer.