Supported by funding from Arts Council England and as part of the national Season for Change, in Winter 2018 ONCA hosted an events programme about biodiversity, racial justice, and environmental justice.

The Exhibition

Remembrance Day for Lost Species (Lost Species Day), is a chance each year to explore the stories of extinct and critically endangered species, cultures, ways of life and ecological communities. To mark this year’s Lost Species Day at ONCA, curator Imani Robinson has collaborated with three POC artists: Matice Moore, Laurèl Hadleigh and Tsai Tung Li, to develop an exhibition at ONCA gallery, with an accompanying events programme.

The mainstream environmental movement continues to exclude, devalue and threaten the lives and lands of people of colour. In recognition of Lost Species Day, this exhibition features the work of three POC identified artists with distinct approaches to exploring the environmental impact of racism and capitalism as ongoing social disasters.

“Understandably we shrivel and retreat into stricken consequences of that catastrophe. But we have choices, and capitulation is only one of them.”

– taken from the Introduction of Some of Us Did Not Die, New and Selected Essays of June Jordan

In conversation with the past, the future, and each other, the work explores strategies and connections required to survive our current apocalyptic conditions. Whiteness has framed racialized bodies and knowledge as expendable, inconsequential, or hazardous to the values of empire.

But some of us did not die.

The programme

Saturday, 17 November 6pm: Open studio and conversation with Imani Robinson and Ama Josephine Budge

Wednesday, 28 November, 6 – 8pm: Exhibition launch event at the Gallery

Thursday, 29 November, 6.30pm: Talk on extinction by Dr. Sadiah Qureshi, historian of colonialism and empire

Saturday 1 December, from noon: Family art day and procession for Steller’s sea cow at the Barge

Wednesday 5 December, 6.30pm: Solidarity: an evening with Joshua Virasami, TJ Demos and Mads Ryle

Thursday 6 December, 6pm: BSL tour of the exhibition

Friday 14 December, 6.30pm – 830pm: Some of Did Us Did Not Die | Drink & Zine Workshop

Saturday 15 December, 11am – 1pm: Poetry workshop with Selina Nwulu

Media & Resources

Notes to Editors

This project is supported by funding from Arts Council England, and is part of the nationwide Season for Change – ‘celebrating the environment through culture and inspiring urgent action on climate change‘.

‘Person of Colour’ or POC is a term used to describe a person who is not white or of European heritage.

The exhibition is curated by Sorry You Feel Uncomfortable Collective member and ONCA trustee Imani Robinson.

Information about the Lost Species Day Residency Artists can be found here. 

About Lost Species Day

Remembrance Day for Lost Species (or RDLS, or Lost Species Day), 30 November, is an opportunity to explore the stories of species, cultures, ways of life and habitats driven extinct by unjust power structures and exploitation, past and ongoing. It emphasises that these losses are rooted in violent, racist and discriminatory economic and political practices. For more information on Lost Species Day please visit: www.lostspeciesday.org

About ONCA

ONCA supports the wellbeing of people and places by increasing awareness of, and engagement with, environmental and social challenges. We are a space for meeting, thinking, learning and celebrating art, always encouraging artists and audiences to ask big questions about difficult issues. We do all this from our gallery and seaside learning space in Brighton, UK, where we host a range of events – some led and curated by us, and some by visiting artists and companies who hire our venues. Upstairs at ONCA we also run workspaces for artists, charities and businesses.

Press Information

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