JAZ MORRISON
writer. artist. curator.
For updates, follow @jazmor_ on Instagram (and Twitter).
For Jaz's work with BRMTWN, visit BRMTWN's portfolio site.
For enquiries, reach out via jaz(at)eastsideprojects.org
To purchase selected prints, the Shop link will take you to Stryx's store where some of Jaz's works are available to buy.
GOD-POCKET
"You are invited into the GOD-POCKET, an Afrospeculative ‘firmament’ situated between time and space. It is a crossroads between the seen past and unseen future; a pocket universe where Otherness learns to become morphological.
"Black Britain is a growing culture within the Black African Diaspora. But formative milestones are often usurped by bigotry and capitalism. These Afro-Diasporic musings have highlighted a need to create and hijack ‘liminal spaces’ within the public sphere for social practice."
Liminal People: Guided Meditation & Film Night
"The films draw upon the musings and anxieties present within the Black British Diaspora – refuge from systemic violence; the tangibility of ‘Black Britishness’; a lack of tools to work through trauma; and the other cultural-social implications of a postcolonial aftermath."
A precursory event, curated by Jaz Morrison.
'Equations for a Body at Rest': Artsy, Best Public Art of 2022
In 2022, Jaz worked on the offsite curation team for Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi's 'Equations for a Body at Rest', assisting with community engagement, and organising a micro-screening festival that positioned Thenjiwe's film alongside local filmmakers including Yonatan Tiruneh.
Project information:
equationsforabodyatrest.com
EARTHSTRONG:
Creating Joy Film Festival & Roundtable
"The ‘Creating Joy Film Festival & Roundtable‘ is designed to prove a needed space for Black Diasporic filmmakers and artists to unsettle dominant representations of Blackness in visual culture. [...]
Jaz Morrison (director and writer) and Fábio Calundungo (cinematographer) will be showcasing their experimental film ‘EARTHSTRONG’, a homage to the restorative power of community, told through the aesthetic of a black-and-white, silent film."
Wolveren Watchmen:
OFFSITE9
"JAZ MORRISON’s ‘Wolveren Watchmen’ features the stories of four Wolverhampton-based workers and residents: NEOne the Wonderer, Mickey Angel, Leanne O’Connor & Sahjan Kooner, with the emphasis that it is the people who make a city what it is, not the institutions."
Creating Joy:
Stephen Lawrence Research Centre
"'Creating Joy: Art, Refusal and the Worlding of Black Lives’ is a radical, digital space that explores Black diasporic life through artmaking.
"[...] the project explores the creation of spaces of care that normalise Black practices of refusal (Brand, 2020)."
OFFSITE9: The British Art Show 2022
"4 female photographers explore navigating regional reparative histories when we document culture. [...]
"It's important if we are serious about how we imagine more successful futures together that we start first with creating opportunities for agency with our creatives, and trust that their experiences and histories don't need institutional interpretation."
The Spatial Imagination
MAIA's The Spatial Imagination (29th – 30th January 2021), involved 28 artists and speakers, and over 360 attendees from 9 different countries.
Jaz explored the theme 'In a Liberated Future, I Imagine...' in conversation with Auden Allen.
PEEP@STRYX
Press Release
In 2020, Stryx began a 6-month long online residency programme called ‘Peep@Stryx,’ showcasing the diversity of artistic practices in the West Midlands.
22 artists participated between June and October.
Firmament:
Ikon Youth Programme
"Jaz Morrison collaborated with IYP to respond to 'A Ship Called Jesus (Redux)' (2021) by Keith Piper. [...] Firmament explored the movement of the Black Diaspora across sea, sky and land. Through gestural movements with objects, such as flags, IYP considered the idea of ‘everyday life’ as sacred."
Atlantics & Blackness
"From slavery, to the Windrush Generation (and their deportations decades later), to the Brain Drain [...] and refugees trying to escape capitalism and colonialism, the sea is an ever-present figure throughout the black diaspora."
Switch Radio, 2019
Switch Radio Host Ashlee Elizabeth-Lolo interviews Jaz Morrison about BRMTWN and the work they've been doing.
Switch Radio is a community radio station, broadcasting from the North East Birmingham region. For more, visit switchradio.co.uk
Culture Catwalk: Meet the Team
"We don’t want people to just stumble across our Culture Catwalk stage, we want people to be anticipating our stage, [...]
"The Culture Catwalk is a massive an opportunity to shed light on Birmingham’s creative scenes and artists."
Finding Myself in Funkadelic
"One of the best ways to find yourself is to take a journey back to your origins and find out why certain things are the way they are.
"That’s when you finally begin to understand your parents’ preference of okra and bammy over McDonalds."