GENESIS (Rharha Nembhard & Gemma Shepherd) Film Screening

Sunday December 11th, 2022 at 7pm PST

Join us for a special screening of GENESIS, a performance film in conjunction with GI/TA & Rharha Nembhard's CLENCH exhibition at Heavy Manners Library.

This film is collaborative project between Rochelle Nembhard and Gemma Sheperd, made in the chaotic solitude of 2020/21 exploring the relationship between women and rocks - the origin of life - Genesis.

Born out of the inner grappling both artists experienced at the height of the femicide epidemic as women in South Africa, Genesis" is inspired by the freedom song “You Strike a Woman, You Strike a Rock / Wathint’ Abafazi, Wathint’ Imbokodo”sung in 1956 by South African women during their march to the union buildings in defiance of carrying passes - (a further infringement on their limited rights and freedoms) the phrase has become synonymous with women's strength and courage in South Africa. Using this term as a point of departure, this film seeks to honour the insurmountable strength of women and our ability to endure but also question this endurance. When you strike a woman, you do not strike a rock, you strike a woman. The reality is that there is only so much we can endure till we break, suffocate and die. Spiritually, women have always had the ability to transcend pain, this has been a simultaneous gift and curse. This film interrogates the dichotomies and complexities that this duality presents us with through the literal and symbolic use of rock, body and hair.