Birth Online : Birth Offline

‘Helen Knowles is an artist, curator and founder of the Birth Rites Collection. She has been funded by Arts Council England to carry out a research project, in the UK and New Mexico, USA, forming a cross-cultural participatory arts project exploring Native American and contemporary British perspectives on the idea of public birth.

At Castlefield Gallery Knowles will give a talk about the background to the project including a synopsis of the Birth Rites Collection, a forthcoming exhibition of her Youtube Portrait series (GV Art gallery, London) and her recent findings in New Mexico, where she was artist in residence at the Santa Fe Arts Institute researching Native American perspectives on birth. She will also present alongside Samantha Lippett, Birth Rites Intern, who accompanied her on the initial stage of the research in New Mexico. There will be a discussion following the talk and then participants will be asked to join in a talking circle to generate some ideas about British perspectives on birth and the proliferation of birth imagery online’.