Co-Lab is an annual series of artist-led workshops, organised in collaboration with LU Arts and free to all Loughborough University Students. Taking place across one week each January, workshops are designed to cross disciplinary and methodological boundaries, introducing participants to artistic methods that can be used to address contemporary social, political and technological concerns. 

Effigy as Political Protest

 In Dash N' Dem's workshop participants will collectively make and perform an effigy as a political protest. The burning and destruction of sculptural representations is an ancient and ritualistic form of protest that continues to exist as a visual tactic today. Over the last twenty years, effigies have become increasingly visible in the media, as part of protest demonstrations. We have also seen a rise in political caricatures being included in a range of traditions, from Boris urinating on newspapers in the annual Lewes Bonfire Night, to Trump effigies being burnt across Mexico as part of an annual holy week tradition. 

As we move toward a moment of national transition, who or what will we choose to represent and perform as a collective catharsis? 

Booking

Please click here to book (Loughborough University students only). A £3 deposit is required, refunded to those who attend the workshop. No prior experience or specialist knowledge is required.

Dash N’ Dem are a design action group who produce participatory projects concerning political education and engagement. Ideas inhabit varied media and platforms, using co-creation as a form of activism that provokes diverse audiences to speak out and think critically and creatively. Their collaborative productions transpose research into historic and emergent forms of radical education, organisation and agitation into live actions that incite collective learning experiences.

Dash Macdonald is a lecturer in the Department of Design at Goldsmiths and Demitrios Kargotis is a Senior lecturer at Birmingham School of Art