Visual artist Herfa Martina Thompson and Law lecturer Dr Zoe Tongue shared their explorations into reproductive technologies and utopian futures.
The Reproductive Futures sharing event showcased the work that they’ve produced as part of their Leeds Creative Labs follow-on fund collaboration – a programme that partners artists and academics initiated by the University of Leeds’ Cultural Institute.
Herfa and Zoe had been selected as recipients of the Leeds Creative Labs Follow on Fund, an extension fund supporting collaborators ready to trial and test the ideas previously discussed to develop a proof of concept. They had proposed plans to continue their research, asking how they can explore reproductive health experiences, and the stigma attached, using art as a means of conversation to speculate a utopian future for reproductive rights.
Their research asked how they can explore reproductive health experiences, and the stigma attached, using art as a means of conversation to speculate a utopian future for reproductive rights. This research has informed the development of artwork, created through screenprinting and risograph techniques, which can reflect on those conversations.
Dr Zoe Tongue (she/they) is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Leeds. She teaches and researches abortion law, medical negligence, and reproductive rights. They also write about representations of reproduction in utopian and dystopian science fiction, as a way of thinking about reproductive futures. Outside of her academic work, Zoe is keen to develop her own creative practice.
Herfa Martina Thompson (she/her) is an artist based in Leeds. Her work is often concerned with telling stories of black bodies and communities, and their proximity to water primarily through painting but has also worked in textiles, ceramics and performance. She is strongly influenced by her multicultural and international upbringing in Zambia and Zimbabwe and living in a very long drought whilst knowing her family were from Jamaica and Sierra Leone.
Find Herfa: herfathompson.com | @herfamartinathompson/
Find Zoe: leeds.ac.uk/law/staff/2130/dr-zoe-tongue
This event was funded by the University of Leeds Cultural Institute and supported by East Street Arts.
