Venue: The Edge

Rooted Through Realms Exhibition Launch

We warmly welcome you to the opening of Rooted Through Realms, a solo exhibition by artist-curator Shaheen Kasmani, featuring a new body of work that explores land justice, inspired by the gardens of paradise.

This Digbeth First Friday launch event will include a DJ set by the wonderful Fatuma Khaireh, as well as mehndi stalls and food.

About the exhibition

Rooted Through Realms calls upon us to bear witness and connect the dots between ongoing settler colonialism, climate change, and local and global injustices, whilst also encouraging us to employ our senses and otherworldly faculties to collectively imagine new possibilities as inspired by the gardens of paradise.

This exhibition was conceived by Shaheen Kasmani and co-curated by Aaisha Akhtar. In developing this exhibition together, Shaheen and Aaisha have been in conversation since 2023. In 2024, Shaheen undertook a residency with Ort Gallery to focus on her artistic research and development, allowing her to create this new body of work. Together, they explored themes of divine justice, mercy, and life-affirming ways of seeing in relation to this earthly plane.

Rooted Through Realms was made possible with support from Arts Council England. Shaheen’s residency and Or

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SANKOFA

Evelyn Andoh begins her artist‑in‑residency at Friction Arts during First Friday, marking the start of a new collaboration with local artists and communities in Birmingham. Working at the intersection of couture, scenography and choreography, Evelyn’s practice centres sustainability, upcycling and the deep cultural knowledge held within textiles. Born in Accra and raised in Friesland, her work explores the interplay between her Ghanaian roots and Dutch identity, guided by the Akan principle of Sankofa — looking back to ancestral wisdom to move forward. Her residency builds on Friction Arts’ commitment to long‑term, community‑rooted collaboration, creating space for shared making, storytelling and collective experimentation. Through workshops and encounters, Evelyn invites participants to explore how fabric holds memory, identity and connection, transforming personal and cultural histories into collaborative textile expressions that reflect the relationships formed within the space.

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