The Showroom
Project

TINA – There Is No Alternative

Tina_14b_dan_weill_photography
TINA, Digital Edition, April 2021

TINA – There Is No Alternative is a publication that builds upon the eponymous exhibition that took place at The Showroom between 5 June–17 July 2019; the first solo commission in the UK by artist Navine G. Dossos. This major exhibition took shape as a performative, durational installation combining live painting, a research archive and a series of workshops, talks, and events open to the public.

This publication, co-published by The Showroom and Chateau International, takes as a starting point Dossos’ ongoing research into the complex context of the UK government’s development of pre-crime and surveillance policies, in particular Prevent, questioning the politics of representation and the positioning of care that the strategies around those policies generate.

Texts in the book include new essays by Navine G. Dossos, Rob Faure Walker and Lily Hall alongside contributing writers who have engaged in written dialogues, Sadia Habib, Hassan Vawda, Rachel Coldicutt, Tarek Younis, Shezana Hafiz and Azfar Shafi from advocacy organisation CAGE, and William Skeaping from Extinction Rebellion. A text by Alexander Massouras, revised from his exhibition review of There Is No Alternative for Art Monthly in 2019, is also included. The book is designed by Mark Hurrell.

At the core of TINA at The Showroom has been the act of questioning what an alternative to Prevent could look like, involving a shared process between Dossos and all those who became collaboratively involved. In this way, the work of the exhibition was a live process of collaborative research, discussion, sharing knowledge and critical thinking between Dossos, The Showroom team, and all those who became a part of the project: a democratic process which this publication now seeks to extend further.

A Reflexive Editorial process was open from 1 April - 31 May 2021

Over the course of two months, the digital edition of TINA was open for feedback, thoughts and comments, ahead of the book being printed later in the year. This reflexive editorial process was a way for us to share the process and ideas, and for you to let us know your thoughts. This open, public process was invaluable as we waited to hear the findings of the UK government’s Independent Review of Prevent.

Whilst the reflexive editorial process is now closed, you can still leave your comments in response to the digital edition here in this online form or you can email your feedback to [email protected].

Image: Navine G. Dossos, TINA, Digital Edition, April 2021. Published by The Showroom and Chateau International. Design: Mark Hurrell

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The Reflexive Editorial Process was open from 1 April - 31 May 2021

Contribute your feedback to the digital edition of TINA HERE

For further information contact [email protected]

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Order: The printed edition is available for £25. Please contact Lily Hall for all enquiries

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Navine G. Dossos (b. 1982, London) is a visual artist working between London and Athens. Her interests include Orientalism in the digital realm, geometry as information and decoration, image calibration, and Aniconism in contemporary culture. As a painter, Dossos uses the medium and its history to ask fundamental questions about the ways in which we see, understand, and, crucially, represent the world around us. Her work suggests that contrary to the mediatic impulses of the present, we must not rely upon, nor constantly reproduce, the figurative language of television, online media, videos, and the endlessly circulating images that shape our shared imagination of reality. Rather, she is invested in the discovery of a new language that better reflects the patterns and connections that underlie these images and their related experiences.

Dossos’s research in 2020 led to a new seres of paintings looking at the similarity between logos used to visually communicate both Prevent and the Covid-19 pandemic, sharing symbols of protection, care, but also threat, vigilance and resistance to contamination. Much of this visual language of Covid is shared with Anti-terrorism, and as such the paintings and this new publication open up an enquiry into and considerations of the crossovers between these rhetorical approaches. It also aims to position collaborative thinking and consideration of the Prevent strategy in line with the timeline for the UK Government’s own review of Prevent, which will be published in September 2021.

This project forms part of The Showroom's trans-disciplinary programme Radical Citizenship. Projects within this programme engage with socio-political, theoretical and artistic processes for the reinvention of agency and governance in the environment of our contemporary cities.

Radical Citizenship is a cooperative project between The Showroom and Goethe-Institut London within the framework of Echoes of the South Atlantic, a project promoting collaborative art production in Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and South America.

Dossos studied History of Art at Cambridge University, Arabic at Kuwait University, Islamic Art at the Prince’s School of Traditional Art in London, and holds an MA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art & Design, London. In 2014/2015, she was a participant at the Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht (NL). She has exhibited and worked with various institutions, including SALT (Istanbul), The 4th Istanbul Design Biennial, The Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven) The Museum of Islamic Art (Doha), Witte de With (Rotterdam), The Delfina Foundation (London), The Library of Amiens (Amiens), Leighton House Museum (London), The Benaki Museum of Islamic Art (Athens) and the A.M. Qattan Foundation (Ramallah). She has published work in The White Review and The Happy Hypocrite. She is currently a tutor on the MA program at the Dutch Art Institute (Arnhem) and a member of the Substantial Motion Research Network.

  1. Tina_2_dan_weill_photography
    Video TINA: Book Launch

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    Event TINA – There Is No Alternative Reflexive Editorial Process

  3. Tina_14b_dan_weill_photography
    Publication Navine G. Dossos: TINA – There Is No Alternative

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    Limited Edition Navine G. Dossos: TINA I-XXX