In this workshop, artist Zahra Komeylian invites participants to engage with practices of listening and tuning for resetting nervous system dysregulation.

Our bodies record resonances of collective pain as exhaustion and trauma in the nervous system. In the face of global catastrophe and ongoing grief, building capacity in the body opens space to sustain collective action, empathy, and relationality, rather than collapse. Participants will play with polyvagal exercises, deep listening, movement, and explore resourcing practices for building felt somatic safety.

Note:

  • This program has a limited capacity. Register via Eventbrite.
  • Participants are encouraged to arrive and settle at 10am, wear comfortable clothing, and bring water to drink. Water will also be provided on site.

This Program is part of andbothwith_lively adjacencies + proximal intimacies a series of Public Programs taking place in and around Pamila Matharu’s installation tere naal | with you:

In the spirit of community-engaged place-making and liberatory practices that centre relational healing, artists and thinkers are invited to invoke, inspire and conjure solidarity-building through conversations, activations, and workshops. Pamila offers this series as an śaradhān̄jalī (homage) to her mentor, artist Winsom Winsom, honouring their on-going relationship with each other as artists and teachers.

Date

November 2

Time

10:30am – 12:00pm

This venue is wheelchair accessible.

This venue has a Quiet Room.

Register

This program is free, but registration is required in order to attend.

REGISTER HERE

Artist Bio

Zahra Komeylian

Zahra Komeylian (b. 1991) is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in Tkaronto/Toronto. Komeylian’s practice is grounded in self-reflexive processes, often resulting in conjoint works of performance art, sculpture-installation, text, and drawing, which inform one another in circularity. Since 2015, she has worked in community education, mental health and community art spaces, and primarily with trauma-informed modalities. Her studio research leans into preverbal aspects of subjectivity as they are expressed through personal myth and autotheory, collective symbology (archetype), collective impulses, and embodied knowledge.

Zahra holds an MA in Psychology from Columbia University (2017) and Master of Teaching from the University of Toronto (2023). She is a recipient of the Ontario Arts Council Chalmers Fellowship for emerging artists and has presented work both locally and internationally, including at Carleton University Art Gallery (2020), Toronto Biennial of Art (2019), Asian Art Biennale (2018), Xpace Cultural Centre (2019), CICA Museum (2018), New Media Society, Tehran (2018), and Gardiner Museum (2017). Her upcoming solo exhibition will be presented at NARS foundation, New York, in August 2024.