whatsthebigmistry: The Empire’s Old Clothes

Tune in for free online to a short non-linear film challenging the myths and propaganda around the British Empire, created by artist whatsthebigmistry.

The Empire’s Old Clothes draws on influences, aesthetics and politics from Indian and Afrofuturism, queer culture, and experiences of ableism and racism in post-Empire Brexit Britain.

This piece is inspired by the folktale The Emperor’s New Clothes, which tells a story about the ways in which the perpetuation of deceitful narratives support outdated and malevolent power structures that continue to work even once ‘outed’.

whatsthebigmistry is a multidisciplinary artist, socially engaged worker and creative producer whose practice straddles visual art, performance, dance, film, photography & digital archiving. Mistry’s practice is underpinned by the deconstruction of language and exploration of sensory/non-word based vocabularies.

Their work explores and generates discourse at the intersection of identities on the topics of invisible dis/ability/neurodiversity, BIPOC/Global Majority, queer and feminist politics, while investigatng human bodies, functional and everyday objects as sculptural propositions, generating choreographies and arrangements between bodies, objects and space.