Gender Ecologies
Corinna Dean
Funded by the British Council Pakistan/UK partnership (Gender Ecologies call) January – October 2023
Intertidal zone at the Lower Lea Valley
THE GENDER ECOLOGIES PROJECT is a collaboration between architect Corinna Dean, architect Marvi Mazhar, filmmaker Zohaib Kazi and performance artist Abuzar Madhu.
Focusing on the Indus and Ravi Rivers in Pakistan, the project builds upon existing collaborations with farmers and community alleys fisherwomen and attempts to underscore the integral relationship between indigenous knowledge of land, ecology and cultural practices. As part of the project, a documentary film will be developed to capture the stories of three activist fisherwomen from three locations near the river and the sea who will talk about environmental degradation, land rights and human / non-human epistemologies through poems, songs and inherited knowledge.
Dean’s response to the investigation is from the perspective of her research and work around the Lower Lea Valley exploring how water lies between the intersection of landscape and infrastructure, and how to engage with contamination of the waterways and environment in an artful way. The work is partly explored through engagement with the Cody Dock Charity with whom Dean has collaborated through undergraduate and postgraduate architecture Design Studio she tutors to design and build floating reed beds and a community growing space.
The project formed the basis for Dean’s article which was awarded second prize in the 2022 Architecture Foundation Writing Prize, in the category ‘Design and the Climate and Biodiversity Emergencies’.
