TINA

TINA – There Is No Alternative is a new 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. Khan-Dossos. This major new commission 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 Khan-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. Khan-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 & 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 the project at The Showroom has been the act of questioning what an alternative to Prevent could look like, involving a shared process between Khan-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 Khan-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.