Memories of Keraniganj Jail, 2019, Sofia Karim. Photo by Shahidul Alam.
Book tickets
Join writers, artists and filmmakers Lola Olufemi, Sofia Kari, and Saeed Taji Farouky to imagine a rethinking of the present justice system – a collective countering of the violence inherent in policing, prisons and punishment.
Artist, architect and activist Sofia Karim will present her ongoing work on 'architectures of disappearance,' developed in response to the political imprisonment of her uncle, Shahidul Alam, in Bangladesh in 2018. She will share visual material alongside her evolving letter-writing practice, developed as part of Visualizing Abolition at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Black feminist writer and researcher Lola Olufemi will present a performance lecture drawn from her experiments in imagining otherwise, challenging the logic of carceral systems and opening up ideas of collective futurity.
Filmmaker and founder of the Radical Film School, Saeed Taji Farouky, will offer a performative intervention addressing the UK government’s erosion of civil liberties, including the criminalisation of protest and the reframing of direct action as terrorism.
The evening builds towards a collective act of solidarity and resistance, focusing not only on what can be dismantled, but on what can be built together.
This second event in the Visible Justice residency continues their exploration of sites of resistance and abolitionist futures.
- - -
This is a two-part programme which continues the following day with a screening of Steve McQueen's film Hunger. The screening will include a short introduction by special guests from Prisoners for Palestine.
Artist, architect and activist Sofia Karim will present her ongoing work on 'architectures of disappearance,' developed in response to the political imprisonment of her uncle, Shahidul Alam, in Bangladesh in 2018. She will share visual material alongside her evolving letter-writing practice, developed as part of Visualizing Abolition at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Black feminist writer and researcher Lola Olufemi will present a performance lecture drawn from her experiments in imagining otherwise, challenging the logic of carceral systems and opening up ideas of collective futurity.
Filmmaker and founder of the Radical Film School, Saeed Taji Farouky, will offer a performative intervention addressing the UK government’s erosion of civil liberties, including the criminalisation of protest and the reframing of direct action as terrorism.
The evening builds towards a collective act of solidarity and resistance, focusing not only on what can be dismantled, but on what can be built together.
This second event in the Visible Justice residency continues their exploration of sites of resistance and abolitionist futures.
- - -
This is a two-part programme which continues the following day with a screening of Steve McQueen's film Hunger. The screening will include a short introduction by special guests from Prisoners for Palestine.
Bios
Saeed Taji Farouky is a filmmaker, radical educator, and activist. He is co-founder of Radical Film School, a free film programme for people from marginalised backgrounds interested in keeping the tradition of radical filmmaking alive.
Sofia Karim is an architect and activist based in London. Her activism focuses on human rights across Bangladesh and India. She campaigns for the release of prisoners. She has exhibited at venues including Tate Modern (London), V&A (London), Rubin Museum (NY), Arthshila Ahmedebad (India), CCLM (Chile) and Documenta 15 (Kunsthaus Göttingen). She was a finalist for the Jameel Prize in 2021. In November 2023 she set up Architects for Palestine / Tragic Turn, an initiative which raises funds for Gaza by offering architectural design advice on everyday projects. She is currently working in creative collaboration with Timothy James Young, a prisoner on California's death row.
Lola Olufemi is a black feminist writer and researcher from London. She is a lecturer in Fine Art Critical Studies at Goldsmiths University. Her work focuses on the utility of the political imagination in the textual and visual cultures of radical social movements, examining the role cultural production plays in materialist resistance and collective conceptualisations of futurity. She is author of Feminism Interrupted: Disrupting Power (Pluto Press, 2020), Experiments in Imagining Otherwise (Hajar Press, 2021), the forthcoming Against Literature (Peninsula Press, 2026) and a member of 'bare minimum', an interdisciplinary anti-work arts collective. She occasionally curates and is a member of the organising team at the Feminist Library based in Peckham.
Book tickets
Thu, 09 Jul 2026
Nash and Brandon Rooms
06:30 pm
Ticket information
- All tickets that do not require ID (full price, disabled, income support) can be printed at home or stored in email
- For aged-based concession tickets (under 25, student) please bring relevant ID to collect at the front desk before the event.
Access information
Nash and Brandon Rooms
- The Nash and Brandon Rooms are located on the second floor and can be accessed via a ramp and lift from Carlton House Terrace. Please note that the lift is small (see measurements in our Visual Story Guide) and cannot accommodate motorised wheelchairs; a transfer to a standard chair is required. For assistance, please speak to staff at the front desk on arrival or contact us in advance at access@ica.art.
- Sensory Maps and Large Print Guides are available at the information and sales desk.
- Free entry is available for visitors where ticket prices are a barrier. Please email access@ica.art for more information.
- For further access information or specific requirements, please visit our Access Page.
Related event
Hunger by Steve McQueen
Fri 10 Jul, 6:30pm
Screening
The second part of Carceral Injustice: Imagining Abolition will comprise a screening of Steve McQueen’s film Hunger (2008). It explores the limits of the human body in acts of resistance, which foregrounds the 66-day hunger strike of Irish political prisoner Bobby Sands at the Maze Prison in 1981.
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Sofia Karim
Saeed Taji Farouky
Lola Olufemi
