Portfolio
a prayer for Coventry, life starts here (forever), 2023 - 2025
a prayer for Coventry, life starts here (forever) was a commission/two year residency (2023 - 2025) at The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum as part of the 20:20 project run by UAL Decolonising Arts Institute.
It was exhibited at The Herbert in 2025. It was made up of a video, a zine and ribbons. The Herbert has now acquired the video and zine.
Video - watch here
The video centres an audio track which interweaves six interviews found in the oral history collection at The Herbert. All of the interviews were recorded around the millennium and are with people from Coventry or who were living in the city at the time the interviews were recorded. The audio track also features original piano and accordion by composer and musician Ruby Kyriakides, arranged by sound designer Meera Shakti Osbourne. Present day scenes of the city filmed by the artist, as well text on screen from the my grandparents (who are from Coventry), serve as a visual accompaniment.
The theme of the video is life itself and is split into the following sections: early family life, school and growing up, going to work, belonging, love and relationships, identity and finally, reflections/the meaning of life. Inspired by the Peace and Reconciliation collection at The Herbert, each section loosely explores everyday moments of peace, conflict and reconciliation as experienced by people who lived in Coventry.
Through centering oral histories, as ephemeral manifestations of lived experience, the video seeks to challenge the traditional hierarchy of historical/academic knowledge. The way the video interweaves different people's lives questions the way museums (and humans!) categorise people, identities, experiences and life.
The main aim is to showcase the love, loss and beauty present in life and Coventry.
Zine
The zine provides additional context to the video. It includes the artist's personal reflection on the process of this commission/residency and further explorations of themes such as life, death, family, archiving and decolonisation.
Ribbons
The ribbons are inspired by ‘ribbons of peace’ which the artist found tied around a bench in the graveyard where her Uncle George is buried and of course, the once thriving weaving trade in Coventry.
Lines from the oral history interviews used in the video are woven into the ribbon
Video Credits
Voices: Chris Christie, Ewan Wilkins, Joyanti Mukherji, Mavis Miles,Karem Singh Gill, Babs Hays
All of the voices in this video are from interviews in The Herbet’s oral histories collection. The interviews were conducted as part of The Herbet’s 'Reflecting on our Past, Present and Future' millenium project. The project was run by outreach officer Stacey Bains, The interviews selected for this video were recorded between 2000 - 2002. The interviewers were Stacey Bains and Helen Whitcombe.
Filmed and edited by: Cora Sehgal Cuthbert
Music by: Ruby Kyriakides
Sound design by: Meera Shakti Osbourne
Mixing and mastering by: Alex Sushon
Zine Credits
Content by: Cora Sehgal Cuthbert
Designed by: Anna Corfa Isehayek
Printed by: Page Masters
Ribbon Credits
Contents: quotes from interviews found in the oral history collection at The Herbert
Designed by: Cora Sehgal Cuthbert
Made by: Woven Labels UK
Unbound Love (shrine making workshop), Barbican, 2022,
As part of the Re: Repair exhibition at the Barbican, I invited members of the public to join in a series of free shrine making workshops. Drawing upon the presence of Hinduism and Christianity within my family history, these sessions explored shrines as a way of practising love and learning. During the workshops, participants made their own individual shrines dedicated to an object which they wish to (re)connect to. Participants then displayed what they made within one collective shrine which was shown during the Re: Repair exhibition
I Left Love Here Somewhere, Swiss Church, 2022
I Left Love Here Somewhere was a mixed media installation based upon mine and my Nan’s relationship. It is the culminating exhibition of my 2022 Artist Residency at the Swiss Church.
Made up of text, photography, sculpture and print, the installation explores the ways in which the themes of family, immigration, spirituality, grief, isolation, mental health, care, love and loss intertwine.
When all seems to be lost, can love still be found?
My Life and Yours, Birth, Beer and Sex, 2021
Commissioned by Don’t Google It, exhibited at Bow Arts. Awarded Second Prize for the East London Art Prize
Watch here
My Life and Yours, Birth, Beer and Sex, commissioned by Don't Google It, is a video in which I explore how having dwarfism has informed my experience of drinking down the pub and sex/desire. In this work I focus on what I see to be the contradictory elements, such as pleasure and danger, involved in these activities and how having a disability can emphasise such contradictions. While offering a very personal take on these topics, I also aim to explore why and how the contradictory elements of drinking down the pub and sex/desire have the potential to be felt, to varying degrees, by anyone. My Life and Yours, Birth, Beer and Sex, highlights a particular narrative which is largely ignored by wider society - the narrative of a disabled person. It simultaneously explores ways in which all of our particular individual narratives might intertwine. <3333
East London Everything, 2018
Awarded the Acme Studio Award
This particular installation focuses on East London, an area which I would consider (one of) my home(s). Full of shared experiences, memories and associations which take the form of observational text, mono prints and photographs, it aims to present the multitude of personal/cultural connections I see within this specific place. The installation also includes casts of ‘low’ sub/pop cultural objects (e.g trainers) alongside ‘high’ cultural objects (e.g a priest’s hat). The decision to reproduce them in the same beautiful material suggests divinity within the profane and democratises (what I see) as their equal beauty. With artists Gilbert and George stating that, “nothing happens in the world that doesn’t happen in the East End”, throughout this (hopefully) loving, humorous, celebratory installation and its repeated motifs, I aim to demonstrate a universal humanity/spirituality there by revealing East London’s connection to everything else in the world.