Pin Back Tha Lug 'Oles

Fatima Alaiwat

7–18 October 2025: Artbomb, Doncaster

Artist Fatima Alaiwat will undertake a research residency in Doncaster, exploring how we might deepen our ways of listening to rivers, to landscapes, and to the more-than-human worlds that shape and sustain us. Working closely with the River Don, and supported by Don Catchment Rivers Trust (DCRT) and Artbomb, this process-based exploration asks: how might we learn, relearn and unlearn to truly listen to a river? What practices might help us attune to environmental multitudes, kinships, ancient histories and possible futures?

The residency will unfold through sensory and relational approaches, foregrounding listening as a practice of attention, care and reciprocity. The work invites us to step away from the noise and disconnection of dominant ways of living, and towards ways of being that are cyclical, poetic and responsive.

The title, Pin Back Tha Lug 'Oles, a colloquial northern phrase meaning “listen up”, speaks to this call. As Simon Topham notes:

“It carries a note of urgency and a distinctly northern sense of place. It implies someone is about to tell a significant story- one that everyone, from communities to policymakers, needs to hear.”

Rooted in feminine modalities and attuned to cycles over time, Fatima Alaiwat’s practice engages sensory entry points such as composting, foraging, walking and cooking to activate relational processes with the more-than-human world. Outcomes have included writing, installations, food events and workshops, all emerging from an embodied practice of listening.

The residency will culminate in a public opening at Artbomb in the final days.