Contact me at: info@larissashaw.studio
You are not permitted to use any of my intellectual ideas as your own. Please contact me for permission should you wish to reference any of my work.
NB: When I mention ‘Women’, this term refers to a historical lens of a projected society of gender binary onto those assigned female at birth (AFABs). My research is encompassing of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Queer individuals.
I learned that I am a direct descendant of the last person burned at the stake in the UK. In 1612, Edward Wightman was executed for heresy in Lichfield, around 10 miles from where I now live. I first heard this story from an elderly woman who stopped to speak to me while I was working in my sister's front garden during lockdown. A few years later, while researching my family tree, I discovered the story was true. The woman who shared it also turned out to be a distant relative—a cousin of my paternal grandmother. I find it interesting that this oral history survived for more than 400 years without ever being written down. It sparked my interest in oral histories as legitimate forms of knowledge, particularly women's oral histories, which have so often been dismissed, erased, or excluded from historical records. Even when documented, women's experiences were frequently interpreted through the language of hysteria or madness rather than recognised as valid sources of information.
This discovery led me to the European witch trials and the systematic erasure of women's knowledge: knowledge of their bodies, their communities, and their histories. Many of the first women accused were midwives, herbalists, and community healers whose embodied and intergenerational knowledge existed outside institutional authority. As medicine became increasingly professionalised from the sixteenth century onwards, patriarchal systems of learning actively excluded women practitioners, often dismissing them as 'quacks'. I am interested in what forms of oral and embodied knowledge were lost through these processes and how medicine might look today had those women not been persecuted, silenced, or excluded from its history.
In 2022, after becoming suicidal from pain, I was finally diagnosed with endometriosis, 15 years after the onset of my first symptoms. Severe full-body chronic pain had shaped my daily life for over a decade, while repeated encounters with medical disbelief, dismissal, and psychological iatrogenesis (medical harm) compounded that suffering. My diagnosis prompted me to interrogate the historical narratives that I believe continue to underpin contemporary delays in endometriosis diagnosis and treatment.
My research explores the European witch trials and the medical diagnosis of female hysteria as historical frameworks that continue to shape gender inequalities within contemporary endometriosis healthcare. Situated within a 'continuum historical feminist lens' (Federici, 2010, Precarious Labour: A Feminist Viewpoint), I examine how women's pain, health autonomy, and access to healthcare remain entangled with the historical foundations of Western medicine and wider intersections of gender and disability discrimination.
I am particularly interested in tracing the pathologising of women's pain across history as a lasting legacy of today's gender pain gap in healthcare. Through archival research, I document historical narratives that I speculate may describe endometriosis before the condition was formally named in 1925. My artistic practice translates this research into textile installations, screen prints, and embroidery that weave together historical research, feminist theory, autoethnography, and embodied experience. Learning new material processes forms an important part of my practice, allowing the properties and limitations of materials to become collaborators in communicating pain, memory, and medical histories.
My wider interests encompass disability and gender studies, Early Modern history, women's oral histories, and feminist medical anthropology. Alongside my research, I am training to become a death midwife, reflecting my ongoing interest in the spaces between medicine, ritual, care, and the liminal peripheries between life and death.
I am diagnosed dyslexic, so kindly accept my writing errors.
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Old bio: I am interested in ungoverned libraries of knowledge and knowledge [re]production. The work I make aims to playfully document the commons between people and communities as places of sanctuaries, where trust and cooperation is prioritised over competition. I orientate my practice in its own self-governed and self-described ‘non-artist’ prescription, working mostly collaboratively to dilute the solitary nature of being a ‘solo’ artist.
I enjoy exploring many process and materials to illustrate research, navigating personal, trans-generational and socio-historical narratives across whatever materials interest me at that time, tending into learning something new. My work has been presented as installations, webs of [re]imagined engagements surrounding language and knowledge [re]production – which is occasionally [un]written, [un]performed and made [in]visible through relationships and learning, using text and textiles, writing and community.
I prefer collaborating with other artists over being in competition for opportunities (that will probably gravitate towards mediocrity, if not a bit exploitative, at best). I currently work with School of the Damned, Black Hole Club (Vivid Projects, Birmingham), am a co-founder of Matters of Interest (hosted by Big Shop Friday, Milton Keynes), Free House (Digbeth, Birmingham), and Found The Plot (Smethwick allotment project with Sofia Niazi, Sahjan Kooner, Roo Kaur Dhissou and Fred Hubble).
→ CV:
All activity
2026
☼ Corridor8 review of ‘What Grows in Between’ exhibition at The New Art Gallery Walsall, programmed by Multistory. Published September 2026. More info here.
☼ ‘Bleeding Out’, group exhibition at Seventh Circle, Birmingham. July - August 2026. More info here.
Where Art Meets Health, as part of Healing Arts Birmingham Festival. Birmingham School of Art. June 2026. More info here.
☼ Multistory, ‘The Printing Room: Issue 3’. Nov. 2025 - March 2026. Writing commission. More info here. Published later in 2026.
☼ Eastside Projects, ‘The Exchange, 2026’. Collaborating with Yvonne Tan. More info here.
2025
☼ Eastside Projects, Birmingham UK, ‘Summer Camp’, August 2025. More info here.
☼ Free House X GLOAM. Exhibition at GLOAM, Sheffield. May 2025. More info here.
2023
☼ Co-director of Free House, an artist studios in Birmingham, UK. Other co-directors and studio holders are Kristina Hall, Jaz Morrison, Dinosaur Kilby, Emily Scarrott, Kevin Hunt, Sophie Mackfall and Fred Hubble. May 2023 - current
☼ Zine workshops with MA Contemporary Arts China at Birmingham City University, Feb 2023.
☼ Zine workshops with Ikon Youth Programme (IKON Gallery) and The New Art Gallery Walsall. April - August 2023
2022
☼ School of the Damned 2022, more info here.
☼ Artist in Schools, Co-Map project - Birmingham City University with Erasmus. Schools in UK, Hungary, Germany, Spain and Portugal. 04/22 - 07/22.
☼ British Art Show 9_ Artist in Schools, with Wolverhampton Art Gallery and University of Wolverhampton_ artists also include Thomas Eke and Joanna Fursman. 09/21 - 03/22
☼ British Art Show 9_ School of the Underkraft (Mark Essen), Artist Activity Sheets, with Sahjan Kooner, Thomas Eke, Joanna Fursman & Sophie Huckfield. 12/21 - 04/22. More info here.
2021
☼ Welcome to New Earth (ARC _ Artist Rehab Club, with Roo Kaur Dhissou). 6/12/21 at Vivid Projects with Black Hole Club. 6/12/21 + More info here.
☼ Show up_ exhibition with Sofia Niazi, Sahjan Kooner, Roo Kaur Dhissou & Fred Hubble at Oldbury Allotment. 18/09/21.
☼ Art Workers Between Self Organising and Collectivity -- Pooleyville article, written with Thomas Eke, Lucie MacGregor and Emily Roderick as Matters of Interest. Published 14/07. Readable here.
☼ Every Woman Biennial London, The Copeland Gallery London. Opening 1/07/21. More info here.
☼ DOOM (Turn Away from the Sun). Vivid Projects, Birmingham UK, 06/2021. More info here.
☼ IKON for Artists: Art Sale. Birmingham UK. 17/05 - 1/06. More info here.
☼ Ping Pong: IKON Youth Programme (IYP) workshops with Black Hole Club, publication. 02-06/21. More info here.
☼ Stryx International at Lab 155, Bologna, Italy. 03/21 - 04/21 (international residency)
☼ Black Hole Club Member 2021/2022, Vivid Projects, March 2021 - Current. More info available here.
☼ PASTE UP, Billboard poster outside Cheap Cheap Gallery, Cheapside Birmingham. 03/21. More info here.
☼ a-n 40th anniversary newsletter, writing commission, published 14/01/21. Readable here. (collaborative publication with Black Hole Club)
2020
☼ It Gets Lighter From Here, Black Hole Club collaborative commission from Vivid Projects. Viewable here. 21/12/20 (collaborative video work) ☼ Archive, Exchange, and Process in Pandemic, collaborative text with Leanne O’Connor, published by Critical Art Review 27/10/20. Readable here. (collaborative publication)
☼ Unavoidable, Online MA Show. 01/09/20 - 01/09/21. Viewable here.
☼ Peep at Stryx, home residency online with Stryx Gallery, Birmingham. Nov 2020. More info here.
☼ Artist in Schools with IKON Gallery, Brindley Place Birmingham, and Bromley Pensnett Primary School, Dudley. (Programme & exhibition at IKON) Postponed due to Covid-19 until 06/21.
☼ Mayday reader, collaborative publication with Black Hole Club, May 2020. Readable here. (collaborative publication)
☼ Black Hole Club Member 2020, Vivid Projects, March 2020 - March 2021 More info available here.
2019
☼ Art Licks Weekend 2019 London, DKUK, The Old Police Station Deptford, 4Cose & 1C Enterprise. 20th Oct. 201. (group exhibition with Grand Union group GU WOMXN). More info available here.
☼ Coventry Biennial 2019, The Row. 4/10/19 - 28/01/20. More info available here. (biennial exhibition)
☼ PLAY, Stryx, Birmingham 6/09 - 4/10/2019. More info available here. (group exhibition)
☼ Masters of Something. 09/2019 - current. (Programme of artist group of 15 participants, working towards alternative education) More info available here.
☼ Black Hole Club 2019 with Vivid Projects_ 02/2019 - 01/2020 (fellowship)
☼ Random String 2018 with Ludic Rooms_ 11/2018 - 04/2019. More info available here. (fellowship)
☼ Forward: New Art from Birmingham, IKON Birmingham, 26 -31/03/19 More info available here. (group exhibition)
☼ Forward: New Art from Birmingham, Medicine Bakery & Gallery (IKON) Birmingham 23/01 - 24/03/19 (group exhibition)
2018
☼ WIP Stryx, Minverva Works Birmingham. 2 - 10/11/18. More info available here. (Group exhibition)
☼ New Art West Midlands 2018, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery 13/02 - 13/05. More info here. (group exhibition)
☼ National Trust/New Art West Midlands residency_ 02/2018 - 02/2019 More info here. (Residency)
☼ Grand Union residency_08/2017 - 08/2018 More info here.
2017
☼ IKON prize_ 07/17
Press / news
2021
→ Vivid Projects, Black Hole Club
2020
→ Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
→ Radical Art Review
→ Birmingham Institute of Creative Arts (BCU)
2019
→ ArtLicks, London
→ IKON Gallery, Birmingham
→ ArtRabbit (as Black Hole Club, Vivid Projects)
→ ArtRabbit (Stryx, Birmingham)
→ a-n, London
→ Stryx, Birmingham
→ Contemporary Lynx
2018
→ CVAN, Contemporary Visual Artist Network
→ I Choose Birmingham
→ New Art West Midlands
→ What’s on Birmingham
→ Artefact, Birmingham
2017
→ Esthesis.org
→ D-Luxe Magazine
Education
2025
☼ PGCert in Research Practice, Birmingham City University, UK
2024
☼ PGCHE (PGCertHE)_ Falmouth University, UK
2018 - 2020
☼ MA Arts and Education Practices (PT)_ Birmingham School of Art, UK
☼ Public Art and Pedagogy_ Art of the MooC, Duke University (North Carolina, US)
☼ PGCE Post Compulsory Education_ Birmingham City University, UK
2014 - 2017
☼ BA (Hons) Art & Design_ Birmingham School of Art, UK
2013
☼ FDA Art & Design _ Bournville School of Art, UK
Employment
☼ Visiting Lecturer at Birmingham School of Art. 2017 - current. MA and BA courses.
☼ Freelance Art Handler. 2015 - current. Here is my LinkedIn.