Limited Edition Print Sale helping migrant art workers requiring cultural and political safety

The World is a Mill (TWM) is fundraising to establish a solidarity fund for migrant art and culture workers. To support this you can buy a limited edition riso print by artist and activist Luiza Prado for just £30!  

Luiza Prado de O. Martins, Feijoada, 2024, A3 Riso print on 120gsm paper. Limited edition of 140. 

last orders for Christmas delivery by 16th December

Feijoada depicts the wild common bean, Phaseolus Vulgaris, from which a vast number of beans have been bred. Originating in the territories of Turtle Island and Abya Yala, archeological findings indicate that the plant might have been domesticated as early as 8,000 years ago in the Andean region, and around 6,000 years ago in the central areas of the continent. Transported through colonial trade routes, P. vulgaris made its first documented appearance in Europe in 1508, cultivated as an ornamental plant in France (Rodiño and Drevon, 2004). It has, since then, spread to every landmass on Earth, becoming a crop of major economic significance, selected and bred into hundreds of distinct varieties. In the UK, the climate is seen as too cold and wet to grow P. vulgaris; nevertheless, since its introduction in the British market in the early 20th century by the U.S. American businessman Henry Heinz, the tin of baked beans has come to represent and materialise British conceptions of class, belonging, productivity, and convenience.

About our fundraising through The World is a Mill:

Driven by the wind or water, a mill transforms the energy around them, concentrating it to create the nourishment needed to survive. At the same time, the mill of life, nation states, governments, and police, can grind you to dust. Unstable political situations, restricted border crossings, dehumanisation, brutalisation, surveillance, cancellation and escalating violence are more severely impacting precarious and vulnerable migrant art and cultural workers. This is an unsustainable way to live, and without support many are struggling to find a foothold in this world. 

Underneath the collaborative artistic project, ‘The World is a Mill’, we have committed to redistributing a portion of our time and energy to work with rather than against the mill that can grind us up. 

Moving forward, we are raising money to help one anonymous individual at a time. The funds will go directly to help with their visa application, housing, healthcare, travel costs or financial access needed for cultural migrants under threat. We are keeping the names and exact situations of the people we help anonymous to protect them as they move through a world of bureaucracy and surveillance. This solidarity fund is a small action which we hope will grow, but which we also understand is an imperfect action; it is not an answer, but a commitment, to help us move through these times. 

Our lived experience and artistic research has taught us that the enduring mass movement of people, cultures, species, and kin is what has ensured the survival of many things. Through necessity, seeds have been carried along migration routes and recipes have become carrier bags for worlds of knowledge. 

Supporting the lives of our peers, our friends and comrades, is an urgent form of environmental education. It is an education that doesn’t ‘deposit’ learning in others, that doesn’t turn away, but materially and socially builds the safety and stability needed. Supporting our creative and inquisitive friends as part of a bigger kinopolitics, becomes a way to grow our own power so they can support another in turn.  

Practical Info:

We will be posting prints by Royal Mail on the 17th December, before the last Christmas postage dates. This print sale is UK only. When you purchase your print you can select First Class or Second Class postage. Please make sure to add the correct address for delivery.