An aberrant biblio-crèche! – Rosie Roberts

April 20, 2026 4:34 pm

An aberrant biblio-crèche! – Rosie Roberts | Saturday 9th May, 1-5pm

Join us at Market Gallery on Saturday 9th May from 1pm – 5pm for An aberrant biblio-chreche! – a public event developed by Rosie Roberts during Market’s Home Residency.

The Market space will become a library of aberrance—a state or condition that differs from the normal, or expected standard. Developed through Rosie’s research on mad artists, writers and parents, the event looks into the ways in which parenting as a verb intersects with artistic production, writing and madness. 

The biblio-creche will launch a new publication by Rosie Roberts, Jamie Bolland, Iphgenia Baal and Aimee Ballinger, introduced by Mattie Roberts. Alongside this, visitors will be able to watch Cathy Sisler’s ‘Aberrant Motion 1’ video work from the early 90s, and browse a selection of books from Rosie’s collaborative research processes. There will be readings which people big and small are welcome to interrupt.

There will also be a photocopier, a set of liberation themed colouring-in sheets produced from the research for kids, comfortable seating and space for babies to roll around. Refreshments and food will be provided!

The space will also be open on Sunday 10th May from 11am – 4pm on a drop-in basis.

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Through the residency Rosie has been thinking about:

  • The limits of empathy
  • The comparison of writing and artworks to children / reproductive labour
  • Thinking about the way ‘madness is “loaded with information and energy” that can inform and invigorate liberation movements’ *
  • The notion of ‘aberrance’, through the late artist Cathy Sisler
  • The failure of western approaches to trauma in Palestine
  • Shared expression and its joys, shared questioning and its powers
  • Telepathy 

* ‘How to Go Mad without Losing Your Mind: Madness and Black Radical Creativity’, LA MARR JURELLE BRUCE, Series: Black Outdoors: Innovations in the Poetics of Study, 202, Published by: Duke University Press

In Aberrant Motion #1, Cathy Sisler makes her first appearance as the Spinning Woman, who explores movement as a strategy to destabilise normalcy. This low-resolution analogue video is the first of 4 performance-based videos (created between 1993 and 1994) in which she plays with the notion of the ‘aberrant’: deviation from expected patterns or non-conformity to usual standards.

This work will play on a loop in the Market Gallery space across Saturday 9th & Sunday 10th May.

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About the contributors:

Rosie Roberts is an artist, writer and editor working and researching collaboratively through all sorts. She is a co-caretaker at PAMphlet and a reproductive justice support worker.

Jamie Bolland is an artist, teacher and trade unionist. He performs as his tin-foiled alter ego mercuro-chrome and founded slo-mo books (www.slomo.scot )

Iphgenia Baal is the author of books including The Hardy Tree, Gentle Art, Merced Es Benz and Man Hating Psycho. IB is an occasional publisher, putting out zines by friends including Ben Graville, Sarah Jane Baker and Louis Amis on her AKA imprint. IB enjoys working collaboratively and has done so extensively with the Nervemeter and IT. IB is also an enthusiastic producer of ephemera, and has published a wide variety of short-form experimental texts, including Compliances on Toothgrinder and most recently bLaCK sKuLLs on Spam Press. IB is currently working on a new project for young children with her friend, artist Fanny Wickstrom.

Aimee Ballinger is a writer, mentor and the director of Burning House Books. Her work can be found in WORMS Magazine, The White Review and on the Burning House Books Substack. She is currently working on a novel while trying to parent.

Mattie Roberts is currently wanting to watch people rage, from feminist performance art to reality tv and hoping to form a project sometime soon. Mattie is a production coordinator at Glasgow Women’s Library and a programmer with Supernormal festival and recently curated ‘my voice is a resting place’ at Listen Gallery.

Cathy Sisler (1956 – 2021) was an American artist and musician based in Canada. She led “a life of fierce creative energy and uncompromising care for people in precarious situations”. She is widely regarded as a pioneer in the fields of video, performance and multi-media installation exploring themes of gender, body image, communication and power. 

At the age of 40 Cathy experienced a series of catastrophic health issues necessitating a lengthy and difficult healing process. She is a member of English/French language female performance art group, Groupe Intervention Video. 

A fierce advocate for marginalised voices, in her 50s she made a profound impact on the Niagara community through Start Me Up Niagara – working with individuals facing challenges such as poverty, unemployment, food insecurity, substance misuse, compromised mental health and experiencing homelessness. In their embrace Cathy learned anew how to receive and give love. Surrounded by their support Cathy established Art Me Up an art studio space open to all. Her own painting work resumed as she found a community in which she knew she belonged unconditionally.

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This event will take place at Market Gallery (13 Ross St G1 5AR) which is wheelchair accessible and has an accessible gender-neutral toilet. 

We have travel and childcare bursaries available, please get in touch on market@marketgallery.org to request them.