Participants in discussion: artist Navine G. Dossos, Rob Faure Walker (The Prevent Digest), Tarek Younis, Azfar Shafi (CAGE), William Skeaping (Extinction Rebellion), Lily Hall (The Showroom), Lillian Wilkie (Chateau International) and designer Mark Hurrell.

The launch and distribution of TINA is part of the CAGE International Witness Campaign, for which The Showroom is a partner, marking 20 years of the failed global war on terror since 9/11. TINA forms part of the trans-disciplinary programme Radical Citizenship, a cooperative project between The Showroom and Goethe-Institut London.

TINA – There Is No Alternative is a publication that builds upon the eponymous exhibition that took place at The Showroom between 5 June–17 July 2019; the first solo exhibition in the UK by artist Navine G. Dossos. There Is No Alternative took shape as a performative, durational installation combining live painting, a research archive and a series of workshops, talks, and events open to the public.

This publication, co-published by The Showroom and Chateau International, takes as a starting point Dossos’ ongoing research into the complex context of the UK government’s development of pre-crime and surveillance policies, in particular Prevent, questioning the politics of representation and the positioning of care that the strategies around those policies generate.

At the core of the project at The Showroom has been the act of questioning what an alternative to Prevent could look like, involving a shared process between Dossos and all those who became collaboratively involved. In this way, the work of the exhibition involved collaborative research, discussion, sharing knowledge and critical thinking between Dossos, The Showroom team, and those who became a part of the project: a democratic process which this publication now seeks to extend further.

Texts in the book include essays by Navine G. Dossos, Rob Faure Walker and Lily Hall, with a foreword by Elvira Dyangani Ose, alongside contributing writers who have engaged in written dialogues, Sadia Habib, Hassan Vawda, Rachel Coldicutt, Tarek Younis, Shezana Hafiz and Azfar Shafi from advocacy organisation CAGE, and William Skeaping from Extinction Rebellion. A text by Alexander Massouras, revised from his exhibition review of There Is No Alternative for Art Monthly in 2019, is also included. The book is designed by Mark Hurrell.

Dr Rob Faure Walker is a Researcher at SOAS and ESRC Fellow at UCL. His gained his PhD in Critical Realism and Critical Discourse Analysis at UCL (2016-2019). His thesis involved an investigation into the discursive conditions that have enabled UK counter-terrorism strategy to focus on ‘radicalisation’ and ‘extremism’, and a theorisation of the impact of this focus. He also holds an MA in Curriculum Design, Pedagogy and Assessment from the Institute of Education (2013-2015). Dr Faure Walker has published in journals internationally, including the Journal of Critical Realism and the Journal of Beliefs and Values (2017-19). He is the current Editor of The Prevent Digest. He is a frequent contributor to national and international news and media. He has contributed to Rights Watch UK and Open Society’s seminal reports on Prevent. He is an educational advisor for The Abram Wilson Foundation.

Azfar Shafi is a London-based researcher for CAGE, and his focuses include counter-terrorism, policing and British state racism. CAGE is an advocacy organisation which was formed in 2003 to document detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, set up by the US government in Cuba. CAGE now campaigns against broader policies of the ‘War on Terror’, such as Prevent.

William Skeaping joined Extinction Rebellion at its launch in October 2018 and currently works in the Media, Messaging and Strategy teams. He helped found the related organisation Culture Declares Emergency and is leading a challenge to change the advertising industry. In 2019 he co-edited ER’s best-selling handbook This Is Not A Drill, published by Penguin in 2019.

Dr Tarek Younis is a critical clinical psychologist, and currently a Lecturer in Psychology at Middlesex University. His previous research explored the racialisation of Muslims as a result of statutory counter-terrorism policies in British mental health settings. He has written on Western Muslim identities and wellbeing; Islamophobia; the securitatisation and racism of healthcare settings; and the marginilisation of Muslims through colour blind policies. He teaches on the significance of culture, race, religion, globalisation and security policies on mental health interventions.