Alana Hunt — Reflection on Lasuemo

By Alana Hunt

Please note that this publication is currently under review and will be subject to changes.

I can’t be sure exactly how I first came across Womanifesto—but I think it was an internet search in 2012 for socially engaged practices in Thailand.

I was passing through the city of Bangkok on my way to Delhi, and onwards to Kashmir, to see friends and work on Cups of nun chai (2010–ongoing). Womanifesto popped up on my web browser, and I saw Varsha’s name—an artist I had first encountered in Delhi in 2008.

Alana Hunt Cups of Nun Chai 2010 to ongoing — Alana Hunt, *Cups of Nun Cha*i, 2010–ongoing. Installation detail, dimensions variable.

I contacted her to ask if she wanted to take part in Cups of nun chai—an accumulating memorial for the killing of over 118 people by the state in Kashmir in 2010. She said yes. We met in Bangkok, and continued intermittent correspondence over the years.

In 2018 I met the artist and filmmaker Helen Grace… and sometime in 2021 (I think) I received an invitation from Helen and Varsha to join LASUEMO—Womanifesto’s online gatherings on the last Sunday of every month.

Digital courtyard for Lasuemo — Screenshot of the ’Digital Courtyard’ where Womanifesto 'meets' for LASUEMO.

Blog post for Lasuemo — LASUEMO has a presence on the Womanifesto blog, but is not typically recorded. See ‘LASUEMO’, Womanifesto blog, https://blog.womanifesto.com/category/LASUEMO/, (accessed 8 October 2025).

Casual and meandering, LASUEMO is also full of wisdom. As an artist who has lived in a very isolated way for the last decade, LASUEMO has become something very special.

Quietly to myself, I really find it amazing—here I am, each month, sitting in a (digital) room full of women who have decades and decades of experience as artists from many, many different parts of the world and all of us with distinct sensibilities and character traits.

Our points of difference only enhance the exchange. LASUEMO is full of incredible women who each bring mountains of knowledge and compassion to our little digital space on the last Sunday of every month.

Alana Hunt artwork, A Dream of Snow, from Lasuemo — Alana Hunt, *A Dream of Snow*, 2022. Ink on paper, dimensions variable. Produced as part of an activity for LASUEMO.

Cut Up, artwork by Alana Hunt for Lasuemo — Alana Hunt, *Cut Up*, 2022. Paper, glue, printer ink, dimensions variable. Produced as part of an activity for LASUEMO.

Something else I love about LASUEMO is this element of voyeurism via Zoom. Looking at the other members, in their own homes, thinking their own thoughts, being their own selves.

There is a lot of authenticity in this space and very minimal ego. It is one of the least performative Zoom spaces I've been part of. Which is interesting because sometimes we do 'perform' LASUEMO inside galleries. And I think it is the lack of performativity that makes it such a compelling 'performance'.