Installation by Seema Mattu exploring music through sculpture, film and digital animation, with interactive instruments, around the sonic entity Saheli.
Seema Mattu's new installation, Local Superstar II, is open at FACT in Liverpool from 18 September 2026 through to 14 February 2027. It's a piece that works across sculpture, film and digital animation, and it centres on the formation of Saheli, a sonic entity made up of five South Asian queer women: Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay, MANI JNX, Ushara Dilrukshan, Zahrah Hutton and Mattu herself.
Inside the gallery, you board a tour bus. The films you see from there follow Saheli through auditions and rehearsals, and then into interviews and jam sessions. That's set alongside a wider cosmology of worlds, deities and a sonic council. At the front, interactive instruments let you make music along with the band. The whole thing marks the mid-point of Saheli's journey, and for Mattu, the title Local Superstar comes from her own take on the word: she describes superstardom as the magic of being close to ideas as they brew at a local level, rather than the usual global fame.
That focus on sonic joy, musicality and collectivity comes from Mattu's own experience of musical congregation as seva, the Sanskrit word for selfless service. Mattu was born in Birmingham in 1993, and she frames her practice as a theme park called SEEMAWORLD — a playful rollercoaster of speculative storytelling rooted in British South Asian culture and Birmingham that subverts notions of caste, queer desire and gender bias.
Every week we pick 🏆 the 5 best 🏆 things to do in Liverpool and send them to your inbox. Just one weekly email, no spam.
By submitting your email, you accept our Privacy Policy
Local Superstar II runs at FACT, 88 Wood Street, Liverpool L1 4DQ, from 18 September 2026 to 14 February 2027.
