In this exhibition, the next in the Projects 20 series to take place at Stills, Tajik presents two bodies of photographic works, including a new series of performative photographs, The Dreamers (2020), that are set in a rural Scottish landscape referencing the historic Highland Clearances and the contemporary disputes over land ownership. In this series, he explores the notion of the border and questions the value and role of nationality in a time of emergency.
Alongside and in dialogue with The Dreamers, Tajik will present a selection of images from Calais, an installation of photographs & video produced as a result of a visit to the ‘The Jungle’ in Calais, France.
The Dreamers series was made during Tajik’s residency at Deveron Arts, Huntly as part of his Bordered Miles project. Bordered Miles will continue as a day-long group walk from the centre of Glasgow to Dungavel House immigration removal centre, approximately 26 miles south of the city in June 2021. The photographs on display at Stills and this event are both an extension of Iman Tajik’s ongoing interest in making work for the public realm, the walk draws attention to the movement of bodies as a natural right of any species.
For the second body of work on show, the artist spent time living with refugees in the makeshift campsite dubbed ‘The Jungle’, where migrants camped out in the hope of being able to cross the border and make their journey over to England.
Tajik’s encounters with refugees in ‘The Jungle’ dovetailed with his personal journey as a refugee, which propelled him to make work that shifted the way in which a wider audience is brought into proximity with the refugee experience. Tajik created this body of work not only as a means of expressing his own feelings, but also to introduce a ‘new’ and different portrait of the refugee to the one we are accustomed to seeing in mainstream media. The work explores the feeling of what life is like for refugees living day to day behind the borders in the UK.
The artist’s work addresses issues of contemporary conditions of life with a particular focus on migration and globalisation – thereby bridging the gap between art and activism, to create work as a form of socio-political currency, addressing power structures.
Listings Information
Projects 20 | Iman Tajik
Stills, Centre for Photography
23 Cockburn Street
Edinburgh
EH1 1BP
Tue-Sat, 12 pm-5pm
The exhibition will mark the gallery’s reopening following the global pandemic.
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