Hi I’m Arpita. I’m a visual artist and I’ll be one of several artists contributing to the Ankur Ha Ha, Refugee Week Scotland at 7:30pm today, Thursday 21 June at the Tron Theater.
Ankur ha ha will share of a group of developing artists’ work and explores new approaches to our work. They’ll be a diverse range of experiences influencing new work for a culturally diverse Scotland.
My background is in fine art photography, and as part of the Ankur residency, I have made video based art which explores religion through the voices and ritual actions of young people from Jewish, Sikh, Muslim, Hindu and Christian communities in Scotland.
Connected to culture and communities
My photography tends to draw visually from religious imagery, always referencing mythology and exploring how it’s connected to culture and communities, and so this project was inspired by a series of portraits I took in India, which is where I am originally from. The portraits focussed on young people in various places of worship.
A different kind of process
This is my first digital and video based project, as I usually work with medium and large format analogue cameras making photographs, and so the process of working digitally with moving image has been very different for me.
I decided to make video work, because I feel religion is very personal and intimate and I want the audience to really get a feel of the atmosphere in this the sacred places, and to connect with the young people, experiencing and understanding what faith means to them.
Hope to see you there tonight.
