Reframed – The Travelling World is Not Arriving
ReFramed is a Midlands-based network for Black, Asian and other racialised communities interested in producing photographic visual art. Set up by a team of award-winning photographers and curators, from these above communities, who believe that visual arts can play a critical role in shaping civic and contemporary attitudes. Starting collaborative conversations and changing prevailing thoughts about race, the local environment and our communities. As the first wave of COVID-19 approached, we were conscious of how our communities were being disproportionately affected and yet under-represented both in terms of who was being interviewed about it but also regarding who was asking the questions. The lack of inclusion and diversity in the media and the arts, whilst long-term and historical, seemed to be most apparent to us. Regrettably, even after many arts organisations, in the wake of the global Black Lives Matter movement, had pledged to be more inclusive. As a result, we undertook, with collaboration from Black Country Visual Arts and funding from the Arts Council, to create a range of opportunities for artists, from a cross-section of backgrounds, to respond directly to COVID-19 and the multiple ways it had affected their lives. The funding enabled us to support two artists, a number which later grew to five with the support of Kala Phool, Slanguages, New Art Exchange and Birmingham City University. Alongside these established artists we also, through workshop-based training opportunities, worked with several new artists across the Midlands to help them produce bodies of photographic work. We believe that it is fundamental that those involved in commissioning and making work that is directly about our communities, have the lived experiences, knowledge and consent of those communities in order to reflect them in honest and recognisable ways. In this light, it has been a great pleasure for all of us at ReFramed to have been able to give these artists the platform and opportunity to respond to this moment in time. The following images in this publication reflect the approaches of both our Bursary Artists and photographic workshop participants. Through their eyes we get to see their lives, thoughts and feelings reflected to us in an enduring time that is still yet to pass.
ReFramed is a Midlands-based network for Black, Asian and other racialised communities
interested in producing photographic visual art. Set up by a team of award-winning
photographers and curators, from these above communities, who believe that visual arts
can play a critical role in shaping civic and contemporary attitudes. Starting collaborative
conversations and changing prevailing thoughts about race, the local environment and our
communities.
As the first wave of COVID-19 approached, we were conscious of how our communities were
being disproportionately affected and yet under-represented both in terms of who was being
interviewed about it but also regarding who was asking the questions.
The lack of inclusion and diversity in the media and the arts, whilst long-term and historical,
seemed to be most apparent to us. Regrettably, even after many arts organisations, in
the wake of the global Black Lives Matter movement, had pledged to be more inclusive.
As a result, we undertook, with collaboration from Black Country Visual Arts and funding
from the Arts Council, to create a range of opportunities for artists, from a cross-section of
backgrounds, to respond directly to COVID-19 and the multiple ways it had affected their
lives.
The funding enabled us to support two artists, a number which later grew to five with the
support of Kala Phool, Slanguages, New Art Exchange and Birmingham City University.
Alongside these established artists we also, through workshop-based training opportunities,
worked with several new artists across the Midlands to help them produce bodies of
photographic work. We believe that it is fundamental that those involved in commissioning
and making work that is directly about our communities, have the lived experiences,
knowledge and consent of those communities in order to reflect them in honest and
recognisable ways.
In this light, it has been a great pleasure for all of us at ReFramed to have been able to
give these artists the platform and opportunity to respond to this moment in time. The
following images in this publication reflect the approaches of both our Bursary Artists and
photographic workshop participants. Through their eyes we get to see their lives, thoughts
and feelings reflected to us in an enduring time that is still yet to pass.
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Ismail Khokon<br />
In April 2020, I was diagnosed with COVID-19.<br />
Myself and the rest of the family were in<br />
<strong>is</strong>olation for many weeks.<br />
It took a while to recover, but I am fine now.<br />
In th<strong>is</strong> project, I wanted to learn how other<br />
people from minority backgrounds were<br />
coping in these difficult times.<br />
I met people, mostly random strangers and<br />
conducted extended ethnographic interviews.<br />
Usually, these were recorded on my phone,<br />
and later I would transcribe the interviews<br />
and use their words to express their emotions<br />
through their photographs.<br />
<strong>The</strong> photo paintings were paying homage<br />
to my current home, <strong>Not</strong>tingham, but also in<br />
memory of my homeland in Bangladesh, and<br />
the art<strong>is</strong>tic background I took on my journeys.<br />
I welcome and have learnt much from the<br />
ReFramed mentoring over the past few<br />
months, and th<strong>is</strong> journey continues.<br />
Amrik<br />
I first met Amrik Singh at the Forest recreation grounds near Hyson Green, <strong>Not</strong>tingham,<br />
just after the first lockdown began.<br />
He had recently come back from India, where he had been in lockdown, and now he was<br />
experiencing the same thing back in England.<br />
He was praying for a vaccine to cure COVID-19 as he can see how much young people<br />
are suffering at the moment.<br />
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