THE Highland clearances and people dispossessed by modern land conflicts have been connected in bold new work by a Glasgow-based Iranian artist who is a former refugee.
Iman Tajik told the Sunday National he felt it was important to remind people that migrations and refugees are not always from the Middle East and Africa.
The exhibition at Stills in Edinburgh will also feature images taken when he spent two weeks living in the Calais “Jungle” in France to document the plight of the migrants living there.
His new series The Dreamers was made as part of his Bordered Miles project – a day-long group walk in June from the centre of Glasgow to Dungavel House immigration removal centre where Tajik was held in 2012. The walk is part of Glasgow International visual arts festival.
Tajik told the Sunday National he had made his Dreamers series to emphasise that everyone potentially could be a refugee. He said he had made the connection with the clearances after finding letters about people trying to cross the Atlantic to get to America.
“It felt like those having to travel the seas today so I tried to link the history and landscape of Scotland to what is happening now,” he said.
His work focuses on migration and globalisation in an attempt to bridge the gap between art and activism. In The Dreamers series he chose the image of a blanket to symbolise past and present refugees and used as a flag to question the value and role of nationality.
“The images are to open up ideas of border, nationality and protection,” said Tajik, whose interest in the clearances was sparked after seeing Thomas Faed’s The Last Of The Clan and John Watson Nicol’s Lochaber No More.
“These two amazing paintings were the start point of knowing about the Highland clearances,” Tajik said. “It is really important to know and reflect the history of migration and refugees as many of the new generation have no idea about forced migration and becoming a refugee can happen to anyone, anywhere.”
The Dreamers series was made during his residency at Deveron Arts in Huntly when he explored the Cabrach, a depopulated area of Moray.
“There are many abandoned houses in that area which still exist and many gone as result of the community migrating to other places because of disputes over land ownership,” said Tajik.
“All these were in my mind when I decided to use the Scottish landscape in the background of my images to reference the historic Highland Clearances and modern-day disputes over land ownership. I felt it was important especially because new generations might not know as much about it and see migration and refugees as all from the Middle East and Africa.”
Tajik said he had decided to work at Calais because of his own experience at a refugee camp.
“In my real life I have been there, in a similar situation, at a different time and place, in a refugee camp,” he said.
DESPITE knowing exactly what a refugee camp is like, he was still shocked by the Jungle.
“I couldn’t believe what was going on,” said Tajik. “I had seen it on the news but I saw so many things and took images of so many things that you don’t really see on the news.”
He said he had wanted to work as a volunteer at the camp as he had been helped by volunteers when he had been a refugee. He went with a filmmaker friend and lived in a tent beside the people in the camp.
“It was very emotional and I was seeing the people who were going through the same kinds of feelings I had been through,” he said. “I tried to help them as well as make the work and give some hope to the people there. In the last few days I took my camera out and made the photographs, documenting my visit. My intention was not just to document, it was to create an emotional response.”
Stills gallery director Ben Harman said he was delighted to be featuring Tajik’s work in the spring reopening.
“In our Projects 20 exhibitions we encourage experimentation and the testing of new ideas and offer insight into the range of exciting and innovative work in photography that is currently being produced in Scotland,” he said.
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