Fresh from exhibiting as part of Jerwood Survey III, and showing new work at Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow born artist Aqsa Arif will premiere a new filmwork alongside a series of textile screenprints and sculpture for her latest solo exhibition at Edinburgh Printmakers.
Taking her own family’s experiences of the UK asylum system as a starting point, arriving from Pakistan and being placed by the home office in a high-rise council flat in Toryglen, on the Southside of Glasgow. Arif weaves these realities through the folkloric lens of Heera, the tragic heroine from the classic Punjabi love story ‘Heer Ranjha’, creating a new narrative that blends lived experience within a hybrid fantasy world.
Years later, her family was moved by local authorities into a neighbouring high-rise to make way for the filming of Sony Bravia’s 2006 ‘Paint’ advert. Noted as the most expensive television commercial ever made at the time, with a reported £2 million budget, the production required 1,500 explosive charges and 70,000 litres of paint. Arif highlights the stark irony of this spectacle: a high-budget, globally distributed campaign unfolding against the backdrop of a low-income community, whose residents were displaced or ‘re-housed’ in other high rise flats around Glasgow to meet the needs of the multi-million pound advert.
This immersive exhibition reflects on the experience of repeated displacement, exploring how different generations process trauma, memory, and place in divergent ways and how these differences can create lasting fractures within families.
Raindrops of Rani sees the artist continue her exploration of themes of displacement and assimilation through fantasy and folklore. In this exhibition Arif reimagines intergenerational trauma not only as a site of rupture, but as a catalyst for resilience, and reconnection to one’s roots in a hostile environment. Drawing on elements from her own personal experience, Raindrops of Rani uses layered narratives weaving South Asian folklore into a mother daughter relationship as both find different ways of adapting to a hostile environment.
Raindrops of Rani features a film alongside a series of sculptural screen-printed and digital textiles, as well as braided forms that echo the characters within the film. Filling the gallery space, these works invite the audience to follow Heera’s journey through an interplay of print, moving image, and sculpture. Edinburgh Printmakers will also host a programme of activities and workshops which explore the themes of the exhibition with details to be announced shortly.
Speaking ahead of the exhibition Aqsa Arif said:
“In my practice, I explore the psychological processes of assimilation through the lens of my own lived experience. By framing these themes within fantasy and world-building, I’m able to navigate vulnerability in a way that resonates across both Scottish/Western and South Asian audiences. Each film I create deepens this exploration, developing characters and narratives that intertwine with the complexities of the diaspora experience.
Growing up in Prospecthill Circus and being forced to move again after only a few years in Scotland, this time to make way for the filming of the SONY BRAVIA ‘Paint’ advert, felt like both a huge upheaval and a surreal adventure. Experiencing such a dramatic change at a young age means you process it differently than a parent who is responsible for your safety and stability.
To explore this, I turned to fantasy. I began with the figure of Heer, the South Asian princess from the classic folk tale, reimagining her as someone displaced into a Scottish council flat.
The film and exhibition delve into the idea of being displaced not just once, but twice and what it means to navigate a space that is meant to offer refuge, but instead feels alien, unsettling, and at times even hostile, especially for someone who doesn’t yet feel like they belong.”
Edinburgh Printmakers Chief Executive Janet Archer said:
“Having hosted Aqsa on residency in the Edinburgh Printmakers studio in 2022 and exhibited her work as part of the group exhibition Uprooted Visions in 2023 we are delighted to continue to support the artist with this solo exhibition. Aqsa’s powerful storytelling is hugely impactful across a range of mediums and this installation of prints and sculpture create an immersive environment in Gallery 2 for viewers of her newest film work."
As displacement becomes ever more common whether through geopolitical unrest or other reasons the insight and Aqsa Arif’s work brings is all the more important.
Aqsa Arif: Raindrops of Rani is supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland’s Open Fund and will tour to Backlit Gallery in Nottingham in 2026 as part of the Sudden Beams 4 programme.
