The Travelling World is Not Arriving

ReFramed is a Midlands-based network for Black, Asian and ethnic communities interested in producing photographic visual art.

Set up by a team of photographers and curators, ReFramed believe that visual arts can play a critical role in shaping civic and contemporary attitudes through collaborative conversations about prevailing thoughts about race.

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 seemed to be most apparent to us, 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 five artists with the support of Kala Phool; Slanguages; New Art Exchange and Birmingham City University. Through workshop-based training opportunities, the project worked with several artists across the Midlands to help them produce bodies of photographic work. The images in this exhibition 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 back to us in an enduring time that is still yet to pass.

Participating Artists:

Amrit Doll                   De’Anne Crooks                  Krishan Patel

Ashwin Patel               Ismail Khokon                     Nilupa Yasmin

Bharti Parmar             Justin Carey                         Rebecca Orleans

Pritt Kalsi                     Sanah Iqbal

Raúl Valdivia Murgueytio

Reframed Team:

Sebah Chaudhry          Andrew Jackson                Jagdish Patel

Anand Chhabra

reframed.uk