Events
Alberta Whittle, ‘Lagareh - The Last Born’ | Isle of Skye with ATLAS Arts
Part of Alberta Whittle, ‘Lagareh - The Last Born’ | Scotland + Venice Screening Tour
SOUND | MATTHEW ARTHUR WILLIAMS AND RICHY CAREY IN CONVERSATION OVER A SHARED MEAL
LUX Scotland and ATLAS Arts are delighted to host a screening of ‘Lagareh – The Last Born’ at Broadford Hall on the Isle of Skye. This event is part of the Scotland+Venice screening tour that brings the work to six venues across Scotland between 20 September 2022 – 1 March 2023. This new work was commissioned by Scotland + Venice and Forma for the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.
‘Lagareh’ – which translates from the Mandinka language as ‘The Last Born’ – is a work anchored around theories of abolition, rebellion, ancestral knowledge and love. Shot in Scotland, England, Barbados, Sierra Leone and Italy, the film melds a collection of scenes that give focus to the strength of contemporary Black womxn, whose individual acts of resistance are bound together through the artist’s conceptual storytelling. The artist situates Black love in proximity with historical sites of trauma, re-inscribed with rage, hope and exhaustion. Gestures, rituals and moments of intimacy are poignantly underpinned by a deep reflection on grief, loss and mourning, a resolute reminder of the trauma inflicted upon the Black body and of white privilege and power.
The screening will be followed by a shared meal and conversation between visual and sound artist Matthew Arthur Williams and composer Richy Carey, who collaborated with Alberta on ‘Lagareh – The Last Born’. The discussion will focus upon ‘sound’ as an interpretive framework for discussion, to weave connections between the artist’s specific aesthetic decisions, anti-racist and pro-black advocacy, and Scotland’s historic connections to the Transatlantic slave trade.
Content warning: this film contains references to grief, racism, chattel slavery, and police brutality, which may also feature in the discussion.
Booking + Access
The event is free to attend, but ticketed through Eventbrite.
The film is captioned and the discussion will be live captioned. A portable hearing loop can be made available with advance notice.
A small access fund is available to support audience attendance, which may be used for transport, or the cost of childcare, carers or support workers.
If we can make it easier for you to attend in any way, or you have allergies or dietary requirements you would like us to be aware of please get in touch with email hidden; JavaScript is required
Venue accessibility: The main Hall is wheelchair accessible via a ramp to the front door. There are accessible toilets in the entrance hall. The side area with the kitchenette is up a flight of three stairs or accessible via an outside wheelchair ramp.
There is parking available for around 20 cars with three accessible spaces reserved near the front door.
Image credit: Alberta Whittle, Lagerah – The Last Born, (film still – single channel video), 2022, © Alberta Whittle. Courtesy the artist & Scotland+Venice.
Image description: The photograph shows a Black womxn lifting her arms in praise, viewed from her right side. She is standing in a room with wooden-cladded walls, and sun light illuminates her face from a window above her. She is wearing a bronze turban adorned with gold thread, a blue and green tunic, and an orange necklace, bracelets, earrings and rings.
Alberta Whittle
Alberta Whittle (she/her) b. 1980 Bridgetown, Barbados. She lives and works in Glasgow. Alberta has been based in Scotland since moving here to study firstly at Edinburgh College of Art and later on the Master of Fine Arts programme at The Glasgow School of Art. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh and Research Associate at The University of Johannesburg.
Alberta was awarded a Turner Bursary, the Frieze Artist Award and a Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award in 2020. She was the Margaret Tait Award winner for 2018/19. Her work has been acquired by major public collections including the National Galleries of Scotland, Glasgow Museums Collections and the Contemporary Art Research Collection at Edinburgh College of Art, as well as by other private collections.
Selected solo exhibitions and presentations include: The British Art Show 9 (2021 – 22), Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh (2021), Liverpool Biennale (2021), Art Night London (2021), Glasgow International (2021), Grand Union, Birmingham (2020) and Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee (2019). Selected group exhibitions include: Life Between Islands Caribbean: British Art 1950s to Now, Tate Britain (2021 – 22), and those held at Hessel Museum of Art, New York (2021), Fotografiska, New York (2021), Kunstal Trondheim, Norway (2021), Gothenburg Biennale (2021), The Lisson Gallery, London (2021), MIMA Middlesborough (2021), Remai Modern, Saskatoon, Canada (2021), Eastside Projects, Birmingham (2020), Edinburgh Printmakers, Edinburgh (2019) and the 13th Havana Biennial, Cuba (2019).
The full presentation of‘deep dive (pause) uncoiling memory’ at La Biennale di Venezia will return to Scotland and be exhibited with other works by Alberta at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, opening in spring 2023.
Matthew Arthur Williams
Matthew Arthur Williams is a visual and sound artist, photographer and DJ. Williams was born in London and now lives and works in Glasgow. He completed his BA at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2012.
His first major exhibition featuring an installation of moving image. sound and photograph opened at the Dundee Contemporary Arts (2022). His work has also recently been exhibited at Jupiter Artland and Johnson Terrace Gardens as part of a commission for Edinburgh Art Festival (2021). He has further developed exhibition projects and commissions with the Gallery of Modern Art Glasgow (2022), Viborg Kunsthal (2021), Street Level Photoworks (2019) and Transmission Gallery (2017).
Recent close collaborations include ongoing work with Ajamu and Alberta Whittle, and Williams’ research has recently been supported through programmes at CCA Glasgow, The Bothy Project, Hospitalfield and LUX Scotland.
Richy Carey
Richy Carey is a composer working from èist sound, a studio in the north of the Isle of Skye. He creates sound and music with artists and communities through collaborative approaches to listening, most often for film soundtracks and gallery installations.
Recent projects include; GROOM. Dir. Leyla Josepine Coll‑O’Reilly, 2022. Soundtrack and mix for BAFTA Scotland nominated film.; Lagareh. Dir. Alberta Whittle, 2022. Soundtrack composition (with Matthew Arthur Williams) and mix for film, Venice Biennale 2022.; Fenrir for Lauren Gault, 2022. Installation sound and scores for publication, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin.; When [Salmon Salmon [Salmon]] for COOKING SECTIONS. Sound and music for gallery exhibition. Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm | Fischer Centre, Bard, New York., 2022.; Wild Tracks Radio | The Listening Crystal, commissioned by LUX Scotland and BBC Arts. A docu-drama created with young people for BBC Radio 6, 2021.; If From Every Tongue it Drips. Dir. Sharlene Bamboat, 2021. Soundtrack and mix for film.; Salmon: Traces of Escapees for COOKING SECTIONS. Gallery exhibition. Sound and music for gallery exhibition. Turner Prize, Tate | Herbert, Coventry, 2021. RESET. Dir. Alberta Whittle, 2020. Sound design and mix for film. Frieze, London | Forma, London.; A So-called Archive. Dir. Onyeka Igwe, 2020. Sound design and mix for film. LUX, London | Mercer Union, Toronto.
He has a PhD in composition, has taught sonic arts and film sound at various universities, a BAFTA New Talent award, and was Glasgow’s UNESCO City of Music artist-in-residence 2018.
ATLAS Arts
ATLAS Arts organises collective art projects across Skye, Raasay and Lochalsh – on the North West coast of Scotland. We work with artists and local residents to have conversations that are rooted in this place and this time, through a programme of long-term projects, screenings, residencies, meals, workshops and sharings.
We work with art in different ways – from smaller, quieter gatherings, to bigger, celebratory events and performances. We pay attention to the social, political and global significance of these conversations and the building of communities in between.
atlasarts.org.uk/
Closed Captions
Live captions
Partners
Part of Alberta Whittle, ‘Lagareh - The Last Born’ | Scotland + Venice Screening Tour
LUX Scotland and Scotland + Venice tour of Alberta Whittle’s ‘Lagareh – The Last Born’ to six venues across Scotland.