Biography

Saoirse Amira Anis' creative practice prioritises radical care, informality and empathy, influenced by their Scottish and Moroccan heritage and underpinned by interests in Black queer theory, Disability Justice, and politics of liberation. Through writing, moving image and performance, they consider how the body holds ancestral and lived memories, particularly in relation to guilt, shame and resistance.

About the exhibition

The Scale of Things is a group exhibition of three moving image works that consider relations between humans and non-humans forming an exploration through history, intimacy and spirituality. Presenting the Scottish premiere of Grace Ndiritu’s Becoming Plant (2022), alongside Saodat Ismailova’s The Haunted (2017), and on its fiftieth anniversary, Margaret Tait’s Aerial (1974).

These works are brought together by a desire to unsettle how we imagine and see ourselves as part of nature. Understanding the recurring need for intimacy, to feel a connection that is commeasurable with our ability to impact and control, the exhibition approaches desire itself; the desire to plunge our bodies deep into the earth and transcend the bounded individualism of being ‘human.’

Co-curated by Sophia Yadong Hao (Cooper Gallery, DJCAD) and Professor Sarah Perks (Teesside University).

Read more on our exhibition page.
 

Access

Cooper Gallery is located to the right side of the DJCAD buildings on Perth Road. The entrance is via double doors which face onto a car park.

The gallery is on two floors. Ground floor has ramped access. First floor is accessible by an internal lift and six steps with a handrail. Wheelchair access is via a stairclimber. Please email in advance if you require lift or stairclimber access.

First floor is also accessible via 24 steps. Two flights of 12 steps with handrails are separated by a landing.

Exhibition video is subtitled and captioned in English. Audio will be played aloud via speakers. Seating is provided and/or additional seating available, please ask an invigilator. 

For all enquiries please email: [email protected]

Toilets

The ground floor has a wheelchair accessible toilet. The toilet is gender neutral.

Interpretation

Large print versions of the exhibition information handout are available, please ask our Guides. If you require alternative formats for material in exhibitions please email or ask our Guides.

Image credit

Saoirse Amira Anis, breach of a fraying body, 2023. Performance view. Commissioned by Art Night. Photo by Erika Stevenson.

Funding support

The Scale of Things is supported by Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design

Biography

Sarah Perks is an interdisciplinary curator and writer based in the Tees Valley working across a number of fields including contemporary art, design, science and film. She is Professor of Curating in the School of Arts and Creative Industries at Tees­side University, which includes international art gallery and museum MIMA. A specialist in relational curatorial strategy, her research focuses on interaction with socio-political and socio-economic issues including class, inclusivity and environmental concerns.  

Sarah is a co-curator of The Scale of Things currently on show at Cooper Gallery.  

One of Creative Review’s 50 Creative Leaders in 2017, Sarah has led major participation, performance and curatorial projects with international artists including Rosa Barba, Phil Collins, David Lynch, Rachel Maclean, Noorafshan Mirza & Brad Butler and Qasim Riza Shaheen. Sarah previous­ly held the position of Programme and Engagement Director at Cornerhouse (2008-2015) and the joint appointment of Professor at Manchester Metropolitan University and inaugural Artistic Director at HOME (2014-2019), Manchester.

Sa­rah has published over twenty essays and books across critical and creative writing, including Artists Moving Image in Britain Since 1989 (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art & Yale University Press, 2019). Sarah is a trustee of Alchemy Film & Arts (Hawick, Scotland) and was Programme Advisor (Artist Moving Image) for the BFI London Film Festival (2019-2022).

About the exhibition

The Scale of Things is a group exhibition of three moving image works that consider relations between humans and non-humans forming an exploration through history, intimacy and spirituality. Presenting the Scottish premiere of Grace Ndiritu’s Becoming Plant (2022), alongside Saodat Ismailova’s The Haunted (2017), and on its fiftieth anniversary, Margaret Tait’s Aerial (1974).

These works are brought together by a desire to unsettle how we imagine and see ourselves as part of nature. Understanding the recurring need for intimacy, to feel a connection that is commeasurable with our ability to impact and control, the exhibition approaches desire itself; the desire to plunge our bodies deep into the earth and transcend the bounded individualism of being ‘human.’

Co-curated by Sophia Yadong Hao (Cooper Gallery, DJCAD) and Professor Sarah Perks (Teesside University).

Read more on our exhibition page.
 

Access

Cooper Gallery is located to the right side of the DJCAD buildings on Perth Road. The entrance is via double doors which face onto a car park.

The gallery is on two floors. Ground floor has ramped access. First floor is accessible by an internal lift and six steps with a handrail. Wheelchair access is via a stairclimber. Please email in advance if you require lift or stairclimber access.

First floor is also accessible via 24 steps. Two flights of 12 steps with handrails are separated by a landing.

Exhibition video is subtitled and captioned in English. Audio will be played aloud via speakers. Seating is provided and/or additional seating available, please ask an invigilator. 

For all enquiries please email: [email protected]

Toilets

The ground floor has a wheelchair accessible toilet. The toilet is gender neutral.

Interpretation

Large print versions of the exhibition information handout are available, please ask our Guides. If you require alternative formats for material in exhibitions please email or ask our Guides.

Image credit

Saodat Ismailova, The Haunted, 2017 (film still)

Funding support

The Scale of Things is supported by Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design

About the exhibition

The Scale of Things is a group exhibition of three moving image works that consider relations between humans and non-humans forming an exploration through history, intimacy and spirituality. Presenting the Scottish premiere of Grace Ndiritu’s Becoming Plant (2022), alongside Saodat Ismailova’s The Haunted (2017), and on its fiftieth anniversary, Margaret Tait’s Aerial (1974).

These works are brought together by a desire to unsettle how we imagine and see ourselves as part of nature. Understanding the recurring need for intimacy, to feel a connection that is commeasurable with our ability to impact and control, the exhibition approaches desire itself; the desire to plunge our bodies deep into the earth and transcend the bounded individualism of being ‘human.’

Co-curated by Sophia Yadong Hao (Cooper Gallery, DJCAD) and Professor Sarah Perks (Teesside University).

Read more on our exhibition page.
 

Artists' Biographies

Saodat Ismailova is a filmmaker and artist who came of age in the post-Soviet era and has established artistic lives between Paris and Tashkent while remaining deeply engaged with her native region as a source of creative inspiration.  


Following graduation from State Art Institute of Tashkent, she co-directed Aral: Fishing in an Invisible Sea, which won Best Documentary at the 2004 Turin Film Festival. In 2005 Ismailova developed her debut award-winning feature film 40 Days of Silence while DAAD Artists-in-Residence, Berlin, which premiered at Forum, Berlin International Film Festival, 2014. She participated in the 2013 Venice Biennale as part of the Central Asian Pavilion with her video installation Zukhra. In 2017 she was artist-in-residence in OCA (Office of Contemporary Art, Norway) where she developed her short film The Haunted, presented the same year at Tromsø Kunstforening.

In 2018 Ismailova graduated from Le Fresnoy, France’s National Studio of Contemporary Arts, where she developed Stains of Oxus and Two Horizons. In the same year, her multimedia performance Qyrq Qyz was presented at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) in New York, and Musée du quai Branly in Paris. In 2020 Ismailova initiated the educational program CCA Lab and Tashkent Film Encounters at Center for Contemporary Arts, Tashkent. In 2021, Ismailova established a research group Davra dedicated to studying, documenting, and disseminating Central Asian culture and knowledge.

In 2022 Ismailova participated in The Milk of Dreams, 59th Venice Biennale with the film Chillahona and in documenta fifteen in Kassel with new work Chilltan and Bibi Seshanbe. The same year she was awarded Eye Prize for Art & Film, Amsterdam, where she presented her exhibition 18 000 Worlds.  
 

Works by Ismailova are in the collections of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Centre Pompidou, Paris and Almaty Art Museum and many others.

Grace Ndiritu is a British-Kenyan filmmaker and visual artist whose artworks are concerned with the transformation of our contemporary world. Her work has been featured in Art Review, The Guardian, TIME Magazine, The Financial Times,  Elephant,  BOMB,  Mousse,  Art Monthly,  Metropolis M,  Phaidon: The 21st Century Art Book,  Apollo Magazine 40 under 40  list, and recently on BBC Radio 4,  Woman's Hour.  

Her films have been at prestigious international film festivals such as the 72nd Berlinale, FID Marseille and BFI London Film Festival in 2022. She is also the winner of The Jarman Film Award 2022 in association with Film London.

Her 'hand-crafted' textiles, painting, photography, shamanic performances and videos  have been widely exhibited in solo and group exhibition including a mid-career survey  SMAK, Ghent (2023); British Art Show (2021 to 2023); Wellcome Collection, London (2022); Gropius Bau, Berlin (2022); Kunsthal Gent (2021); Nottingham Contemporary, UK (2021). Her work is housed in museum collections such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), The British Council (London), LACMA (Los Angeles), Modern Art Museum (Warsaw) and  Foto Museum  (Antwerp). 

gracendiritu.com
 

Margaret Tait was born in 1918 in Kirkwall, Orkney, Scotland. Tait qualified in medicine at Edinburgh University 1941. From 1950 to 1952 she studied film at the Centro Sperimentale di Photographia in Rome. Returning to Scotland she established Ancona Films in Edinburgh’s Rose Street. In the 1960’s Tait moved back to Orkney where over the following decades she made a series of films inspired by the Orcadian landscape and culture. All but three of her thirty two films were self financed. She wrote poetry and stories and produced several books including three books of poetry.

Screenings include National Film Theatre (London), Berlin Film Festival, Centre for Contemporary Art (Warsaw), Arsenal Kino (Berlin), Pacific Film Archives (San Francisco), Knokke le Zoute, Delhi and Riga. Tait was accorded a retrospective at the 1970 Edinburgh Film Festival and has been the subject of profiles on BBC and Channel Four.

The feature length Blue Black Permanent (1993) opened the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Her final film Garden Pieces was completed in 1998. Margaret Tait died in Kirkwall in 1999. Her work is distributed by LUX. 

Access

Cooper Gallery is located to the right side of the DJCAD buildings on Perth Road. The entrance is via double doors which face onto a car park.

The gallery is on two floors. Ground floor has ramped access. First floor is accessible by an internal lift and six steps with a handrail. Wheelchair access is via a stairclimber. Please email in advance if you require lift or stairclimber access.

First floor is also accessible via 24 steps. Two flights of 12 steps with handrails are separated by a landing.

Exhibition video is subtitled and captioned in English. Audio will be played aloud via speakers. Seating is provided and/or additional seating available, please ask an invigilator. 

For all enquiries please email: [email protected]

Toilets

The ground floor has a wheelchair accessible toilet. The toilet is gender neutral.

Interpretation

Large print versions of the exhibition information handout are available, please ask our Guides. If you require alternative formats for material in exhibitions please email or ask our Guides.

Image credit

Grace Ndiritu, Becoming Plant, 2022 (film still)

Funding support

The Scale of Things is supported by Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design