Gallery Oldham’s latest exhibition showcases the talents of Bani Abidi - a Pakistani artist who works with video, photography and drawing.
The Song (2022) is a new film work by artist Abidi, who has spent much of her career so far reflecting on the problems of nationalism and borders, and how such issues affect everyday life and individual experience.
The film draws on Abidi’s interest in sound and migration and on what it means to be displaced.
The Song follows the fictional story of an elderly man who has recently arrived in a new and unfamiliar European city.
He deals with the isolation of his new apartment by using everyday objects to create soundscapes, to recreate familiar and reassuring noises of his former home.
The film poignantly highlights the realities of migration, homesickness, yearning and loss.
The other piece in the exhibition is Memorial to Lost Words (2016).
This installation is a combination of letters from Indian soldiers in World War One and folk songs.
It remembers ordinary civilians and soldiers, rather than the generals and rulers who have historically been the people commemorated.
Commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella, Contemporary Art Society, John Hansard Gallery and Salzburger Kunstverein, and supported by Arts Council England, the exhibition is presented to Gallery Oldham by the Contemporary Art Society.
The exhibition runs from March 23 until June 1.
