ARTISTS TALKING

To do this I gave up my 0.5 teaching position and I decided to take a trip to Uganda. With this work I am now entering into the new areas of film and sound.

It was on the 9 August 1972 that Asians were expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin. Two years later my sister and I had to flee, leaving behind everything except two dresses and a cardigan. During the civil war in Uganda we had stayed indoors with curtains closed: I witnessed violence, shooting and death by Amin's military. We arrived in England not speaking any English.

In the summer of 1998 I visited Uganda for the first time in twenty-four years. I visited many places that suffered badly during the civil war. Despite extensive rebuilding, my home, school and mosque in Nabusanke remained bombed out. In Ntungamo, my family home and shop was still standing. I took photographs and video of forest fires. I gathered still images, sound and video. I was interested in the traces of war; its unspeakable horror, rites of passage, of re-building.

Currently I am getting ready to make my first film, and I am interested in creating soundscapes. The close associations of voice and speech have emotive qualities where I hope the viewer heavily relies on his or her own imagination to draw meaning.

On a quiet morning within a beautiful landscape I will fire a gun like those used in Uganda. I will record the sound and play it back at normal speed and slower speed to recapture and reveal echoes – reverberations from 1972. Like voice and the human body, sound is part of the narrative, to pick up the rhythm inside and enlarge it, without losing the truth. These would be the raw materials on which to improvise and build a sound script, creating various densities of resonance in the space, a diasporic disturbance.

The 'East International' and Paul Hamlyn awards have transformed my work. They have given me the opportunity to develop work on my own terms and have helped me to achieve new levels of maturity as an artist. This will hopefully also increase international interest in my work. It will give me time to refuel, to explore and experiment with new languages such as objects and drawings, but also realise specific achievements such as a finished body of work relating to Uganda and beyond. They will allow me to create film installations, a portfolio of photographs, prints, a collection of objects, and the making of dresses from maps.