ARTISTS TALKING

Manick Govinda of Artsadmin profiles the career of Zarina Bhimji, and uncovers how two awards have played a pivotal role in the production and conception of her recent works.

Background

Zarina Bhimji was born in Uganda, and came to England in 1974. She studied in London at Goldsmiths College and Slade School of Fine Art. She has been exhibiting since 1986, and has had solo shows at the IKON Gallery, Birmingham and Kettle's Yard, Cambridge. Work is in various collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, Arts Council of England and Leicester Museum and Art Gallery.

Until recently Bhimji worked in the areas of photography and installation. She presented her first film in 2002 which was commissioned, produced by, and premiered at 'Documenta 11', Kassel Germany. The film Out of Blue marked a turning point, and took the best of four years to make from conception to completion.

Whilst working on the film, Bhimji was also researching other ideas including a Year of the Artist-funded residency to explore the subject of Malaria (the research also received a SciArt Award and London Arts Board funding), and a film idea about an earthquake in India.

In order for Bhimji to embrace these new ways of working she needed to find ways of clearing her life of many pressures. The bursaries, awards, grants and prizes she received from 1999 to 2002 were instrumental in helping her realise her first, critically-acclaimed film, that had its UK premiere in the 'Art Now' programme at Tate Britain in March 2003.

Her works are lamentations, expressing loss, grief, separation, and emotional and social upheavals. The subject matter of her work may be harsh, but it is treated with an enigmatic poetic beauty, hinting at a transformation of the self and society.

Artist's bursary

Bhimji felt that the pressure of having to produce, and working to the constraints of commissions, was having a profound effect on both her work and her role as an artist – she felt she was working to other people's agendas rather than her own. Furthermore a permanent 0.5 teaching post at London College of Printing was stifling her practice and her general well-being.

Bhimji submitted her research idea on Uganda to Artsadmin in 1998: "It was on 9 August 1972 that Asians were expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin. Two years later in 1974 my sister and I had to suddenly 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."

Her application to Artsadmin was successful because of the quality of her ideas and concept, and also because she was at a critical juncture of development, needing time to explore these ideas for her first film.

The professional views of her referees, Sarat Maharaj of Goldsmiths College and Gilane Tawadros, Director of inIVA, also contributed to the selection process, as well as the striking photographic installations that she had produced in the past. Bhimji also writes exquisitely about her work and ideas – there is a poetic quality to her proposals.

Boost of confidence

The £4000 Artsadmin Bursary was timely. Bhimji wanted to learn more about the use of sound in her work, and to expand her knowledge on film-making. The bursary enabled her to attend a major conference on sound organised by the National School of Sound.

She also discovered the new wave of films emerging from Iran – the work of directors such as Abbas Kiarostami, whose minimal elegance captivated her. The bursary gave her time to read books on Africa and the Middle East: "I wrote to the publishers I B Taurus and told them that I was a reviewer and they sent me lots of review copies!"

The Artsadmin Bursary enabled her to join The London Library, an independent subscription library serving the needs of scholars by lending books for use at home. Located in St James' Square in central London, the library contains about a million books in all European languages and subjects range across the humanities, with particular emphasis on literature, history and related subjects. This gave Bhimji access to books that were crucial to her research for the work.

Hamlyn award

Bhimji was nominated for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation award by Isaac Julien in 1999. The Artsadmin Bursary gave her access to advice, and she sent drafts of her Hamlyn application to the artists' advisor for feedback and dialogue.

In 1999 Bhimji received an award of £30,000 spread over three years. She speaks lyrically about how the award opened new doors for her: "It gave me a quiet confidence to trust what I was doing. I had time to watch natural light, the light in spring time. I found a rhythm through natural light and I changed my diet. I needed to find my strength. I discovered that my environment is important to me, so I moved out of my studio and started to explore buying one." This proved too expensive, so she renovated her flat and set up her studio in her living room.

Simply put, the Hamlyn Award bought her freedom. She didn't feel pressured into guest lecturing at art schools, and gave her time to rest, and do things like go to Wales and walk in the mountains, "I learned the art of walking".

The only thing the Hamlyn Foundation expected from her was a short report at the end of the year "and even if you didn't write the report the cheque would still come in the post!" For Bhimji, each time she embarked on developing and making new work, she had to reinvent herself. The award helped her significantly in this process.

Turning points

Giving up a permanent 0.5 teaching post was a big risk as it meant giving up a regular salary and holiday pay. She learned a lot about film producers and film-making. Uganda was also a burning subject: "I felt lonely about what happened in Uganda. Watching Iranian cinema helped me find a way of depicting exile and illiteracy – it taught me how to think of these subjects and how to communicate them through a visual medium. I also got into sound in a big way."

A key turning point for Bhimji was when she met Sarat Maharaj when she was a student at Goldsmiths. Sarat has been like an inspiration for Bhimji. He is Professor in History of Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London, Research Project Fellow at Jan Van Eyck Akademi, Maastricht, Netherlands and Rudolf Arnheim Professor at Humboldt University, Berlin.

Documenta

'Documenta' is the world's biggest exhibition of contemporary art – in 2002 it attracted over 630,000 visitors. Okwui Enwezor, Artistic Director of 'Documenta 11', believed in Bhimji and trusted her vision: "I couldn't have made that film without Okwui and Sarat. I tried to speak to Western curators but they didn't understand what was involved. With Sarat and Okwui I could openly chat to them and show them an unsolved idea or picture and receive honesty with a sense of understanding, without the colonial baggage. They understood that it was a special project."

Bhimji would like to continue working with Sarat Maharaj, and to continue making work that challenges her and that is beautiful. The film Out of Blue was a success. Adrian Searle in The Guardian said: "Pain is evidence, and evident, in Zarina Bhimji's return to Uganda, from which her family were kicked out, along with the rest of the Asian community, in the mid-1970s. The exquisite filming is at odds with the wretchedness of what she depicts: Idi Amin's cells, the wrecked colonial villas, the ruins of Entebbe airport, and the fact that Bhimji is returning to the land of a lost childhood."

The 'Documenta' commission was another turning point for her, and has brought her work to the attention of major public and commercial galleries and to collectors in Europe and the USA.

Future

In October 2002, Bhimji became artist-in-residence at DAAD, Berlin. She recently completed her research for her next piece on malaria which started when she was artist-in-residence at the National Institute for Medical Research, London in 2000 (part of the Year of the Artist scheme), and she received a SciArt award and research and development funding from London Arts Board's Combined Arts fund. She is currently researching an idea which will take her to India.

She also wants to build a team of people whom she can call upon for support, help and professional services: "For example, where can I find a lawyer to talk to about land rights". The film meant no longer working alone in the studio but with a team. She has developed a network of people with whom she can talk to and potentially work with. As an artist making her first public film, she says: "I wanted the film to be simple, but some film producers had a formulaic way of working, had too many rules."

Update 2006

Zarina Bhimji’s recent solo exhibition at Haunch of Venison, London, included large-format colour photographs made in Uganda that rather than address a specific political and historical situation, are an intuitive response influenced by the ‘emotion cargo’ the artist brought to the sites. The carefully selected everyday objects and spaces with their traces of human presence evoke universal feelings grief, love, vulnerability, spirituality and loss, and th prevalence of violence.

Bhimji’s work is included in ‘British Art Show 6’, Hayward Gallery Touring, and Biennale of Sydney 2006, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia.

Links

www.artsadmin.co.uk

www.wellcome.ac.uk/sciart

www.phf.org.uk

Manick Govinda

Manick Govinda is Head of Artists Advisory Services at London-based Artsadmin, and a Board member of a-n. He researched and edited Future forecast: Curated space in November 2005 and directed the associated think tank. Formerly arts projects officer at the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, his recent projects include the deciBel/Artsadmin Investment in Artists and Curators initiative with Arts Council England, the Artsadmin artists’ bursary scheme, talent scouting for NESTA’s Creative Pioneers Programme and developing an action-research project with Creative Partnerships London East.