Rooted in Community Exhibition

Granton Hub, Madelvic House, Granton Park Avenue, Edinburgh EH5 1HS

Opening: Friday 28 April, 6pm – 9pm

Sat 29 – Sun 30, 10am to 6pm

Meet artists taking part in ’Rooted in Community: Artistic Expressions from North Edinburgh and Wester Hailes’, an exhibition showcasing the work of local artists as part of Create Community Wealth – a collaborative community wealth-building project, delivered in partnership between WHALE Arts, North Edinburgh Arts, SCOREscotland and Passion4Fusion, that aims to support local people living in North Edinburgh and Wester Hailes to explore their creative and enterprising ideas, to tackle social exclusion and improve wellbeing and local economic prospects through creativity. 

We have spoken to all artists involved, who are sharing more about their creative practice and hopes for the future. Scroll down to read our interviews and/or watch short videos.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and the work you do?

I am a portrait artist born in West African Gambia. I never really learned what it meant to be a portrait artist till when I discovered I got the skills to become one and realised what one can be capable of creating and able to tell stories that can reach out to many people. As a self-taught artist, I will keep pushing myself beyond to improve and to reach the goals I’ve always dreamt of.

What will you be showing as part of the Rooted in Community Exhibition?  

I will be showing five realistic charcoal and graphite portraits of different people I created for the Rooted in Community Exhibition.

What inspired you to create the artwork for this exhibition? 

I was inspired by other portrait artists I have come across on the internet, and have always been fascinated by how skillful they are and able to tell their own stories from their point of view by displaying their work on a piece of paper that speaks to their audience.

Can you share your reflections on how being part of the Create Community Wealth project influenced you? 

The create community wealth project has influenced me by giving me the opportunity to do better for myself by educating me on how to go about building my own art business that I’ve always dreamt of. The little that others can offer can be a life-changing miracle for some and this is one of the opportunities I am grateful for.

What do you hope to achieve or accomplish with this exhibition as an artist? 

I am hoping to get myself exposed by having the opportunity to be able to show some of my artwork through this exhibition as an artist.

What’s next? What are your future plans as an artist, after this exhibition?

Next is to dive deeper and be able to be more creative and keep improving as an artist. My goal is to be a portrait artist whose work can tell stories based on people’s history that other people can reflect on and be able to connect with.

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Can you tell us a bit about yourself and the work you do?

I am starting a business under the name Enyx Art and as an artist, I focus on nature, environmental and sustainable themes. I create mostly digital work which I am to sell globally to local print and Riso shops who will then print my work and sell it to their local area. The physical work I create uses recycled and/or natural materials (such as the pour painting wastes a considerable amount of acrylic paint which I then use this waste to create unique artwork onto glass cabochons which are then set into various jewellery).

What will you be showing as part of the Rooted in Community Exhibition?

A selection of the different styles of artwork I do including fresh flower ink prints, pour painting, Riso prints and photography.

What inspired you to create the artwork for this exhibition? 

The flower ink prints were what I began with when I first started making art. This came from being unable to create ink from the flowers I was given in a workshop so I cheated and snuck some calligraphy ink in. From there I experimented some more and began using a mix of flowers dipped in ink and ink painting to create these types of works.

The pour painting also came from a workshop which I took to really quickly but have since had to give up due to housing issues. The glitter used in my works is in fact car painting-grade glitter which is finer, more expensive and I’m sure remnants can be found under my work table. 

The Riso printing is something I took up recently, although I had been trained in screen printing when I studied surface design. My work is moving more towards a digital focus and Riso printing is one of the mediums which I will be continuing going forward.

Finally, photography. I used to be an events photographer and also do photo shoots for many different situations but rarely photographed nature. When I returned to photography in 2018 I had been asked to get some photos of the local area for a project with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra that would then be exhibited in the National Gallery of Scotland. The set of 8 with dried flowers are replicas from another project with Pester and Rossi on the Union Canal.

Can you share your reflections on how being part of the Create Community Wealth project influenced you? 

The project reintroduced me to Riso printing and doing markets more frequently helped me realise that I needed to change my approach to selling if my business was to be more manageable. This led me to focus on producing work digitally for Riso, photography, and graphic art mediums.

What do you hope to achieve or accomplish with this exhibition as an artist? 

I hope to start writing social media posts and the occasional blog about exhibitions that I have been in as a way of promoting my work and supporting my online business. Although the website isn’t ready yet, this exhibition has been very well supported by its creators and had given me plenty of opportunities to do promotion personally among those who follow my work and create a few posts about it.

What’s next? What are your future plans as an artist, after this exhibition?

I plan to finish my website, train some more in Riso printing and produce a decent amount of new work for selling digitally.

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Can you tell us a bit about yourself and the work you do? 

I have been a professional artist over 20 years, while I also have a PhD in Landscape Architecture. I am originally from Iran. I travelled to the United Kingdom when I was 6, but 5 years later returned to Iran. Experiencing different lifestyles in two parts of the world in early years left me with many questions about life, cultures, and humans, and it was at the age of 12 where my professional art journey started. Painting was the best medium for me to speak to all humans – no matter what language they speak – to express what I believe connects us: our souls and spirits. I travelled back to the UK in 2012 to do my PhD. Since 2022 I started focusing on my own art project and have developed over 20 oil colour paintings, which I am now ready to exhibit. I am also working part time at Edinburgh University. 

What will you be showing as part of the Rooted in Community Exhibition? 

I have focused on some series of paintings since Spring 2022, and this will be the first time I will be exhibiting four of my oil colour paintings. Amongst the four paintings, two will be from the series titled “Humans vs. Robots”, and two other will come from my other series, which I will leave untitled and encourage my viewers to describe based on their own insights. 

What inspired you to create the artwork for this exhibition? 

My paintings reflect my own observations of humans’ journey of searching for a true inner peace and the path to reach it. My paintings have narratives which are developed through an inspirational process, triggered by poets such as Rumi and other Persian mystics or verses and Sufi music. Every painting presents my journey within my soul, emotional status and my thoughts on morality and spirituality. 

Can you share your reflections on how being part of the Create Community Wealth project influenced you? 

Being part of this Project has provided such an encouraging opportunity for me to connect to other artists and art-lovers. While I have over 20 years of experience as an Artist, Since I came to the UK, I had never exhibited my work and didn’t clearly know where to start from. However, this great project has highly encouraged me to connect with others and find the ways of entering the artist communities. 

What do you hope to achieve or accomplish with this exhibition as an artist? 

For me at this stage it is very important to know other artists and allow my work to be seen by people and art lovers. I am very interested to build dialogue with people from different communities and backgrounds through my paintings, share my thoughts through them and also encourage my viewers to share their inner thoughts and journeys by observing my paintings. 

What’s next? What are your future plans as an artist, after this exhibition? 

I will be having a Solo Exhibition in the third week of May where I can present all my paintings in one place. I am also communicating with other spaces within Edinburgh to run more exhibitions and am looking forward to communicating with more artists and art communities. I will also be designing my website, where I can present my artwork to wider audience.