Billy Wins RBSA Photograhic Prize for Dayshift & Seamstress

The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists (RBSA) Photography Prize Exhibition is hosted biennially to celebrate photographic art. Featuring 100 works from over 70 artists, this exhibition showcases the best of contemporary photography with the inclusion of both established and emerging photographers.

Two of Billy’s pieces, Dayshift and Seamstress, were entered into the competition, for which he was awarded first prize. Billy commented:

“To win the main prize felt a real coup for the identity I assert in my work - Royal Birmingham Society of Artists was established in 1821 with members like John Everett Millais and other painters whose work I study when entering my imaginings. This place is the deep soul of Birmingham and the Black Country. I’m glad to be in its thrall for a while.

Huge thanks to my team of craftspeople and producers, and funders who make the art happen. They really are epic productions. The works glisten in this space”.

The show is on until April 8th at Brook Street in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham. There are some really fabulous works in a wide range of styles, techniques, and practices on display. Click here for more information.

You’ll be glad you visited!

The Exiles exhibition launches at the New Art Gallery in Walsall

Billy’s ambitious new body of photographic works pay tribute to those largely male migrant workers, especially those from the British colonies of South Asia, who came to The Black Country in the 1960s, to a region in the last throes of its industrial might, to find work and to create a new life for themselves.

Billy has drawn on his lived experience and the rich and vibrant stories told by his family and community to explore what happens when cultures merge and to create a visual vernacular for a history that has inextricably shaped our region forever.

Using filmic principles - elaborate, large scale lighting, set builds, and cinematic references - to make an original photographic series - The Exiles. The first image was an enormous production in 2019 for what was in principle a single shot movie. The remainder of the series was shot in 2022 after a series of pauses due to lockdown.

The show runs from 11th November 2022 – 6th February 2023. More information can be found here.

In Conversation:  Saturday 28 January, 2pm, Free.

Join Billy Dosanjh with Head of Exhibitions, Deborah Robinson for an informal tour of the exhibition followed by a screening of Billy’s short film Lumbu, the story of a young boy which was largely shot in Caldmore.

Please book your free place at the Reception Desk or book via Eventbrite.

Billy Dosanjh in conversation with Melanie Kidd - 4 November 2022

At the beginning of November I was invited by Melanie Kidd, Head of Exhibitions at the New Art Exchange in Nottingham, to talk about the last 10 years of my creative practise. The talk coincides with my exhibition which is being shown there until the 7th of January 2023. We spoke before a full house and a couple dozen attendees online too - thanks to the entire team for making the evening run so smoothly.

After a six month course at the School of Myth this year, hearing ancient oral stories, a clearer language round my work has appeared - in Joseph Campbell speak, the business of severance, threshold & return - and the psyche work inherent in journeys through the otherworld, journeys akin to the great migratory adventures our species have repeatedly embarked on, like the footprints of my ancestors, now scattered on Black Country’s scorched earth.

The talk is busy with artistic references; the eponymous The Exiles, a 60s docu-drama following Native Americans who leave reservations for Bunker Hill in LA, from nature based ways to a pummelling in capitalist straitjackets; to Tracey Moffat’s searing recreations of early Aussie outback life, of Aboriginal families dispossessed of their children; to paintings by Cornelius Krieghoff and Frederick McCubbin of early European settlements in Newfoundlands. I could go on and do in the talk.

You can watch the talk below. I hope you find it nourishing.

New Art Exchange Press Release

New exhibition at New Art Exchange

Billy Dosanjh [Traveller, Your Footprints]

23 September 2022 – 7 January 2023

Billy Dosanjh is an artist, filmmaker and storyteller whose practice pays tribute to every displaced person. His new, solo exhibition [Traveller, Your Footprints] opens on 23 September at New Art Exchange, Nottingham.

Born and raised in the Black Country area of the West Midlands, Dosanjh has built a body of work that explores the lives of South Asian empire workers who arrived in this blue-collar region in the last throes of its industrial might. Drawn from his lived experience and the stories recounted by his family and community, Dosanjh’s work documents and poetically interprets the incredible journeys of these marginalised individuals and the generations that followed them. In doing so, Dosanjh brings to the fore an important yet missing visual vernacular of a people and place.

The exhibition begins with Dosanjh’s seminal film, Year Zero: Black Country (2014), which transports the viewer to the 1960s as thousands of economic migrants from the former colonies travel to the industrial heartlands of England in search of jobs, fortune, and a new life. Comprised of archive materials and filmed scenes, Year Zero captures the psychology and sensations of this epic upheaval. Through the film, local anecdotes, characters and stories emerge which Dosanjh expands upon through the photo series, Exiles (2019 – 2022). These large-scale photographs appear as digitally manipulated images of miniature villages or maquettes, when in fact they are created by a laborious process involving sets, a cast of actors, costumes and theatrical lighting. Through the intriguing and uncanny, freeze-frame quality of Exiles, Dosanjh cleverly draws the viewers’ attention to a distinct context and character, presses ‘pause’ and invites you to peer into the protagonist’s soul.

Traversing through time, Dosanjh’s focus shifts to the next generation, in the newly commissioned film, Indi (2022). Set in the 1990’s Indi charts the world of emigre mother, Sheeru, and her British born, teenage son, Indi, who dreams of playing football for England. The work questions how life choices are shaped by your environment, and addresses the complexities of living across opposing cultures, traditions and identities.

--ENDS--

Press Contact

For more information, please contact: Maria Narducci, maria@nae.org.uk 07760 245240

Billy Dosanjh [TRAVELLER, YOUR FOOTPRINTS] Solo Exhibition

It’s been a busy couple of months for Billy and his team. They have been working towards the completion of two projects which will both be feature in his solo exhibition [TRAVELLER, YOUR FOOTPRINTS]. The exhibition is being held at the New Art Exchange in Nottingham from the 23rd September 2022 - 7th January 2023.

The exhibition features a series of works starting with his seminal film, Year Zero: Black Country (2014), which transports the viewer to the 1960s as thousands of economic migrants from the former colonies travel to the industrial heartlands of England in search of jobs, fortune, and a new life. You will also be able to view his photo series, Exiles (2019 – 2022) which has the addition of four more photos with a similar focus of migration to the West Midlands during the 60s and 70. Finally, we traverse through time to the modern day with his newly commissioned film, Indi (2022). Set in the 1990’s Indi charts the world of emigre mother, Sheeru, and her British born, teenage son, Indi, who dreams of playing football for England. The work questions how life choices are shaped by your environment, and addresses the complexities of living across opposing cultures, traditions and identities.

Billy is hugely proud and thankful to the team, firstly because it has taken a lot of hard work to secure funding for the projects and secondly because covid has meant the film start dates were delayed considerably.

More information about the exhibition can be found here.

Exiles Filming Update

This month our team photographed the remaining prompts in our fine art series Exiles, funded by The Arts Council, Multistory and The New Art Gallery Walsall. The work is now in post-production in Berlin where our brilliant Massachusetts retoucher and printer Nathan Baker is compositing the 4 images.

Production took place over 4 magical days in May as our team of producers, runners, security, technicians, craftsmen and women, and our locally assembled casts came to the fore to generate a once in a lifetime creative burst. It was food for the soul. Our homage to the experiences of the 10,000 empire workers who arrived to these streets around the time man landed on the moon.

It was a buzz to create again, to be free of lockdowns and able to spend the money we were funded years ago. The cast members were drawn in from online casting and street casting, and they gave their all to achieve the art we went for. We’re eternally grateful to their creative spirits.

Location pictures below and more on Billy’s Facebook page.

Busy, Busy, Busy

These past few months have been a voyage in filmmaking, bringing the mid 90s in Sandwell to life with the movie Lumbu, funded by BFI ad BBC Films, and then journeying through Cameroon, to tell the untold story of that fabulous football team, the Green Lions. It’s been an intense creative period that will now involve just as intense an edit process. Please do check out images from the shoots on my website.

Meanwhile, we’ve been preparing our creative storytelling workshop with BCLM which we deliver on Feb 28th and dates are accruing for various art showings and art making experiences across the year.

It’s going to be a big one!

Billy Offered a Part Time Associate Lecturer Post at Goldsmiths University

Billy is thrilled to announce that he has taken up a post as part time Associate Lecturer teaching on an MA Screen Documentary programme at Goldsmiths University.

Billy is looking forward to teaching and passing on his experience to students from all over the globe. Bringing their own unique creative energies, which he will encourage and support over the academic year.

A lively and nourishing environment to work in

Two Short Film - Open Casting

Raucous Pictures are conducting a major search of the West Midlands area for two boys of South East Asian descent (i.e. Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi) to star as the lead in one of two short films funded by the British Film Institute, BBC Films and Film London. The films are to be directed by me.

No formal acting experience is needed to apply.

• Unrepresented boys or non-actor boys of any Southeast Asian origin

• Male 12 yrs – 17 yrs

• Boys from the Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton area

The Films

LUMBU: The dramatic story of ‘Lumbu’ and best friend Ravi as the navigate the consequences of a long-held family secret finally becoming known. 

INDI FOR ENGLAND: The heartfelt story of Britain’s first great hope as a professional South Asian footballer, his desi Mum, his preoccupied Dad, and the sport he loves. 

How to Apply

We would like you to start by introducing yourself and telling us a bit about who you are - your age, school, where you live, what you enjoy doing and basically what makes you tick in life! Do this on yours or a friends mobile phone and either email us using the subject matter ‘Short Films’ or send us your introduction via whatspp.

Here are the contact details:

E: komachall@hotmail.co.uk I WHATSAPP: 07983 820765

We will respond to each applicant to acknowledge receipt, and follow up with more information.

Boys who are under 17yrs should have a parent or guardian apply for them. Thank you for your time

Mind the Gaps - Flatpack Film Festival Talk

"Film and TV archives only give us part of the picture. This is an opportunity to hear from two people who are adept at navigating these collections, and drawing out the untold stories which can fall through the gaps.”

Nirmal Puwar and I were part of a talk organised by Ian Francis of Flatpack. We also discussed our experiences of working with cine archive. The talk is now available to view on Vimeo and you can view it by clicking here.

Nirwal is Reader in Sociology, at Goldsmiths, University of London and the author of 'Space Invaders: race, gender and bodies out of place' (2004). Nirwal’s formative Coventry cinema experiences formed the basis of a collaborative series of short films and exhibition at the Herbert Art Gallery

Wells Art Contemporary 2021

Really pleased our art work “Dayshift” has been selected for the 2021 Wells Contemporary Art Exhibition. Open to artists working in painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, photography, installation or video from all over the world, it's a privilege to participate in this visual arts competition.

Th exhibition coincides with the launch of a new Anthony Gormley artwork. Cast in iron, the work is just over life-size and will occupy an empty niche below the North-West tower of the cathedral.

The virtual exhibition opens on the 2nd August - 26 September and actual exhibition opens on the 28th August 2021 at Wells Cathedral”