News: Recent Acquisitions

The Arts Council Collection has acquired two works by Billy Dosanjh: the large-scale photographic composite Dayshift (2019) and the archival film Year Zero: Black Country (2014). Dayshift , part of the Exiles series, utilizes filmic production principles to reconstruct social "threshold" moments of 1960s migrant life. The work is inspired by 19th-century "Settler Art" narrative traditions and fine art classics. Year Zero: Black Country is a 60-minute digital video that functions as an "archival excavation". It blends 1960s newsreel footage with personal testimonies to document the early experiences of economic migrants in the industrial West Midlands. Both works have been exhibited extensively, including at The New Art Gallery Walsall , New Art Exchange Nottingham , and Somerset House .