Screening and Q&A with artist, Graham Fagen

We warmly invite you to a screening of The Slave’s Lament, followed by an open and participatory conversation with artist Graham Fagen. The event is created as a welcoming starting point for anyone interested in Scottish history, culture and how the past continues to shape life in the Highlands today. Participants are invited to explore Scotland’s deep entanglement with the transatlantic slave trade and its continuing cultural and economic legacies, with a particular focus on the Highlands.

This is the second event of Decolonising the Highlands,a longer-term programme co-curated with Dr Cat Dunn that will be shaped collaboratively with our local communities. This screening and discussion lay the groundwork for that process, creating shared understanding and inviting local voices to reflect together on what comes next.

You do not need any prior knowledge of decolonisation to take part. Whether you are new to these conversations or already engaged, this is a space to listen, reflect, and contribute.

About the Film The Slave Lament

Written in 1792, The Slave’s Lament is Robert Burns’ only work that communicated the appalling realities of the transatlantic slave trade. Despite being more than 200 years old, the song brings the social, political and human tragedies of today into sharp focus.

In this contemporary interpretation, artist Graham Fagen brings together the Scottish Ensemble and reggae singer Ghetto Priest. By connecting Burns’ words with Jamaican reggae, the work links Scottish and Caribbean histories and highlights how seemingly distant musical cultures are deeply entangled. The result is a powerful and moving piece that invites reflection on shared histories of suffering, resistance, and humanity.

The Slave’s Lament’ was Robert Burns’ only work to empathise with the appalling hurt of the displaced, the trafficked, and the enslaved. A beautiful lyric written over two hundred years ago, it is a narrative that remains entirely contemporary as we think of current tragedies unfolding on borders and in hinterland locations.

The Slave’s Lament Originally produced for Scotland + Venice 2015, commissioned and curated by Hospitalfield, Arbroath. Composer: Sally Beamish

The Conversation

After the screening, we invite you to join a relaxed and inclusive discussion with artist Graham Fagen and curator Dr Cat Dunn. We hope for this to be a participatory space for our audiences to begin reflecting on erased or marginalised histories that have shaped the region. Together, we will begin to explore which stories have been overlooked or marginalised in the construction of Highland cultural narratives? How can art help us think, feel, and talk about these difficult histories?

Decolonising the Highlands

Decolonising the Highlands is about creating space for shared inquiry rather than providing fixed answers. This event is an invitation to be part of that process from the start.

The programme hopes to create a welcoming space, making room for local voices and lived experiences, ensuring that the research and Timespan’s forthcoming exhibition emerge from a shared foundation of understanding and dialogue.

By starting with art and conversation, we hope to build a foundation of trust, openness, and collective understanding—together.

Graham Fagen (b. 1966) is a Scottish artist living and working in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied sculpture at The Glasgow School of Art (1984-1988, BA(Hons) and Art & Architecture at the Kent Institute of Art and Design (1989-1990, MA). He is Professor of Fine Art at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design at the University of Dundee.

Graham Fagen is one of the UK’s foremost contemporary artists, working across mediums including video, installation, sculpture, photography, and text, to create works which explore history and culture. He is interested in how history and culture is created and how in turn this shapes and forms who we are or who we become.Common themes of his work have included Scotland and the transatlantic slave trade, war, plants, journeys, poetry, and popular song, as a means through which to explore the varying forces impacting our contemporary culture and identity.

In the UK he is represented by Matt’s Gallery, London and he has exhibited at institutions including Victoria & Albert Museum, Tate Britain and the Institute of Contemporary Arts. In 1999 he was invited by the Imperial War Museum, London to work as the Official War Artist for Kosovo.

Internationally he has exhibited at the Busan Biennale, South Korea and the Art and Industry Biennial, New Zealand and was international artist in residence at Artpace, San Antonio, USA.

In 2015, he represented Scotland at the 56th Venice Biennale.

He has work in the collections of Tate; Arts Council Collection, Hayward Gallery, London; The British Council; The UK Government Art Collection; Imperial War Museum, London; V&A Museum, London; Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds; Gallery of Modern Art Glasgow, City of Edinburgh Collection, Ayrshire Museums, Dundee Museums, Inverness Museum and Art Gallery. The Fleming Collection, London. The National Galleries of Scotland. Caldic Collection, Voorlinden Museum, The Netherlands. The Hiscox Collection. Galerie De l’UQAM, University of Montreal, Canada and the Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, Mississippi, USA.

Private collections in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, New York, San Antonio, New Zealand, Germany, Denmark & Italy.

Image credits Graham Fagen The Slave’s Lament (single screen)
Originally produced for Scotland + Venice 2015, commissioned and curated by Hospitalfield, Arbroath. Composer: Sally Beamish

© Graham Fagen. All Rights Reserved, DACS Images