Ayan Farah
In June 2023, we welcomed Ayan Farah to the Roberts Institute of Art Residency.
Ayan used her time in residency to research vessels and source materials connected to the local environment that originate from repurposed waste and natural resources, such as plastic and clay.
Ayan is an artist based in Sweden whose practice involves researching and gathering organic pigments and dyes from across the world, which she applies on canvas, linen, hemp and silk.
While in residence, she searched for pigments around the River South Esk which runs through the residency’s grounds, collecting a variety of iron-rich stones and slates. Having previously used chalk in her work, Ayan intends to incorporate these new stone pigments into her practice.
As with two of our previous artists-in-residence, Jesse Wine and Monika Sosnowska, Ayan also integrated trees felled by a hurricane in 2022 into her residency research and making, collecting clay from exposed roots to use in future work. Ayan has often used soil in her practice and is part of her interest in manipulating natural elements not only to create raw materials for making work but also to act as subtle meditations on materiality and environment, territory and the relations between people and place.
One such example, Red Storm (2011), is part of the David and Indrė Roberts Collection. Made of red earth and dye on a polyester cotton blanket, Red Storm’s aged and soiled fabric shows Ayan’s fascination with organic processes as part of the creation of her works.
Ayan creates atmospheric pieces that are anchored in certain times and places. Exploring the local area around the residency in search of materials to incorporate into her work, Ayan visited Usan Salmon Fisheries, a fishing company that is sandwiched between the River Esk and the North Sea. There she collected fishing rope and ocean plastics on the beach. In the seaside town of Tayport, Ayan collected seashells, which she intends to use to make a glaze.
Dundee was once the largest jute manufacturer in the Western World, due to its local whaling industry which provided oil to soften the coarse material. Ayan visited Verdant Works, a former jute mill, as part of her ongoing research into the social history of textiles, to discover more about the place's history and the methods used to process the fibres.
Her aim to research vessels while in residence led to a weaving workshop with local weaver Rachel Bower. While predominantly working in fabric, Ayan is still determining how and whether weaving could be incorporated into her work.
In an exchange of letters with Glasgow-based artist Ilana Halperin, Ayan Farah reflected on her time in residence and how both artists are preoccupied with loss, transformation, place and material. You can read the conversation here.
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