Collective is delighted to announce that its Satellites programme is resuming with two exhibitions of new work this year.
From 10 August – 29 September, Kaya Fraser will present Give us a Smile — a moving image installation exploring the everyday ways we memorialise each other’s lives.
The everyday and working class homes as sites of archive, memory, place and identity are recurring themes in Kaya Fraser’s practice. Working with still and video cameras inherited from her family, she combines a documentary approach with close attention to the beauty residing in the everyday.
In her new work for Satellites, Kaya documents the experience of grief and celebrates the role of her mother as family archivist.
Staying in her childhood home over Christmas 2023, Fraser noticed the way her mother had carefully curated artefacts in every room.
From ‘The Who’ merch to bric-a-brac; stuffed toys to chopping boards; every object was either a reminder of the life her mother had built with the artist’s late stepfather or gifts from a community that had rallied around to support a mourning widow and mother.
Fraser has used found footage made by her stepfather, as well as new panoramic footage she created using his old Samsung Camcorder to create a two channel video installation including a display of objects. Give us a Smile is an everyday archive of Fraser’s working class home — as a site for grief, but also renewal.
Kaya Fraser’s exhibition will be part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2024, and represents the final presentation by the 2023 cohort including previous exhibitions by: Matty Rimmer, Rabindranath X Bhose and Thomas Abercromby, ahead of the presentation of work from the 2024 cohort of Satellites artists later in the year.
As part of its Autumn/Winter programme, Collective will present a group show of work by the 2024 Satellites cohort — Clarinda Tse, Emelia Kerr Beale, Hannan Jones, Josie KO, Katherine Fay Allan and Rowan Markson. The exhibition will be presented across Collective’s site, taking over public and exhibition spaces from 18 October – 22 December.
The Satellites Programme has been on hold since November 2023 when former and current participants expressed concerns about Baillie Gifford’s support for the programme — in particular relating to their investments in companies with links to Israel.
Following extensive consultation with the artists, Collective reached the decision to withdraw from its funding agreement with Baillie Gifford. As a result, Kaya Fraser’s show originally scheduled for March 2024 will now open in August, and the 2024 Satellites Programme will be presented as a group show.
Give us a Smile and the Satellites 2024 group show form highlights of the 40th anniversary programme, reflecting Collective’s ongoing commitment to working with and supporting emerging artists.
Collective’s Director, Sorcha Carey said: “Collective is deeply committed to its role as a platform for artists to share their perspectives and we are pleased we have been able to work with both Kaya and the 2024 Satellites cohort to bring these exhibitions to fruition.”
2022-24 Satellites participant Kaya Fraser said: “The world is permanently grieving and we all grieve both on our own and collectively. I have felt this strongly throughout the making of this work. Because of the ongoing situation throughout making, it is in the very fibres of the work itself and I feel strong solidarity with the people of Palestine, Sudan and the Congo.”
Kaya Fraser and the 2024 Satellites cohort said: “We extend our gratitude to art workers across Scotland for their ongoing activism in support of the Palestinian people, for holding our industry to account and campaigning for Collective to cut ties with Baillie Gifford.
"We know that there is work still to be done. We are commissioning a response to further explore the context and tactics used in this specific campaign, which will feature in our group exhibition.”
Satellites is Collective’s development programme for emergent creative practitioners based in Scotland. Through discussions, workshops, events, retreats and public presentations of new work, artists are invited to engage critically with each other in a programme specifically developed to support them at a pivotal point in their practice.