Spotlight on Arun Sood

Spotlight on Arun Sood

10 December 2024

Arun Sood is a Scottish-Indian writer, musician, academic, and intermedia artist whose diverse work captivates audiences across multiple forms. The Box is thrilled to be working with him on an emerging artist commission. Arun's focus will be on Power and Class, highlighting its impact on the south west.

Arun's creative portfolio is rich and explores many layers including cultural memory, diasporic identities, and song cultures, exploring the intricate web woven by personal heritage, colonial histories, and climate futures. His unique artistry is not contained by conventional boundaries, as he engages with writing, moving images, and sound works, inviting audiences on an immersive journey.

[Arun's multidisciplinary process is described as]...fragments of memories spoken and images conjured through sound and field recordings, strings, and tape loops that ebb and swirl like the tide.

Elizabeth Alker (BBC3 and BBC 6 Music)

Arun is also a prolific author, having penned three celebrated books. His academic study on the esteemed Scottish song collector Robert Burns showcases his scholarly depth, while his novel recently garnered the prestigious 2024 Kavya Prize for fiction. His non-fiction art book also delves into the intersections of art ecology, sound, and place, further enriching his contribution to contemporary art and literature.

Text which reads 'where lands seeps to sea ancestors weep to be' overlaid against stormy sea photo

On Power and Class

With Arun's commission focusing on Power and Class and the south west, we will be following his process and see what the film archive collections hold that resonates with current social issues themes.

Aligning with this theme is an exciting exhibition, ‘When will we be good enough?’ by interdisciplinary artist Osman Yousefzada, which is on displayed at The Box until 9 March 2025. This exhibition, rich in themes of power, class, and migration narratives from the South Asian diaspora, complements the Reimagining the Film Archive (RtFA) initiative; in fostering greater dialogue around diversity and representation in the arts, and the root of Sood's practice on the multifaceted experiences of the diaspora.

Image composed of graphics overlaying an old photograph, next to a photograph of a man wearing a hat, next to

We're excited to see how new artists will reinterpret visual stories about society. We anticipate Arun's work to be exhibited in the Media Lab Gallery in January 2025.

By supporting emerging artists, the RtFA programme is redefining how The Box builds opportunities and access to its archival collections, shaping the way we approach film archives in the digital age as well as nurturing emerging creatives. This gives artists the chance to explore and reinterpret narratives within the country's largest regional film and television archive.

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Image credits:
Film Still 'Bard' (2023)
Film Still 'Searching Erskine' (2022)
Film Still 'Peripheral Lament' (2024)