National Galleries of Scotland

“An extraordinarily beautiful piece”
Metro

‘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.

Replete with a moving score written by Sally Beamish, performed by the Scottish Ensemble and Reggae singer Ghetto Priest, and produced by legendary On-U-Sound founder Adrian Sherwood, Graham Fagen creates a fascinating soundclash, where Burns' poetry finds a haunting bedfellow in Jamaican reggae music – and finds much common ground. This evocative video installation was curated by Hospitalfield, Arbroath and exhibited at Scotland + Venice 2015, when Graham Fagen represented Scotland at the Venice Biennale. 

Image: Graham Fagen, still from The Slave's Lament, 2015 © Graham Fagen.