“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.