It’s two weeks until the opening of Blast! Festival of Photography, Talks and Walks!

Blast! features work by 40 photographers, artists and curators in the 6 towns of Sandwell (West Bromwich, Tipton, Rowley Regis, Oldbury, Smethwick and Wednesbury).

My project You Will Live In This World As A Daughter will be shown in Girl Gaze: Journeys Through The Punjab & The Black Country, UK along with work by Uzma Mohsin, Jennifer Pattison and Andrea Fernandes.

We were all commissioned to make the work by Creative Black Country and Multistory with support from the Nazar Foundation, as part of the British Council’s Reimagine India. The show has been curated by Iona Fergusson.

I had an interview for the project in late 2016 and the work premiered in India last March, but Blast! will be the first time that the show will be in the UK. So this is kind of the last big step for the project...

There will be events at the venue (The British Muslim School, West Bromwich, B70 8NX) on Saturday 25th May from 11am to 1pm, including a poetry reading by Rupinder Kaur (who appears in my photo above) at around 11.15am and then a guided tour at 12pm.

At the same venue will be Dawinder Bansal’s Asian Women & Cars: Road to Independence.

Girl Gaze: Journeys Through The Punjab & The Black Country, UK is a photographic exploration of the Punjab and diaspora communities in the West Midlands through the voices of young girls and women. The exhibition brings together newly-commissioned work by four women artists: Jocelyn Allen (UK), Andrea Fernandes (India), Jennifer Pattison (UK), and Uzma Mohsin (India).