Postcards for Solidarity

No matter where you were born, where you live, what language you speak. No matter your skin colour, religion, or belief. In 2020, we were all living through a global pandemic; the future remained uncertain for all of us.

Commissioned by Interfaith Scotland and created by artist Iman Tajik, Postcards for Solidarity explores facets of shared humanity across the globe in the face of the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic. Responding to the theme of connecting, Tajik issued an open call for contributors from all over the world to come together as collaborators.

Participants responded to the open call by creating a self-portrait of their hand and a short text about life in lockdown. In order to facilitate the work and connect participants virtually, Tajik and writer Loll Jung held two workshops designed to give guidance on the nature of self-portraiture and explore different ways of writing and editing personal experiences of the pandemic into poetic forms.

This online exhibition is the outcome of that collaborative artwork, in addition to the randomised posting of the postcards to participants: a small message of hope and solidarity from a stranger, exploring the community of humans across faiths, borders, and social structures, connected by one commonality: we’re all human, we’re all experiencing similar feelings of loss, grief, isolation, and, sometimes, hope.

To read the postcards, hover over the images with your cursor.

About The Artists

Iman Tajik is an Iranian artist and photographer based in Glasgow, Scotland. Tajik’s work is anchored in a strong social interest and demonstrates an effort to make work that is a critical tool connected to international movements for social change. Tajik’s work addresses issues of contemporary conditions of life with particular focus on migration and globalization as a result of the diaspora nation of the planet. Tajik makes public art, installations, video, photography and performance. Through these mediums, Tajik ’performs the border’. This speaks to personal experiences of crossing geographical borders and socio-political barriers to insist on the right to freedom of movement. Through this, Tajik spotlights and stresses the need for resistance towards barriers and boundaries that are implemented socially and politically in favour of some but not all. A contribution towards bridging the divide between self and other is paramount to Tajik’s practice.

www.imantajik.com

Loll Jung is a human animal who can usually be found residing in Glasgow, Scotland. They have an MLitt in Creative Writing with work published in SPAM, Adjacent Pineapple, Gutter, Art Review Glasgow, and BlueHouse. Loll’s interests lie in hybrid essaying, poetry, and fiction, where they grapple with intersections between mythology, ecology, and memory. Loll has designed and held workshops on migration, eco poetics, and editing for publication.

Many thanks to Jenifer Argo and the Scottish Interfaith Week team for all their support, and to all of our contributors, both anonymous and named: Sofie Adelsparre, Babak, Joshua Brown, Tom Byrne, Venus Carew, Cat Dunn, Bill English, Linda Haggerstone, Sherrill Harvey, Sarah Heald, Jenny Junggeburth, Jan Lethbridge, Alan McKay, Radina McKay, Pınar, Ashley Holdsworth Quinn, Heather Robertson, Maureen Sier, Meredith Grace Thompson, Caz Westwater, Annie Runkel, Nieves Soria and Mirella Arcidiacono.