Alia Syed. The Ring in the Fish

About

Syed’s practice is the product of her engagement in and response to a nexus of geopolitical, historical and personal factors, which she seeks to reimagine within the immersive space of cinema. Drawing inspiration from the tale of St. Mungo — the patron saint and founder of Glasgow — and the miracle of The Fish and the Ring, the title becomes a conduit for the transformative nature of both individual and collective myth. The exhibition marks a personal journey unpicking a broader history of Glasgow, reworking filmmaker Humphrey Jennings' notion of “making visible the delicate re-balancing of facts, events and ideas”. Syed gleans stories and images from a series of interviews she initiated with various members of the South Asian community in Glasgow. Spanning generations, this work is preoccupied with how family memories and traditions are passed down, troubling the spaces between official narratives. The Ring in the Fish explores what role imagination holds in migration, and how images woven into family and community lore create new psychic landscapes, enabling new ways of being.