Lebanese artist and creative director Yasmine Rifaii spent four weeks immersed in the quiet beauty of Loch Long at Cove Park, an artist residency organisation on the west coast's Rosneath Peninsula.
The residency is part of a UK-wide British Council programme supporting artists affected by conflict. In Scotland, the programme is supported by Creative Scotland.
Yasmine is one of nine artists from Lebanon, Yemen, Palestine and Ukraine taking part in the residencies at leading cultural institutions across the UK. The time at Cove Park offered her a chance to reflect on her work spanning curatorial, editorial and visual art.
Based in Beirut, Yasmine is the Creative Director of Haven for Artists, a feminist cultural organisation dedicated to knowledge production, and co-founder of Al Hayya, a print magazine dedicated to Arab women. Her most recent work is I will always be looking for you – A Queer Anthology on Arab Art (co-edited alongside Nadim Choufi) which brings together 31 visual artists and 24 writers from the Arab world and its diaspora.
At Cove Park, Yasmine explored new materials and concepts, eventually creating an installation in response to the tension she felt around the near-by nuclear base at Loch Long. She said: "I sketched, took photos, sculpted with clay, and I created an installation called Daydreams of The Razor Fleet. The intervention was set up in my bedroom and studio space and included 200 razor clams which I had collected and cleaned over the month-long stay.”
Yasmine describes how she organised her finds into the shape of a moving current crossing from one room to the other. “I collected and made a font from twigs and dried leaves that I broke up and rearranged into a poem hung above the bed. The installation tried to cut through the tension between the nuclear base, and the ethereal quiet nature of the Loch’s shore it now occupies."
The four-week residency allowed Yasmine the time to experience the ever-changing landscapes in all weathers, and she walked to Loch Long almost daily. Reflecting on this period, she said: "The focused alone time has been essential to me, the distance and silence it granted me was necessary to my artmaking process. Nature is so abundant, and the beauty of the hills and trees surrounding the Loch infused the work I made at Cove Park.”
She continued, "I saw Loch Long in the rain, in the sun, with people, and often all alone. At low tide, the loch is especially generous. I found so many beautiful and strange things, many of them I brought back with me to the studio. I spent a lot of time with them, used some of them for the installation, and then returned them all to the water the day before I left. It felt like a ceremony,” she said, “I am happy that our physical time together was ephemeral but meaningful.”
This wasn’t Ysmine’s first time in Scotland; she has previously visited during the Edinburgh Festivals, where the city’s arts scene left a lasting impression, and during this residency, Scotland has come to hold a special place in her heart: She said: “During August, I was in the heart of Edinburgh, which was bustling with people and art shows wherever you go. Here at Cove Park, other than the residents and the lovely team, my main companions were the highland cows, the herons, and a little robin that spent its mornings near my window."
Yet the peace of Loch Long sat in stark contrast to events unfolding back home. “Being at Cove Park while Lebanon is at war was challenging and difficult sometimes. It was hard to think about anything other than what was happening back home.” Yasmine acknowledges, “But my work also references home in a way, and the people. So instead of reading and commenting on the news, I tried to surrender to another material language which I hadn’t thought through in a long time.”
"I have grown to love Scotland,” Yasmine reflected, “I feel like our lands' histories, although different, deeply intertwine.” She draws parallels between the two countries, saying “Lebanon and Scotland both have starkly different but equally enchanting landscapes, and people here have been very welcoming and warm. I met beautiful and steadfast people that remind me of my community back in Beirut. It is such a joy and privilege to connect with likeminded people from around the world who share a similar vision of the future.” She continued: “The connections I made in Scotland are genuine and well rooted, and I see a future of collaboration for us all.”
Back in Beirut, Yasmine will spend time with her partner and her dog, continuing the work she began at Cove Park. The residency has given her new direction, she said: "To try and actively carve time for my solo practice amongst my usual collaborative work."
What will she miss? "The Loch and the robin, and the friends I’ve made here” she said, “But I am sure I will be seeing them again."
The ongoing residencies build on a successful pilot held in Scotland in 2023 developed during the UK/Ukraine Season of Culture, delivered by the British Council in partnership with Creative Scotland and the Ukrainian Institute. Three more residencies will be taken up in Scotland over the next six months at Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, Moniack Mhor, and Pier arts Centre in Orkney, all hosting artists effected by conflict.
Speaking about the programme, Norah Campbell, Head of Arts, British Council Scotland said: "We're proud to provide artists like Yasmine with the time and support to create, reflect, imagine new futures, and build lasting connections. Developed through our strategic partnership with Creative Scotland, the programme demonstrates the importance of providing space and support for artists in times of crisis, and the wider power of cultural relations to strengthen ties between communities. Scotland's cultural sector has a strong tradition of international collaboration, and residencies like this show how artistic exchange can build understanding and trust across the world."
Alexia Holt, Director at Cove Park spoke about Yasmine’s residency: 'We were delighted to welcome Yasmine to Cove Park. The work she produced during her residency engaged so thoughtfully with our context and it was a privilege for all of us here to learn more about her exceptional practice. Yasmine's fellow residents included artists, makers, writers, musicians, and theatre makers and we are pleased she also enjoyed the opportunity to meet and work alongside individuals such as Scottish artist Debjani Banerjee, Palestinian pianist and composer Faraj Suleiman, and the Honduran curator Karon Corrales. We would like to thank Yasmine for her generosity and our colleagues at British Council Scotland and Creative Scotland for their support.”
The British Council's residency programme continues the work of the British Council to foster trust and understanding between people in the UK and around the world through arts, education, and language. For more information on the programme visit: https://arts.britishcouncil.org/projects/artist-residency-programme or follow British Council Scotland on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
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