Message from the skies 2019 - Chapter 2 - Chitra Ramaswamy - Love Letter to Europe
Message from the skies 2019
Chitra Ramaswamy's Love Letter to Europe
Custom House, Commercial Street, Edinburgh, Scotland
About the creative team
Writer: Chitra Ramaswamy is an award-winning journalist and author. Her first book, Expecting: The Inner Life of Pregnancy, was published by Saraband in April 2016. It won the Saltire First Book of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the Polari Prize. She contributed essays to Nasty Women, The Bi:ble, The Freedom Papers, and What is Race? Who are Racists? Why Does Skin Colour Matter? And Other Big Questions. She writes a weekly column and is a TV critic for The Guardian, regularly broadcasts for BBC Radio Scotland, and lives in Edinburgh with her partner, two young children, and rescue dog.
Film-maker: Since 2000, filmmaker Daniel Warren has collaborated with artists, musicians, choreographers, writers, poets and theatre makers on large scale projects. His films with Scottish Ballet (Public: Private, commissioned by the National Galleries of Scotland 2004, Marionettes, 2007 and Mercury 2009) were shown at festivals around the world, and subsequently brought together as the Bodies of Work programme in 2011. The Nation // Live, filmed over 2 years for the National Galleries, was created with artists including Martin O Connor, Catherine Weir and Drew Wright. It was the centrepiece of an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in 2013. A road movie for the Arches’ project “Whatever Gets you Through the Night,” featured a suite of music films with prominent musicians including Rachel Sermanni and Withered Hand, who also played live sets accompanying film screenings around Scotland in 2012. Long-term collaborators include Linder Sterling, Hanna Tuulikki and Kirsty Law.
Composer: A founding member of critically acclaimed Scottish band The Delgados, Emma Pollock co-wrote and shared lead vocal duties on the 5 studio albums the band released between 1995 and 2005. In the mid to late 90s Emma co-founded influential Glasgow record label Chemikal Underground and recording studio Chem19 with the band, both of which continue to run today. Following The Delgado’s demise in 2005, Emma became a solo artist and has since released 3 solo albums. She has taken part in many collaborative projects; most notably The Burns Unit featuring amongst others King Creosote & Karine Polwart. 2010 saw the formation of The Fruit Tree Foundation with Rod Jones (Idlewild), commissioned by the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival to promote awareness of mental health issues within the music industry. Emma regularly works with Glasgow organisation Vox Liminis, which arranges songwriting workshops in Scottish prisons and is due to release its debut album of original material in May 2018.
About this location
Custom House Leith is an imposing Georgian building being brought back to life after 30 years of under use. The A-listed Georgian building was designed by Robert Reid in a neo-classical style and was constructed between 1810-12, making it the oldest custom house in Scotland. The building was subsequently used by National Museums Scotland as a storage facility, with no public access. In 2015 Custom House Leith was acquired by the City of Edinburgh through its Common Good Fund and shortly afterwards Scottish Historic Buildings Trust, a national charity whose mission is saving buildings at risk, was brought on board to lead its regeneration and restoration. Since then Custom House Leith and its adjoining Cruiser Store (now known as Custom Lane) have become a thriving hub for the creative arts in the heart of Leith, as artists, craftspeople, designers, and small businesses breathe new life into what has become a vibrant district with a distinctive and innovative culture.