Land//Scape: Raheel Khan

Land//Scape is a new commission for Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop’s Beacon Tower by Raheel Khan.

The Beacon Tower
15 October 2021 – 20 January 2022
Audio Track loops daily 10.00 – 17.00

Sound Artist and Musician, Raheel Khan has collaborated with the Multi-Cultural Family Base to create a composition featuring found sound and recordings from the local landscape.

Over the past few months Khan has worked with a group of participants who are new residents of Edinburgh. He invited them to re-create their impressions of the city through sound recordings of the places they visit and the conversations they have as they work and socialise.  These recordings have been woven together with Khan’s music to create an overture to a city as seen through fresh eyes.

Raheel Khan is a Sound Artist, Producer and Pianist originally born in Nottingham and now based in Manchester (UK) His work explores notions of heritage, society and the inertia of cultural progression. Raheel combines field recordings, fragmented synthetic textures and Piano compositions often creating pieces with both personal memories and collective consciousness. His work dances between the private and public spheres creating an intimate archive of abstract social commentary from lived experiences.

You can find out more about his work here.

Jamila, Jana, Maya, Marwa, Iqra, Ibrahim, Hisham, Weam , Riam, Isam, Brassam, Karim have all collaborated with the artist in the making of this commission. They are  connected with ESW through our partners The Multi- Cultural Family Base.

Image Credit: Drawing by Iqra one of the participants in Raheel Kahn’s project.

Multi-Cultural Family Base is a Leith based NGO which promotes the well-being and life opportunities of vulnerable and disadvantaged children, young people and families.

Their Safe Haven Project works with young people and families who are newly arrived to Edinburgh and those who have may have been affected by trauma in their home country and in their journey to the UK. By offering one-to-one support as well as therapeutic group support, they seek to develop levels of safety and trust with the children; promote mental health, encourage integration and help men affected by trauma to settle into their new community; help the children to develop a sense of control over their lives and help children and parents to develop friendships with people from other communities.

In other words, they want to help families rebuild their lives and to develop a sense of stability, safety and trust so that they start to feel they can belong to their new community.

In June 2018 the Safe Haven project was joint winner for the Scottish Social Services Award category ‘Excellence in Children’s Service’.

You can find our more about their work here.

Thank you to Emma Watt and Saad Ibrahim for all their help in the development of this work and to Stills for their support in its production.