A new resident of Brighton & Hove, Star is working with black-and-white photographs of the city’s churches, towers, façades, and other historic buildings from across the city: places that have become part of her first emotional map of Brighton. In this new body of work, rather than treating architecture as a fixed subject, Star approaches each building as a surface shaped by her own experience of arriving in England from Iran and encountering a city already carrying its own long history.

During her residency, Star will begin to scope the work as an exhibition installation: gathering the photographic source material and transforming it through illustrative interventions that reflect her own response to each building: shifting perspectives between observation and interpretation, documentation and emotional response.

At the heart of The Weight of Arrival is a reflection on how place is seen, felt, and inhabited. The project asks how buildings that may seem ordinary to long-term residents can hold an entirely different charge when viewed by someone who has only just arrived, and how photography can become a site where architecture, memory, and personal experience meet.

In developing this work, Star is inviting viewers to re-examine familiar places from the perspective of a newcomer and her lived experience of migration and there will be an opportunity for a small audience to meet with Star at Fabrica to discuss the project and its development.

Public openings/events:

Thursday 23 July, 6-7pm – Artist Q&A.

Places are limited – Tickets £6/£3