Tako Taal

Tako Taal was born in Wales in 1989 with her family originating from Jufureh, in the Gambia. She attended Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen, studying contemporary art practice, and graduated in 2015.{{Cite web |title=Tako Taal |url=https://www.dca.org.uk/whats-on/event/tako-taal |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=Dundee Contemporary Arts |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=By |title=Gray's School of Art 'comes alive' for annual degree show |url=https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/entertainment/whats-on/615054/grays-school-of-art-comes-alive-from-annual-degree-show/ |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=Press and Journal |language=en-GB}}

Taal's films look at multiplicities of identity, and explore the social and historical significance of her father’s home, Jufureh, and myth-making about returning to places that no longer exist except in "topographies of grief and loss".

Taal was a committee member at the Market Gallery in Glasgow from 2016 to 2018.{{Cite web |title=Tako Taal {{!}} Talbot Rice Gallery |url=https://www.trg.ed.ac.uk/resident/tako-taal |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=www.trg.ed.ac.uk}} In 2018-2020, she was Artist in Residence at the Talbot Rice Gallery in Edinburgh, and in 2019, was RAW Academy fellow at RAW Material Company in Dakar.{{Cite web |last=markr-f |date=2021-08-11 |title=Tako Taal |url=https://studiopavilion.co.uk/tako-taal/ |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=Studio Pavilion |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |title=Tako Taal |url=http://www.rawmaterialcompany.org/_3266 |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=www.rawmaterialcompany.org |language=en}}

Having not visited for 11 years, she travelled to the Gambia in 2016, and filmed at the Gambia Tourism and Hospitality Institute. This footage was incorporated into 2017's You Know it but it Don’t Know You.{{Cite web |date=2021-10-11 |title=Home, History and Her Father's Gaze: What Does Film Mean to Tako Taal? |url=https://elephant.art/home-history-and-her-fathers-gaze-what-does-film-mean-to-tako-taal-11102021/ |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=ELEPHANT |language=en-US}}

Taal and fellow artist Adam Benmakhlouf programmed Give Birth to Me Tomorrow, the 2021 artists' moving image festival by LUX Scotland, held at the Tramway, in Glasgow.{{Cite web |last=Spens |first=Christiana |title=Tako Taal and Adam Benmakhlouf – interview: 'This slow-motion style of festival creates a community of audience members' |url=https://www.studiointernational.com/index.php/tako-taal-adam-benmakhlouf-interview-artists-moving-image-festival-tramway-glasgow-lux-scotland |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=www.studiointernational.com |language=en}} Originally planned to be a weekend event, but in response to the continued difficulties of the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK, it took place on several weekends throughout 2021, in a programme aligned with the lunar calendar.{{Cite web |title=Galleries: Artists over the moon at film festival |url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19028278.galleries-artists-moon-film-festival/ |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=HeraldScotland |language=en}}

At the shore, everything touches (2021) explored Taal's relationship with her father's home village, as well as the history of the area with relation to the Atlantic slave trade.{{Cite news |last=Davies |first=Ashley |title=Tako Taal and Rae-Yen Song at the DCA — new views on identity are compelling |newspaper=The Times |language=en |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/tako-taal-and-rae-yen-song-at-the-dca-new-views-on-identity-are-compelling-23m3hwgd9 |access-date=2022-10-12 |issn=0140-0460}} (It is close to Kunta Kinteh Island (formerly known as James Island), a European (and later British) colonial fort.) Art Monthly described the work as establishing Taal "as among the most important multidisciplinary artists working today." {{Cite journal |last=Heardman |first=Adam |date=March 2022 |title=Tako Taal: At the shore, everything touches. |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=wikipedia&id=GALE|A708625410&v=2.1&it=r&sid=ebsco |journal=Art Monthly |issue=454 |pages=30 |via=Gale Academic OneFile}} Halo Nevus (2021), also explores her relationship with her paternal home country through the use of her birthmark as central character; following its slow fade over a period of five years.{{Cite web |last=Admin |date=2021-05-07 |title=Tako Taal / Halo Nevus / NADA House / 8 May - 1 August 2021 |url=https://www.patricia-fleming.com/single-post/tako-taal-halo-nevus-nada-house-8-may-1-august-2021 |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=Home |language=en}}

Taal was an associate artist at the 2021 Edinburgh Art Festival, commissioning six new pieces from other artists which would engage with the themes of Isaac Julien's 2019 film Lessons of the Hour. Pieces included work from Scotland-based artists Chizu Anucha, Sequoia Barnes, Thulani Rachia, and Matthew Arthur Williams.{{Cite web |title=2021 |url=https://www.edinburghartfestival.com/the-festival/edinburgh-art-festival-archive/edinburgh-art-festival-2021/ |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=Edinburgh Art Festival |language=en}} She also completed her residency at the Studio Pavilion in Glasgow, where she has been creating work for her first institutional solo show, launching at Dundee Contemporary Arts late 2021.

• 2017 - Compound, Intermedia Gallery, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow
• 2018 - Inherited Premises, Grand Union, Birmingham{{Cite web |title=The Quietus {{!}} Features {{!}} Craft/Work {{!}} Moments Of Respite: Curator Seán Elder On Tako Taal & Rami George |url=https://thequietus.com/articles/25047-inherited-premises-rami-george-tako-taal-grand-union-sen-elder-interview |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=The Quietus |language=en-us}}
• 2019 - A Spoon is the Safest Vessel, Glasgow Women’s Library
• 2020 - Survey II, Jerwood Arts{{Cite web |title=Tako Taal Announced on Margaret Tait Award Shortlist. – Jerwood Arts |url=https://jerwoodarts.org/2021/02/04/tako-taal-announced-on-margaret-tait-award-shortlist/ |access-date=2022-10-12 |language=en-GB}}
• 2021 - At the shore, everything touches, Dundee Contemporary Arts{{Cite web |title=Infinite Loop: Tako Taal on her DCA exhibition - The Skinny |url=https://www.theskinny.co.uk/art/emerging-artists/tako-taal-dca-dundee |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=www.theskinny.co.uk |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2022-02-22 |title=Art reviews: Tako Taal {{!}} Rae-Yen Song {{!}} Amartey Golding |url=https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/art/art-reviews-tako-taal-rae-yen-song-amartey-golding-3581372 |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=www.scotsman.com |language=en}}

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Category:Alumni of Gray's School of Art

Category:Scottish artists

Category:Welsh artists

Category:Living people

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Welsh film directors

Category:Gambian art

Category:Gambian film directors