Artist Spotlight: Syeda Sadaf Zaidi

30 May 20255 June 2025

LIVE IN ART is a collaborative exhibition, showcasing work by 12 Glasgow-based artists from Afghanistan, Colombia, Iran, Pakistan, Ukraine and Vietnam. The project was facilitated and curated by Syeda Sadaf Zaidi over the course of a two-month residency at Common Ground.

Syeda’s work explores themes of identity, migration, and community resilience through vibrant mixed media techniques. Using paint, photography, text art, and interactive projects, she crafts visually striking pieces that highlight social injustices while celebrating women’s stories across cultures. We caught up with her to find out more.

Thank you for talking with us Syeda. Can you tell us more about your creative practice?

I’m drawn to visual arts and photography because they allow me to document, reflect, and reimagine personal and collective narratives, particularly from underrepresented voices. My creative practice is deeply rooted in lived experience, social justice, and community resilience.

As someone navigating the immigrant experience, art has become both a tool and a sanctuary, a way to speak when words fall short. I’m especially passionate about projects that invite participation, exchange, and shared ownership. Activism and art aren’t separate for me; they’re interconnected forms of resistance and hope. I make work to feel seen, and to ensure others feel seen too

What was your initial idea for LIVE IN ART and what was your invitation to the other artists?

When I began thinking about LIVE IN ART, my intention was simple but urgent: create a space for artists, many from New Scots and immigrant backgrounds, who are so often excluded from opportunities to just be artists. The idea was to hold space for making, experimenting, and being in dialogue with each other, outside of constant pressure and scarcity.

I invited artists whom I admire, who are navigating similar struggles, and who I knew had powerful perspectives to share. The residency became more than just making art; it became a process of healing, trust-building, and imagining alternative ways to work and support each other. I wanted to challenge the idea that access to resources or institutions should define legitimacy. We’re building something from the ground up, together.

What can people expect to see in the exhibition?

LIVE IN ART is vibrant, diverse, and deeply personal. It brings together painting, sculpture, textiles, installation, and mixed media, each piece a reflection of the artist’s unique journey and voice. Visitors can expect work that explores identity, migration, belonging, resilience, and transformation.

Some pieces are raw and emotional, others are playful or abstract. But what ties them together is a sense of urgency and care. This is not just an exhibition of works, it’s an exhibition of people making space for each other, often for the first time. I hope people come with curiosity and leave with a deeper understanding of the power of community-rooted art.

What has this project meant to you?

LIVE IN ART has been one of the most meaningful projects I’ve ever worked on. It affirmed the need for accessible, inclusive, and artist-led spaces, especially for people with lived experience of displacement. Facilitating and curating alongside the artists taught me so much about collective practice, about listening, holding space, and trusting the process.

My biggest takeaway is the power of solidarity. We didn’t have a big budget, but we had each other, and that created something really powerful. It reminded me that even when systems fail us, we can build our own structures of care and creativity. That’s the future I want to be part of.

What are you most looking forward to during this year’s Festival?

Seeing how people engage with LIVE IN ART, especially those who might see parts of their own stories reflected in the work. I’m also excited to connect with other artists and audiences across the city, to exchange ideas and energy.

Festivals like this can open doors, especially for those of us usually shut out of the art world. So I’m showing up not just as an artist, but as someone rooting for others like me. I hope this Festival can be a place of visibility, celebration, and radical possibility.