DOWSER Issue 3 (Winter 2020/2021) features artist-filmmakers Jasleen Kaur and Alia Syed’s “Jugalbandi.” A special tête-bêche double issue, two entwined texts respond to the shared experience of growing up Scottish and South Asian in Glasgow. Departing from each other’s moving image practice, they express the pain of desiring to find oneself in a culture whose colonial campaign has sought to flatten and petrify. Rhythm, lyric and voice are offered as tools for private resistance, for spell-breaking.

Jasleen Kaur was born in Glasgow and is now based in London. Her practice examines diasporic identity and hierarchies of history, both colonial and personal. She works with sculpture, video and writing.

Alia Syed was born in Wales and lives in London. She has been making films in the UK for over 25 years. Syed’s unique approach sutures different subject positions in relation to culture, diaspora and location.

DOWSER is a non-profit project. This chapbook is released as an open access online PDF and in a limited print edition of 250. These printed versions are available for a contribution of £2.50, inclusive of a minimum £2.00 donation to the Scottish Refugee Council (Registered Charity: SC008639).

Issue 3 has been made possible with support from Alchemy Film & Arts. The release of this double issue coincides with If you know, you know (18–21 February 2021), an online screening of work made in Scotland between 1970 and 2020, available as part of Continue Watching.

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Jasleen Kaur, Ethnoresidue, 2020. Courtesy of the artist.