Jeni Reid is a visual artist who works in a variety of mediums including digital photography, cyanotype, patchwork and fibre. Born in Forfar in 1969, she has an HND in Photography from Dundee and Angus College.
Jeni Reid’s background is in professional photography. Her artistic work is informed by a deep interest and research into local history, and she often looks back at her own ancestry, through this process she has discovered that her family tree includes an Arbroath fishwife and handloom weavers in the Angus Glens. Jeni is interested in material culture, the weirdness of everyday things and the power of small stories.
Jeni has a long term project ‘Undiscovered Angus’ Exploring the County of Angus’ role in the Transatlantic Slave trade by sharing the names and ages of people enslaved by Angus residents in the 19th Century. Her work is centred on the county of Angus’ links to transatlantic slavery which leads her to consider wider themes such as; multiple histories and counter narratives, acknowledgement and memorialisation, presence and absence, and the lines and rhythms of the Angus landscape.
Jeni is creating cyanotype prints through a process of community workshops. Layering digital negative images of Angus, with images from 19th Century paintings/drawings from the West Indies. Exposing hidden histories and opening up conversation about this rarely talked about layer of community heritage. To value and understand the area’s role in the transatlantic trade and the links to the West Indies which inevitably included people/slave trading. The special prints created will be displayed around Arbroath in public spaces as part of the July programme.