Where are you from originally? Powerful Bradford exhibition asks us to rethink what it means to belong
A major new exhibition will launch at South Square next month exploring identity, migration and belonging.
Taking its title from a seemingly everyday question, Where are you from originally? invites audiences to reflect on how questions of origin are asked – and who is expected to answer them.
Opening on 3 April, the exhibition brings together leading Yorkshire-based artists of mixed global identities. Featuring brand-new, never-before-seen work alongside existing pieces, the show examines who gets to belong without explanation and who is repeatedly asked to justify their presence.
Curated by Domino Panton-Oakley, the exhibition includes work by Penny Moe, Saira Baig, Shaun Connell, Saba Siddiqui and Hijab Zainab. The project was supported with funding from Bradford Council through Arts & Culture Investment.
Domino Panton-Oakley, Gallery and Programme Manager at South Square, said:
“This exhibition is very personal to me and one I have thoroughly enjoyed curating. The title is a question I – and many others – have been asked throughout our lives. It’s often framed as casual curiosity, yet carries the weight of assumption, exclusion and the pressure to explain your presence.
At a time of rising cultural and political tension, I’m proud to present such a powerful body of deeply personal work and to open up a dialogue about identity and belonging in the UK. Spanning textiles, photography, film, painting and installation, the exhibition offers a safe space to pause, reflect and listen more deeply.”
For many, ‘where are you from originally’ is a question that refuses a simple answer. The artists in the exhibition respond, not by offering fixed origins, but by revealing identity as layered, shifting and shaped by lived experience.
Highlights include:
Saba Siddiqui’s Brit~ish (2026) created in direct response to the recent spread of nationalist flags and anti-immigration slogans across towns and cities in England. Incorporating a flag removed from a Yorkshire lamppost, the work confronts the hostile environment experienced by many British Asians and migrant communities today. Her accompanying piece, Engl~ish, reimagines the St George’s Cross using personal materials, highlighting the overlooked contribution of South Asian migrant workers to Yorkshire’s textile industry.
Shaun Connell’s photographic series Si Mi Yah is taken from Jamaican patois meaning “see me here”. Through paired portraits – one resembling a passport photograph, the other set in the familiar space of a Yorkshire kitchen – Connell situates his sitters firmly within everyday British life. Accompanied by a curated playlist of Black British music, the work connects personal identity to wider histories of migration, culture and contribution.
Saira Baig’s Where are you REALLY from uses intricate embroidery to map migration routes and family histories, connecting ancestry with environmental and emotional landscapes.
Penny Moe’s short film Where are you from? Where are you really from? reflects on the emotional toll of repeatedly being asked to explain one’s identity, exploring themes of displacement, trauma and grief.
Hijab Zainab’s series of paintings investigates the fluid boundaries between tradition and contemporary identity, examining what is carried forward – and what is left behind -in the immigrant experience.
Alongside the exhibition, visitors can take a free zine, developed by artist and facilitator Mussarat Rahman and designed by Kelvin Chan. Featuring candid responses from individuals who have experienced this question firsthand, the publication extends the exhibition’s themes into a wider public conversation.
Where are you from originally? runs at South Square Centre from 3 April – 31 May.
Visitors are invited to the opening night celebration on Friday 3 April, 6 – 9pm where drinks and refreshments can be purchased from a pop-up bar, the onsite café, Plenty at the Square, and micropub, The Watchmaker.
There is also a Curator’s Talk with Domino on Saturday 25th April, 11am – 12pm, where visitors can explore the exhibition and learn more about the curatorial process. Book your free place.