What Do Artists Do All Day?

Part of the Big British Asian Summer season, this profile of Raqib Shaw is the first of three new episodes of What Do Artists Do All Day?

Coveted by the world's biggest collectors, Raqib Shaw is an enigmatic art superstar. His baroque paintings, fusing pop kitsch and images from his Kashmiri homeland, have sold for millions.

A flamboyant personality, he works in an extravagant studio squeezed into an old sausage factory in Peckham, south London. He creates his art in an amazing fantasy world resembling a 21st-century version of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, with thousands of plants, waterfalls, bonsai trees and beehives. The film opens in the dramatic aftermath of a fire in the studio, and with remarkable access, offers a portrait of the art and life of Raqib Shaw.

As part of the Big British Asian Summer season, What Do Artists Do All Day? celebrates prominent Asian artists and performers.

In 2017, internationally renowned sitar player Anoushka Shankar was commissioned by the BFI to score Shiraz, a 1920s silent film about the Taj Mahal. This film follows Anoushka at work on the composition, revealing the subtle traditions of Indian film music, and discusses the influence of her father, Ravi Shankar, who created some of his greatest work scoring Indian films. The documentary also explores the remarkable story behind Shiraz and its restoration, ending with Anoushka and her musicians performing the new soundtrack at the premiere of the film.

As part of the Big British Asian Summer season, What Do Artists Do All Day? celebrates prominent Asian artists and performers.

Mahtab Hussain is a photographer whose work chronicles the complex experiences of the British Muslim community. His portraits of young, working-class Muslim men were the basis of an acclaimed exhibition and book You Get Me?, exploring questions of masculinity and self-esteem in a series of striking images.

Recently, his work has also focused on the changing identity of British Muslim women. This film follows Mahtab at work on his latest photographic project and hears from some of his subjects.