What Do Artists Do All Day?

A 30 min film for BBC Four, 2018

BBC Studios

Filmed over the course of a year in Raqib Shaw's sausage factory studio in Peckham, this documentary charts the development of Raqib's latest painting 'Allegory of Melancholy (After Lucas Cranach the Elder)' ahead of an exhibition at Scotland's National Galleries in Edinburgh. Raqib's elaborate process, ably assisted by a talented studio team of florists, pianists, painters, printers and photographers, takes many months to go from a suitably operatic photo shoot, through many transparencies and the final execution in enamel with porcupine quills.

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As filming for the documentary commenced only hours after Raqib's baroque salon was burnt down in an accidental fire during one of his candle-lit soirées, the programme also follows Raqib's plans to restore the space to its former glory.