
Production still from Piercing Brightness. 2013. Directed by Shezad Dawood. Courtesy of UBIK Productions Ltd. The image features Halo, an artwork by John Kennedy, commissioned by Mid Pennine Arts
A sense of place pervades the work of British artist Shezad Dawood, but we’re not talking about your picture-postcard nostalgia. Dawood’s first feature film, Piercing Brightness, is at the surface a stylized science-fiction tale, but it could equally be read as a public artwork of sorts.