AN exhibition “using photography and text as a lens onto state violence, death, grief and resistance” opens in Glasgow next week.

Hosted by the Platform arts centre in Easterhouse as part of the biennial Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art, SoulsInquest is a collaboration between photographer Sarah Booker, justice charity Inquest and families across Britain who have lost loved ones while they were in police or prison custody or mental health or care units.

Ms Booker said: “Eighteen families from different backgrounds have engaged in workshops, endless Zoom calls, WhatsApps and face-to-face discussions.

“They have worked together to create their way through unimaginable pain and to confront the truths that the authorities need to keep buried.”

The exhibition highlights the victims and struggles for justice by their relatives and includes work with the the family of Sheku Bayoh and Katie Allan.

Bayoh died nine years ago after being restrained with six police officers on top of him and allegations of institutional racism have continued to the surround the ongoing inquiry.

His sister Kadi Johnson, who, alongside other family members fought for the inquiry and continues the fight for justice, features in a portrait in the exhibition.

Katie Allan died aged 21 in Polmont young offenders institution in 2018 after suffering a sustained campaign of bullying.

Her parents Linda and Stuart Allan also feature in the exhibition. They have fought for the truth following allegations that negligence and a failure of duty of care were factors in their daughter’s death and are now awaiting the outcome of a fatal accident inquiry into it and that of 16-year-old William Lindsay at the same institution.

Linda Allan said: “To speak and share Katie’s life, who she was, what she might have been, was so cathartic, allowing us to trust and to share our ‘sacred spaces’ with Sarah.

“SoulsInquest is a novel and unique blend of the loved ones we’ve lost and the steely determination of some of the strongest families I have ever met, portrayed in some very special images.”

Inquest director Deborah Coles described the exhibition as a “form of art as activism and resistance,” adding: “Too often, families bereaved by deaths in state custody and care face lifelong struggles against indifference, denial and impunity.

“Never have these issues come under such scrutiny in Scotland as at present.”

SoulInquest opens next Friday at Platform, The Bridge, 1000 Westerhouse Road, Glasgow.