'Wish I Was Here has for the first time given me the opportunity to work with poets from different cultural backgrounds.
I asked all the poets to send me photos of themselves in childhood and adulthood with their friends and families, and also any visual material, personal artefacts, CD covers, cards, posters, that reflected their identity, likes and interests... With all this tremendous material I made photocopies/ colour laser copies and developed a collage or superimposed and layered images onto one another. In some instances, I ended up with a single finished portrait and with others I made an installation to go with the single photograph portrait.'
– Chila Kumari Singh Burman
Six artists were commissioned to make portraits of poets, which were exhibited in both the Scottish National Portrait Gallery & the Travelling Gallery.
Chila joined Catriona Grant, Craig Mackay, Elsie Mitchell, Iseult Timmermans and David Williams.