Not to be confused with the time Glasgow almost used the demolition of council flats for part of a dramatic Commonwealth Games opening ceremony (public outcry made them park that idea), what did go ahead was the filming of Sony Bravia’s 2006 ‘Paint’ advert. Artist Aqsa Arif and her family were asked to move out of their high-rise council flat in Prospecthill Circus on Glasgow’s Southside, so that Sony could film their spectacular £2m ad, featuring dancing fountains of paint.

Like a technicolour Ballardian nightmare, that TV commercial features in Arif’s film Raindrops Of Rani, part of a sumptuous, unsettling exhibition of the same name. Arif is a Scottish-Pakistani filmmaker/interdisciplinary artist based in Glasgow and this new body of work weaves together South Asian mythology and tradition with the aesthetics of Pakistani cinema (or Lollywood).

Textiles, embroidery and screenprints line the walls of Edinburgh Printmakers’ upstairs gallery, a glistening swirl of silhouetted hands, gold brocade, turquoise abalone shell and plastic rubies. Braided hair is a motif, a symbol of the interwoven cultures of Arif and her family who arrived in the UK from Pakistan as asylum seekers. Arif references the ancient Punjabi doomed love story of young Heer, reimagining her now living in council accommodation, unsure whether outside is safe.

The comforting and the grotesque sit side by side in this richly flavoured yet bitter dish, where soothing tabla drumming and glossy, tactile surfaces mingle with stressful images of floods, creepy clowns and chaos (the clowns nod to a sprinting, red-nosed guy that appeared in the Sony advert). Created in a sometimes hostile, often indifferent environment, Arif offers up an inviting, warm show, kicking gracefully against the external forces of racism and finding solace in fantasy.

Aqsa Arif: Raindrops Of Rani, Edinburgh Printmakers, until Sunday 2 November; main picture: Talha Imam.