John Hansard Gallery presents Permindar Kaur in conversation with Alia Syed and Jasleen Kaur.
Together they discuss their respective artistic practices, exploring notions around diasporic and cultural identity and belonging. Whilst there are overlaps amongst their interests, each artist takes their own unique stance on these subjects, with their respective use of material, imagery and artistic voice.
The talk is chaired by Nadia Thondrayen, Exhibitions Curator at John Hansard Gallery.
About Permindar Kaur
Permindar Kaur is a sculpture/ installation artist, whose approach to art is playful, using childlike objects to explore the territory of cultural identity, home and belonging. She uses simple forms, for instance furniture and toys. These objects resemble displaced domestic belongings, which have been distorted and manipulated to invoke the uncanny. They are deceptively familiar in their appearance and initially might remind the viewer of innocence, childhood and play belying their sinister undertones. Kaur completed her MA at Glasgow School of Art, she lives and works in the UK and Sweden.
Kaur has exhibited internationally; major solo exhibitions include Hiding Out, Djanogly Art Gallery, Nottingham Lakeside Arts (2014); Untitled, Berwick Gymnasium Art Gallery, Berwick (1999); Comfort of Little Places, Aspex, Portsmouth (1998) and Cold Comfort, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, Mead Gallery, Coventry (1996). Major group exhibitions include Animals & Us, Turner Contemporary (2018); A Vision of Utopia, Spirella Building, Letchworth (2014); Spoilt Rotten: Young Curators, Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown, Wales (2005); At Home with Art, Tate, London and touring (2000); Hot Air, Granship: Shizouka Arts Centre, Japan (1999); Pictura Britannica, Art from Britain, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia (1997); British Art Show, Manchester, Edinburgh, Cardiff (1995).
About Alia Syed
Alia Syed is an experimental film maker whose work has been shown extensively in cinemas and galleries around the world. She is interested in storytelling, time and memory and the juncture of personal realities which she explores through different subjects positions in relation to culture, diaspora and location. Syed was born in Swansea, Wales and lives and works in London. She has been making experimental films in Britain for over 25 years.
Syed’s films have been shown at numerous institutions around the world including BBC Arts Online (currently), The Triangle Space: Chelsea College of Arts (2014), Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2012-13, 5th Moscow Biennale (2013); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2010); Museo National Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid (2009); XV Sydney Biennale (2006); Hayward Gallery, London (2005); Tate Britain, London (2003); Glasgow Museum of Modern Art, Scotland (2002); Iniva, London (2002); The New Art Gallery in Walsall (2002); and Tate Modern, London (2000), Reina Sophia Museum of Contemporary Art, Madrid (2009), Courtisane Festival, Belgium (2019) WKV, Stuttgart (2019) and Yale Centre for British Art (2019). Syed’s films have also been the subject of several solo exhibitions at Talwar Gallery in New York and New Delhi. Syed was the Artist in Focus at the Courtisane Festival in Belgium between 3 and 7 April 2019. Syed was nominated for the Jarman Award in 2015 and the Paul Hamlyn Artists Award in 2020.
About Jasleen Kaur Jasleen Kaur’s work is an ongoing exploration into the malleability of culture and the layering of social histories within the material and immaterial things that surround us. Her practice examines diasporic identity and hierarchies of history, both colonial and personal. She works with sculpture, video and writing. Kaur was born in Glasgow and lives and works in London. Kaur graduated from the Silversmithing and Jewellery department of Glasgow School of Art in 2008 and went on to study Applied Art at the Royal College of Art in 2009-10.
Recent commissions include Eastside Projects, Birmingham (2018); Victoria & Albert Museum (2017); Goethe Institut, London (2017); Baltic 39 ‘Figure Three’, Gateshead (2016); and Art on the Underground (2015). Her work is part of the permanent collection of the Royal College of Art and Crafts Council. Solo shows include Be Like Teflon, Copperfield Gallery, London, Humber Street Gallery, Hull and Touchstones Rochdale, Rochdale (2021); I Keep Telling Them These Stories, Market Gallery, Glasgow (2018); and The Tending of Something, FCAC, Scotland (2016). Awards and residencies include, a nomination for LUX 2020/21 Margaret Tait Award; a nomination for LUX 2019/20 Margaret Tait Award; Artist in residence, MIMA (2018), Summer Residency at Primary, Nottingham (2018) and Jerwood Visual Artist Bursary (2018); The Up Award (2017); Shortlisted for The Arts Foundation Award (2017); The Warli Project Residency (2017); Cove Park Funded Residency (2015); Jerwood Makers Open 2015 and Ipswich Museum Residency (2014).