About the artist
Permindar Kaur is a sculptor and installation artist whose playful approach of using objects related to childhood, such as toys and cots, explores the territory of cultural identity, home, and belonging. 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.
Since the 1990s Kaur’s practice has investigated integration and belonging, particularly cultural identity. This July and September, Kaur will join The Art House as Resident Artist, to continue her research and interest in the ‘public’ and ‘private’, and ongoing investigation to the central question in her practice: ‘where is home?’.
Visit the Permindar Kaur’s website to discover more about her practice.
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About the residency
During the residency Kaur will create a new body of work, developed from a series of workshops with our Studio of Sanctuary community. Local people, artists, and people with experience of seeking sanctuary will collaborate with Kaur to help produce new sculptural forms which will go on display at Wakefield Cathedral this September.
The ambitious new work will complement existing work in the exhibition Outgrown in The Art House Gallery (opening 3 September 2022). The project will respond to Wakefield and those experiencing displacement in the city. Kaur will work closely with local artists Ifa Mesfin and Ranya Abdulateef to develop the collaborative project.
Uthra Rajgopal residency with Corridor8
Uthra Rajgopal has been selected as writer in residence from an open call, who will work with mentor Annalisa Toccara and the Corridor8 team to develop her writing in response to Kaur’s practice and exhibition. The final piece of writing will be published to coincide with Artwalk on 28 September 2022.
Uthra Rajgopal is an Independent Curator with a specialist interest in South Asian contemporary art and textiles. She works with artists from the subcontinent and the Diaspora, exploring issues around home, identity, migration and displacement. Rajgopal is Associate Curator for the British Textile Biennial 2023; Curator of Voices at The Portico, Manchester (August 2022); Consultant Curator of Cotton: labour, land and the body at the Crafts Council Gallery, London (Sept 2022 – March 2023); and Contributing Writer for Bloomsbury World Encyclopaedia of Textiles (forthcoming).
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Images.
Header: Permindar Kaur. Photo Brian Benson
Gallery: 1. Permindar kaur, Two Indian Teddies, 2021. Photo Richard Davies 2. Permindar Kaur, Tall Chairs, 1996 detail. Photo Thierry Bal. 3. Permindar Kaur, Untitled – Bed, 2020. Photo Thierry Bal. 4. Permindar Kaur, HOME Installation View, courtesy of the artist.