Alter Altar -Scottish Artist, Jasleen Kaur nominated for Turner Prize
- last year
21/03/2023. GLASGOW. Tramway. Exhibition, Alter Altar by artist Jasleen Kaur.
Artist Jasleen Kaur at the opening of her exhibition, Alter Altar.
Large scale kinetic sculptures evoking memories of a Glasgow including a brightly coloured red Ford Escort in Tramway's large T2 space made by Glasgow born artist Jasleen Kaur .
Exhibition: Friday 31 March to Sunday 8th October 2023
Jasleen Kaur was born in 1986 in Pollokshields, not far from Tramway. The Glasgow artist’s new exhibition fills the gallery with sound, making a temporary space to bring together her work mapping and tracing local geographies in relation to the artist's personal lineages.
Through a series of installations and kinetic, musical sculptures Kaur explores ideas of sonic memory and the cultural resonances of everyday materials and objects. Axminster carpet, bottles of blessed Irn Bru, football scarves, political flyers and salvaged family photographs are re-worked to evoke new cultural readings. In Kaur’s work, the everyday finds new and alternative meaning and explores the ways in which cultures and customs are perpetuated.
An expansive sky suspended in the gallery taps into religious imagery, the heavens, angelic realms, a place of liberation. Strewn among the clouds are various objects and detritus that cling to Kaur’s personal memories - political leaflets, newspaper clippings, commodified images of saints and sinners, all remade from recollections. The words ‘LOOOOONGING’ and ‘CAN’T DO IT’ feature on a fan scarf and tracksuit and symbols and logos on clothing consider how bodies enact and perform ideologies.
Kaur has incorporated worship bells into a series of new kinetic sculptures resembling gesturing hands that point and tap. Once made from Indian rose wood, the hands are rendered by the artist in brightly coloured veneers echoing the prevalence of faux and facades in migrant aesthetics. These large-scale, musical sculptures tap automatically in syncopated rhythms, the bells holding a pulse for the space, moving to faster paced, ecstatic rhythms that echo communal chanting or call and response. They also signal and point repeatedly to images that act as symbols of cross-cultural solidarity.
Kaur explores music’s potential to reflect on existing identities whilst simultaneously constructing new ones in the process. Her work considers the impact on shared Sikh-Muslim cultural heritage following the 1947 Partition of the Indian subcontinent under British colonial rule, particularly the subsequent degradation of Sikh-Rababi musical heritage. These themes are echoed through the inclusion of colonial instruments such as the Indian Harmonium, tracing a broader narrative thread across the exhibition which explores the continuing geo-political and cultural ramifications of colonial histories and State power.
“I learned devotional singing on a harmonium from my dad, but since then, I think of my singing practice as a decolonial practice.”
Artist Jasleen Kaur at the opening of her exhibition, Alter Altar.
Large scale kinetic sculptures evoking memories of a Glasgow including a brightly coloured red Ford Escort in Tramway's large T2 space made by Glasgow born artist Jasleen Kaur .
Exhibition: Friday 31 March to Sunday 8th October 2023
Jasleen Kaur was born in 1986 in Pollokshields, not far from Tramway. The Glasgow artist’s new exhibition fills the gallery with sound, making a temporary space to bring together her work mapping and tracing local geographies in relation to the artist's personal lineages.
Through a series of installations and kinetic, musical sculptures Kaur explores ideas of sonic memory and the cultural resonances of everyday materials and objects. Axminster carpet, bottles of blessed Irn Bru, football scarves, political flyers and salvaged family photographs are re-worked to evoke new cultural readings. In Kaur’s work, the everyday finds new and alternative meaning and explores the ways in which cultures and customs are perpetuated.
An expansive sky suspended in the gallery taps into religious imagery, the heavens, angelic realms, a place of liberation. Strewn among the clouds are various objects and detritus that cling to Kaur’s personal memories - political leaflets, newspaper clippings, commodified images of saints and sinners, all remade from recollections. The words ‘LOOOOONGING’ and ‘CAN’T DO IT’ feature on a fan scarf and tracksuit and symbols and logos on clothing consider how bodies enact and perform ideologies.
Kaur has incorporated worship bells into a series of new kinetic sculptures resembling gesturing hands that point and tap. Once made from Indian rose wood, the hands are rendered by the artist in brightly coloured veneers echoing the prevalence of faux and facades in migrant aesthetics. These large-scale, musical sculptures tap automatically in syncopated rhythms, the bells holding a pulse for the space, moving to faster paced, ecstatic rhythms that echo communal chanting or call and response. They also signal and point repeatedly to images that act as symbols of cross-cultural solidarity.
Kaur explores music’s potential to reflect on existing identities whilst simultaneously constructing new ones in the process. Her work considers the impact on shared Sikh-Muslim cultural heritage following the 1947 Partition of the Indian subcontinent under British colonial rule, particularly the subsequent degradation of Sikh-Rababi musical heritage. These themes are echoed through the inclusion of colonial instruments such as the Indian Harmonium, tracing a broader narrative thread across the exhibition which explores the continuing geo-political and cultural ramifications of colonial histories and State power.
“I learned devotional singing on a harmonium from my dad, but since then, I think of my singing practice as a decolonial practice.”