Sandeep Johal reimagines a world with resilient South Asian women in solo exhibition
Surrey Art Gallery presents What If?, a quest for self-discovery and reconnection to past heritage
Sandeep Johal, self-portrait, 2021, acrylic and textile on denim jacket.
Surrey Art Gallery launches the solo exhibition Sandeep Johal: What If? from September 18 to December 11.
Through textiles, paintings, drawings, and animation, Johal layers her personal history with those of South Asian women she wished she had known about as a first-generation South Asian youth. These women are role models, pioneers, trailblazers, vigilantes, and rebels.
Upon entering the Gallery, visitors step into Johal’s retrospective bright pink teenage bedroom, which the Vancouver-based visual artist reclaims as a feminist space. The room pulses with the question What if? What if her formative influences had been daring, defiant South Asian women? Why were such figures unseen and unheard of in both private and public spheres? Johal revisits, reimagines, and reclaims her past by sharing these women’s stories through art.
Sandeep Johal. Photo by A Master Media
In her Hard Kaur series, Johal highlights 13 women. Among them are Phoolan Devi, a bandit queen; Sophia Duleep Singh, a suffragette; Laxmi Bai, leader of the Indian Rebellion of 1857; Sampat Pal Devi, founder of the vigilante group called the Gulabi Gang; and Jayaben Desai, leader of one of the largest worker’s strikes in London.
These five women replace the Spice Girls in a tapestry that Johal weaves from her mother’s saris. Other Hard Kaur female figures are referenced on the wallpaper or via symbolic objects in the room.
Hard Kaur is a play on words: "kaur” is a typical middle name assigned to Sikh females at birth which means “lioness,” replacing "core" in the term "hard core" while retaining the same meaning. In her reimagined teenage bedroom, Johal debunks the traditional stereotypes of South Asian women as either coy Bollywood starlets (objects of desire) or victims of gender-based violence (objects of pity).
No stranger to addressing gendered violence through her art, Johal brings murdered women’s stories to life through Rest in Power. This series of 12 goddesses is rendered in Johal’s distinct black and white graphic line-drawing style with colourful geometric patterns and shapes. Each piece represents a woman who has been murdered, including Natsumi Kogawa in Vancouver (2016) and Maple Batalia in Surrey (2011).
Johal believes in the power of art to create awareness around issues related to cultural identity, gender equality, and human rights.
Shakti Society is a community partner for this exhibit.
Surrey Art Gallery’s drop-in launch of fall exhibits is on September 18 from 7 to 9 pm PDT, while an artist talk takes place October 9 from 2 to 3 pm PDT.
More information is at Surrey Art Gallery.
Sandeep Johal, No One Listens (Rest in Power series), 2017, acrylic on wood panel, 61 cm x 76 cm.
Post sponsored by Surrey Art Gallery.