Earth, Body, and Soul: Parminder Kaur Bhandal
1 December 2023 - 7 April 2024
Curator:
Artist(s): Parminder Kaur Bhandal
Location: Billboard Project
This exhibition comprises of three photographic billboards by artist Parminder Kaur Bhandal, installed across Incinerator Gallery. Each billboard features a portrait of a cherished friend or family member depicted in floral adornments that weaves them into the natural environment. In doing so, Parminder highlights narratives of each individual and their interconnectedness through inner and outer worlds. The floral adornments have been made collaboratively with each sitter as an extension of their personality and celebrates the spirit of collaboration through artmaking. Here, Parminder also plays with the concept of giving and receiving flowers as an act of gratitude, love, and companionship with those we hold dear.
Parminder Kaur Bhandal is a visual artist, creative producer, and poet, whose practice focuses on recentering peripheral bodies and disrupting traditional narratives around people and place. Across much of her work, she utilises forms of photography, video, and installation to pay her respects to the community and land that has so generously nurtured her. Her belief is that listening activates empathy which in return nurtures a desire to enact community change for others to connect, express, and engage in critical self-reflection.
Ranjit Singh is Parminder's father. Although not considered an artist by the western definition, he is an artist in his own right. He is a painter and craftsman and makes beautiful work from the discarded materials that he collects.
Manisha Anjali is a writer and artist who has lived in Fiji, Aotearoa and Australia. She is the founder of Neptune, a research and documentation platform for dreams, visions and hallucinations.
Hiếu (he/him) is a patient ocean and a deep listener. His creative practice is an open love letter for us to come together to weave cocoons of collective care and healing.