Panjabi Garden<\/a>, which was inspired by the artist\u2019s language-learning book of the same name. Bains recalls the artist talk overflowing with visitors, some of whom travelled from as far away as Seattle to see Kaur\u2019s performance. Since then, parts of the exhibition have joined Surrey Art Gallery\u2019s permanent collection. Expanding and following up on Panjabi Garden with If Gardens Could Dream has been a natural reflection of the gallery\u2019s mission to honour its own multicultural community.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cPart of my practice is translation work, and that\u2019s a huge part of our accessibility practice here, is privileging other languages,\u201d Bains explains. \u201cKeerat has such a gorgeous practice around sign-setting, so working with an artist that also can translate their own works is pretty extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Surrey hosts one of the largest and most vibrant Punjabi-speaking communities in the diaspora, and the city\u2019s South Asian population continues to grow every year. For Bains, facilitating a space that can hold the diverse experiences of the diaspora, across multiple languages, offers an alternative to the current climate of division.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Gardens Could Dream is talking about how these languages continue to be spoken at home,\u201d says Bains. \u201cI care deeply about my community, and I\u2019m also attached to this feeling of bringing people in. If there\u2019s a space where people feel at home and can see their communities being represented, I think it\u2019s such a huge responsibility to institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Growing up in London, Ontario, Kaur was introduced to different cultures alongside her Punjabi Sikh identity, and these formative experiences have influenced her approach to artmaking. She holds a master\u2019s degree in architecture from the University of Toronto and is trained in Indian classical vocal traditions, as well as in traditional Pahari painting. She speaks Panjabi, French, and Hindi, and is currently studying the Shahmukhi script and the Braj language. Her writing and her artistic vision for language engagement have been a constant in her work. This has translated into two self-published illustrated storybooks for all ages, Panjabi Garden and The Horse Who Fell From the Sky, with the latter set to be creatively featured in the upcoming exhibition. There is little friction between honouring her background alongside the Punjabi community in Surrey and universal themes that resonate with a diverse audience. This is perhaps best exemplified through the banyan tree installation debuting in If Gardens Could Dream, which will include beaded works by participants in a beading workshop Kaur facilitated as part of the exhibition.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MULTIDISCIPLINARY CANADIAN artist Keerat Kaur is creating a season of gathering with her latest exhibition, If Gardens Could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-796735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}