10 Jul 2021 – 23 Dec 2022
Hardeep Pandhal, Spectral Scripts Reluctantly Festoon Tantric Dungeon, 2020 © the artist. Courtesy the artist and the photographer. Photo: Patrick Jameson
Hardeep Pandhal, Spectral Scripts Reluctantly Festoon Tantric Dungeon, 2020 © the artist. Courtesy the artist and the photographer. Photo: Patrick Jameson
Hardeep Pandhal’s luridly iconoclastic digital animations, drawings, textile work and multimedia installations confront the toxic legacies of empire. His art makes direct reference to his Sikh heritage and to the many types of racism that he has experienced. Layered narratives – delivered via rap and elliptical wordplay and through the visual language of ‘gutter media’, such as comics and video games – excavate tangled histories of post-colonialism and misogyny, creating, in his words, ‘syncretic strains of post-brown weirdness’ while reflecting the ‘exaggerated madness’ of real life. Pandhal’s new video work, Ensorcelled English (2020-21) expands his interest in dark enchantment in a fantasy of a cursed art school, while dissecting the racist and sexist structures on which art education is too often founded.
Hardeep Pandhal (born 1985, Birmingham) lives and works in Glasgow. Pandhal studied at Leeds Metropolitan University and The Glasgow School of Art.
Hardeep Pandhal, Eye Needle Dick Noodle by Mum and Me, 2017 © the artist. Courtesy the artist
The thing about my work is there’s a lot of stuff to look at, to read and to listen to, so it’s not too ponderous. My work tends to be quite confrontational – playing around with expectations is part of it.
– Hardeep Pandhal
Hardeep Pandhal, installation view: Ensorcelled English: Prestige Repellent, 2020. Supported by Creative Scotland and Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, London © the artist. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Mark Blower
Hardeep Pandhal, Harlequin’s Penultimate Confession, 2020 © the artist. Courtesy the artist and the photographer. Photo: Patrick Jameson