Jasleen Kaur @ Division of Labour

Jasleen Kaur’s work is an ongoing exploration into the malleability of culture and the layering of social histories within materials and objects. Refashioned objects are often based on instinct and resourcefulness, reflecting a hybridity of national custom and reconsidering the realities of materiality, usage and everyday routine. For this exhibition Kaur presents; ‘Cairns 2016.’ a series of three sculptures influenced by the actions of her father, who for 30 days ritualistically prepared a joth (ghee candle) and placed it on a derelict plot of land by their house within a shelter of bricks and tiles. Jasleen’s family were advised by a Sikh saint to light the joth at sundown for thirty days      to ward off negative energies. This project is explicitly personal to Kaur, and explores the disparity between Indian and Western rationale through an object that expresses a confluence between two cultural ideas, values and aesthetics.