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IAAC Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora 2012

 
Kulvinder Kaur Dhew
Kulvinder Kaur Dhew
Kulvinder Kaur Dhew
Web: http://kulvinderkaurdhew.blogspot.com
 
ARTIST STATEMENT
 
Engaged by the capacity of paint to extol variables, inherent within the material, I acknowledge potential for ‘the new’.  For me, the medium is able to support intellectual dialogue at the same time as the visceral gesture/experience.  I utilize variable themes and visual styles in order to create a friction or activity between them.

The narratives in my work address the ‘temporal’, witnessed from my standpoint.   The images are milestones of direct experience. Constructing symbols of the transient, encountered when dreaming or through direct observation, (data, newspapers, film, travel, etc.), I record these things as archetypal images.  Collectively they form the threads and dialogues between works.  In some paintings this dialogue is carried through the use of the gesture/mark (as representations of visceral time).  They embody an emotional response, layered amongst the manufactured or represented images.  They are juxtaposed with intrinsic formal concerns, such as the connections between image, color, form, space, line and surface.  These presumably exacting nuances are impossible to define, serving as the challenge for me as a painter.
 
There are times when I appropriate various techniques of image-making in order to exploit notions that question the nature of art, language and meaning.  The body of work is an expression of various dialects within the language of painting.  The diaspora to which I belong, provides for and demands complex relationships. These form the texture of my method of expression, which I feel is always about the “in-between” and “the present”.  The gestural mark-making represents the perpetual moment in which they were formed, becoming a fingerprint of an emotional, though somewhat mannered, response to the emblematic images within the works.
 
For some time, I have used the ‘tempest’, manifested literally or metaphorically, in my practices of image making.  At times it resides in the action or movement of colors/organization and effect, in the sense of waiting, or a foreboding.  The paintings attempt to express a symbolic dislocation that is central to my life.
 
Varying qualities of luminosity, as expressed through color, is an important aspect in my painting. In each country I’ve lived, I have used its particular light to express something of place, like a marker. In turn, I believe light becomes indicative of mental states. The roles and uses of color within the cultures that I have experienced impact my personal palette greatly.
 
The internal dialogue within my painting is structured around concepts of the fragment and segmentation. I am compelled to make sense of a total sum of the parts.  The fragmentary aspects of some of the works allow a certain element of chance, in terms of lyrical meaning.  However, the more recent pieces show a more determined and specific meeting of parts. Specifically, I am concerned with interplays between the conscious and unconscious mind.
 
BIO
 
KulvinderKaurDhew was born and raised in England. Since receiving her MA in Painting at The Royal College of Art in London, she has taught at universities in New Zealand, Borneo, and the United States. Kulvinder’s work is included in collections as diverse as Kazuo Ishiguru and MTV Europe. KaurDhew has received numerous Residencies including the prestigious Delfina Trust in London, ARCO in Lisbon, and most recently at The Vermont Studio Center. Kulvinder presently maintains a studio in Northern New Jersey.
  
 
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