Jasleen Kaur explores the malleability of culture and how social histories are embedded within the material and immaterial things that surround us. Kaur’s practice examines diaspora identity and hierarchies of history, both colonial and personal. With a background in metalwork and jewellery, materiality and its associations play an important part in the outcome of Kaur’s works, which are often curated in close dialogue with each other to form a larger, site-specific installation. Kaur’s practice addresses the intersections between the diaspora community and food culture, using food as a connecting thread to foster honest conversations about family, loss, labour and duty. Gut Feelings Meri Jaan (2021) is a series of works commissioned by UP Projects London and Touchstones Rochdale in 2021. Working closely together, Kaur and a group from Rochdale’s South Asian female and gender nonconforming community interrogate how notions of cultural heritage are preserved in Touchstones’s archive. This project, which culminated in a book, series of films and installation, considers the human body as a living archive and carrier of histories as opposed to a traditional, fixed record. The films compile footage of the group members performing at local sites tied to histories of empire and post-war migration from former colonies. One film showcases the group washing a statue of a Victorian industrialist with yoghurt. Kaur utilises the double association of yoghurt, with the South Asian community as a substance that is served alongside biryani as well as a living culture that has properties to heal the gut, where trauma is also stored. Throughout these films, the group wear the same kameezzes (loose trousers typically worn by South Asian women) which are then hung as part of the commission at the site. In tandem with Gut Feelings Meri Jaan, Touchstones Rochdale is committed to amplifying the voices of migrant communities that have historically been marginalised and misrepresented. The acquisition of Gut Feelings Meri Jaan is highly site-specific to Touchstones, directly involving the South Asian community in Rochdale, which represents 19 per cent of its population demographic. This acquisition also aligns with the museum’s focus to collect women artists.
