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Artist: Sunroop Kaur
Title: Allahabad Akhand Paath
Medium: Acrylic on primed wooden panels, gold leaf embellishment
Country: United States
On his many travels Guru Tegh Bahadur visited Allahabad [Prajagraj Tirth] and stayed there for six months. During this time Mata Nanaki beseeched her son, Guru Tegh Bahadur, that he should fulfil her desire of seeing a grandson before she passes. Guru Tegh Bahadur accepted his mother’s wishes, and it was in Allahabad that Guru Tegh Bahadur performed the first Akhand Path [non-stop recital of Guru Granth Sahib] in preparation for the conception of Guru Gobind Singh. Thus, the tradition of the Akhand Path, which continues to this day, started on the banks of the Triveni river of Allahabad.
Artist
Sunroop Kaur
Sunroop Kaur is a visual artist originally from Calgary, Alberta who received her B.F.A from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2019. Kaur’s work functions in a way similar to an ecosystem in which cultural cultivation and exchange are visualized. She uses her practice as a vessel to transport critical conversations about identity, race, gender, culture, and inherited art histories (Italian Baroque + Classical Schools of Indian Miniature). As a first-generation Indo-Canadian who has never visited India, she struggles with the layered complexity of her own identity and feelings of displacement. Kaur’s work borrows from Western and Eastern iconography to create ethereal spaces, where the duality of her identity may find reconciliation. These interdisciplinary concepts are allowed to converge, transform, and generate dialogue, within the Sikh Diaspora. Kaur has been part of many national and international group exhibitions.
Last summer she had the opportunity to be part of the Vancouver Mural Festival and was one of the main artists that worked on the federal Harry Steven’s building. The building was unnamed in response to the mural and its tragic history concerning the Komagata Maru incident of 1914. Kaur also participated in the Shumka Satellite and SPACE Residency in 2019. Her recent art collaboration with the City of Vancouver is installed at 20 different locations around the city. Currently, Kaur is attending a classical atelier to further her education in the historical painting of the Baroque period and preparing for her solo show next spring.
