Cotton Crown
2023, screen print on cotton, bamboo, jute string
80cm x 60cm
Inspired by the farmers protest in India in 2020-2021, the humility of the farmers, and their deep spiritual reverence and dedication to their land, this work honours my Punjabi, Sikh, and farming roots. In an imagined value system, the work acknowledges the role of the farmer as vital to human life, and positions them as the true Kings and Queens.
This project uses a traditional Indian fabric - 'parna' turban fabric. A robust utility cotton, printed in gingham, that is used by labourers and more specifically farmers. This is embellished with auspicious Gurmukhi/Punjabi script taken from the Guru Granth Sahib (Sikh holy scriptures), and loosely translates to:
Air the Teacher
Water the Father
Earth the almighty Mother
It has been finished using all natural materials: bamboo, cotton thread, and jute twine.
This piece was inspired by the farmers protests in India (2020-2021). And seeks to represent the spirituality and reverence with which land is tended to and cared for. This is done through the use of sacred text, printed into the humblest of fabrics, used in the most profound of acts - creating and sustaining life, through the planting, growing and harvesting of food.
By bestowing the fabric with words from the most sacred of Sikh scriptures, I convey the humble fabric as a crown, and the men that wear it in their duty to Mother Earth, as the truest of Kings.
I will forever be indebted to my ancestors, and the wisdom my grandparents passed down to me through their relationship with their (now our) land.
I've seen how hard they worked, with so much love and tenderness, never complaining. Loving the soil and its harvest as if it were both their mother and their child.
Their relationship with the land has always been one of great reverence and deep spirituality. The energy of which I hope is communicated in some way through this piece of work.
The last photo shows my dad modelling the fabric as a turban, much more neatly and much less sweaty than if he were actually on a farm doing the work
