Pride, Art and Prejudice

As British born twin sister artists of Indian Sikh origin, we recognize that two main driving forces have continued to motivate, inspire and inform our work.  First and foremost is the affiliation we have to our Indian Sikh heritage. Second, is the cultural prejudice we have encountered within the predominantly white British environment in which we’ve been brought up, educated and now practice our joint career in art.

In early childhood we grew up in an area of Britain that was geographically isolated from the wider Indian community and were the only non-Christians in the private Catholic, Convent school we attended. But the constant presence of our large extended Indian Sikh family, which was very traditional in its social, religious practice and thinking, ensured that we were always conscious of a duality to our cultural identity.

We were acutely aware of mainstream society and media attitudes that derided Indian culture. And like other young British Asians, we were constantly confronted with peer pressure urging us to conform to ‘normal’ western values and lifestyle. But contrary to general perceptions about younger generation Indians in UK, being “torn between two cultures” we never experienced any major conflict or confusion about who we were or where our cultural loyalties lay.

The pride we had in our Indian identity at that time was a natural consequence of our confidence in, and affection for the various close family members who were our role models. It helped too perhaps, that the influence of our Catholic upbringing in school, with its emphasis on spirituality, morality, self-discipline and family values, was not so very far removed from the social and ethical perspective we inherited from our Indian, Sikh background.

A much deeper affiliation with our traditional culture developed in our early teens when, in 1980, we visited India for the first time. Driving across land in a home-made motor home from England, through Europe, the Middle East, Pakistan and across the Wagah border into India, we spent nine months traveling North to South and back again, exploring India’s rich and diverse heritage, history and arts. Along the way we discovered the Indian miniature tradition of painting, which was to become a significant impact on our lives. It was quite an adventure, which resulted in a cultural awakening and sense of belonging defined by an inner, emotional and spiritual attachment that was quite independent, in our case, of any associations with our actual place of birth.

ArtsAndBooks-PrideArtAndPrejudice-2-RThe journey left an indelible mark on us. Since then, our choices in life and particularly throughout our developing career as artists have been influenced by a desire and at times a need, to celebrate, preserve and defend our Indian heritage, against what we have continued to experience in wider society as notions of western superiority and the expectation of others that we should assimilate into British culture at the expense of our Indian values.

After returning from India, we began to teach ourselves the Indian miniature tradition of painting whilst still at school. Our passion for this ancient art form was to some extent a natural extension of the love we had already developed as children for certain decorative and illustrative traditions of Western art that shared the same attention to detail, technical skill, use of symbolic language and narrative content. But our desire to learn the Indian miniature technique for ourselves was influenced by what we were disappointed to find in India, as the Indian Contemporary art world’s rejection of traditional Indian art and seemingly blind aping of western trends instead. Our subsequent desire to cultivate a wider appreciation and respect for the Indian miniature tradition became our personal mission – much to the disdain of our art teacher at school who disapproved of our ‘unfashionable’ style of painting and kept insisting that we “loosen up”!

Even with that mission in mind, we had no intention at that time of becoming artists. Our hearts were set on the medical profession and with our pre-university subjects firmly focused on physics, chemistry and biology, art remained (as it had always been) just a hobby for us. The conscious decision to become artists in later life was a twist of fate linked to the situation we found ourselves in when our school (which was adamant that we should be pursuing what they felt was our talent for art instead) wrote in our University applications that we were only interested in Medicine because of “family tradition” and “parental persuasion”. Their failure to support our University applications for Medical school forced us to reconsider our Degree options. But what angered us most about their comments was our feeling that we were being viewed and judged according to the ‘oppressed little Indian girl’ stereotype, rather than being given credit for making our own choices.

Determined, not to be pushed by our school into an art career, we were simply just not interested in, we both decided to register for a BA Honors in Combined Studies. With a view to becoming lecturers in Theology we chose Comparative Religion and Ecclesiastical History as our main subjects. But we had to select a third module. And 20th Century Western Art History was the only thing that fitted in with the timetable. Although we were not happy about having to take art as an option we decided to make the most of things and seized the opportunity, to continue our interest in the Indian miniature, which we adopted as our key source of inspiration for developing a personal style of our own.

ArtsAndBooks-PrideArtAndPrejudice-1-RThe journey of our art career began in fact as a backlash to what we experienced as the condescending attitudes of our University art tutors who not only dismissed the Indian miniature as “backward”, “outdated” and having no place in contemporary art but also criticized the fact that we were inspired by the same art forms and were working in very similar styles to each other. Something which they saw as an affront to their Eurocentric definition of ‘acceptable art’ and western values, rooted in notions individuality and self-expression. Our attempts to stand our ground and prove them otherwise by sticking with the miniature style and defending our case through our final year dissertations cost us our degree. One of the examiners refused to grade the works, which argued how non-European and particularly Indian art had impacted on the development of western art.

Against this background, our determined exploration of the Indian miniature aesthetic, chosen themes and the united front that we present as ‘The Singh Twins’, are an expression of pride in our Indian identity. An expression which asserts the right to be who we are, on our own terms, and sets out to challenge, question and expose the kind of institutionalized prejudice and cultural hypocrisy which we believe was not only evident in the attitude of our University art tutors but was also prevalent within the contemporary art establishment and western society in general.

Although initially creating works like Wedding Jange II and All That I Am, which presented positive images of traditional Indian life and values from our own British Asian experience and stressed the importance of traditional Eastern values within a modern western world, our art career has ultimately been motivated and defined by a sense of responsibility to look beyond personal issues of identity – towards exposing wider cultural prejudices and an interest in highlighting concerns of more global significance.

One thing that the negative experience from our art tutors at University taught us was the power of art to communicate and the important role of artists as documenters. The desire to make a real difference in this respect through our work has fuelled our determination to establish an international profile and recognized platform for serious debate, which has meaningful impact in challenging the pervading social, political and cultural attitudes.

Our path to success as British contemporary artists has and will no doubt continue to be fraught with obstacles, difficulties and knock backs from those whose narrow vision of art and culture (still defined by a Eurocentric perspective and steeped in colonial attitudes of ‘west is best’), would judge us as too “culturally different” and have us kept in an “ethnic” pigeon hole with limited opportunity. But when we look back on our career so far, we would not have it any other way.

The challenges we have faced have strengthened our determination, shaped our work and given us a sense of purpose as artists. A purpose which in the final analysis stems from the self-confidence, pride and strength we have gained from being part of a supportive family and that first inspirational, life changing journey of self-discovery to India.

(The painting on the top (Wedding Jange II) has been thankfully published with approval from the Government Art Collections UK).

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About The Singh Twins

The Singh Twins are internationally acclaimed artists, acknowledged for creating a unique ‘Past-Modern’ genre in Contemporary British Art through a pioneering development of the Indian miniature tradition. Their award-winning work explores social and political issues of universal debate, challenges cultural stereotypes and redefines generally accepted narrow perceptions of heritage and identity.

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