Gurdev Singh’s artistic inspirations are deeply rooted in faith and culture. He frequently finds himself moved by the wonders of Sikh pop culture, while also attending to the themes of pride, tradition and the impact they have in his life. Niche subculture identities, role of fashion, youth influences appear to him as a means of expression and resistance to dominant cultural norms.
He dabbles in a range of imagery from various sources: film stills, archives, found images and photographs of events, in addition to the usual interchange of words making his current bodies of work an eclectic freeze-frame of dynamic realities.
“The Sikh element to my work is very much linked to my childhood because I was nourished with the legends and folktales of sacrifice, renunciation and martyrdom in the faith, even doing a self portrait singles out the identity part. My world within the Sikh world, with the Sikh position is a small but nuanced one, that is constantly shifting, moved by pop, and less reliant on authority, more on grassroots and always in a flux.”
“I’m increasingly drawn to taking images from my film camera and setting up props/accessories, toying around, dressing the subjects in picture despite my background in painting. Most of them are at home or nearby surroundings creating a sense of familiarity to a world being seen that, didn’t assume it was being seen. All these individuals me and my friends are staged, civil eccentrics, gorgeous outcasts, ironic yet savvy, culture-vultures and have 80% angst in them.”