Jasmir Creed and Tony Phillips present new painting at the Victoria Gallery & Museum this month in the context of British life from the perspectives of people from Indian backgrounds.
Both artists have exhibited at Victoria Gallery & Museum before, both have Indian heritage. Both have exhibited more widely around the UK. Neither has looked so specifically at Liverpool and its relationship to the city’s residents with Indian heritage though.
For Tony Philips, much of the relationship between the UK and India is represented by sites in India, and references to how British culture infiltrated and diluted an already vibrant heritage. The resonance between some of the paintings of Kolkata, and the familiar views of shops and post offices here are universal. Over-posted windows, crammed with deafening amounts of information.
And he doesn’t shy away from the realities of colonialism, and the systems it introduced to India. One particularly powerful painting spans an entire gallery wall, representing the annual 1,200-mile journey taken by British officials from Calcutta to Shimla. Servants carried everything for them, employed for no reason other than to make things more comfortable for British officials. It was an imbalance, and just one example of the disruption British intervention had on Indian culture.
Jasmir Creed, by contrast, speaks more of the potential for celebrating Indian culture in our streets. Paintings here are sited in Britain by very specific use of colour.
There are architectural references to the city, but it is the rich, neon custard of the pelican crossing buttons that sets the scene in ‘Conflict’ so perfectly. The focal point of the painting, a young woman in a sari, draped in pinks, greens and rich streaks of blue celebrates her culture in a grey urban space that’s just about punctuated by the British flag on top of some civic building.
The contrasting fabrics, paired with the work’s title, ‘Conflict’, present as unsure. The woman depicted here is draped in cultural pride, but alone in a space where culture is so often reduced to two colours.
In reality, the momentary yellows from street lighting are more culturally significant than the flag. And I’m left staring through all of the colour into grey.
Between both artists, that grey, pallid wash provides the structure of the exhibition, punctuated by vivid colour where its needed. It makes what initially presents as an archival exhibition come alive as a contemporary exploration of what it feels like to explore your heritage when that heritage is so obviously more vibrant and expressive than your country of residence.
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Indian Perspectives is open at Victoria Gallery & Museum until 26th April 2025
Words, Kathryn Wainwright