Sehej Kaur
ssehej@proton.me
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Sehej Kaur is an emerging artist working on Darug Country. Travelling between sterile, domestic and interwebbed worlds, Sehej seeks out points of tension and overlap, interested in embracing the forever flux of her body amongst extractive structures in the so-called West. Sehej utilises the digital landscape and its natural multiplicity as non-linear methods of re-archival and reclaim.
Beyond material practice, Sehej is radio maker for show Race Matters at FBI Radio and Co-director for Western Sydney ARI ‘Pari Gallery’ and the hybrid art/health space The Waiting Room Project.
CV
Kisan di Kirat, Kirat da Suad (the farmer’s labour, the taste of labour)
Kisan di Kirat Kirat da Suad (the farmer’s labour, the taste of labour),2022-2024, video, tablecloth, tea leaves, kettle, glasses, chai seva
Shown at Pari Gallery, for ‘Remedy’ group show
DESCRIPTION
'Kisan di Kirat, Kirat da suad' (the farmers labour, the taste of labour) forms as a diasporic response to India’s farmers protests that began at the start of the pandemic and re-ignited in 2024. In the recorded performance piece, Sehej revisits the familiar grounds of Parramatta Park, a place of passageway between childhood and adult worlds, where she first witnessed the grounds as a gathering place for brown families.
Barefoot and cross-legged, the artist reflects the stance of the thousands of farmers who formed blockades on the streets before Delhi and participates in a stripped back and tedious process of chai preparation. As the familiarised gesture loses its domesticity, Sehej transforms acts of ritual and routine into one rooted in solidarity with her lineage of labour.
On the opening night, Sehej engages in the in act of Seva (selfless service) a core value of Sikhism practiced routinely at temple and in community. The serving of chai becomes the final stage and communal offerings of the tastes of labour.