Beginning Sketches: Painting in a White Man’s World

Born in London in 1966, twin sisters and painters Amrit and Rabrinda KD Kaur Singh moved with their family in 1974 to Merseyside. Although they did not grow up in a major Asian enclave, the constant presence of a large, extended Asian family exposed them to traditional values and mores. This close-knit family structure was crucial to their subsequent development as artists. The Twins were aware, from early on, that their identities had several layers: they were British, Asian, Sikh, and women.

The Biblical account of the temptation of Adam and Eve is reinterpreted in the context of 20th century technological and scientific advancements. It questions mankind’s seemingly unquenchable thirst for knowledge and also warns of the destructive potential of the misuse of knowledge driven by political and economic greed in absence of moral conscience.

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Paradise Lost by Rabindra K.D Kaur Singh, 2000

Initially completing their O and A Levels at a Roman Catholic Convent school with the aim of joining the medical profession, unforeseen circumstances compelled the Twins to read for a BA Hons Degree in ‘Contemporary Western Art, Ecclesiastical History and Comparative Religion’ at University College of Chester between 1985-7. In 1987 they completed a Post-Graduate qualifying course entitled ‘Religion and the Arts’ at Manchester University. During these years at university the Twins became increasingly disillusioned with the official view of contemporary art education and practice in the UK, discovering that it was completely Eurocentric in its dictates, void of non-Western aesthetic models and forms. During the final marking of their dissertations, both of which explored the significant impact that non-European art had on the development of European art, one examiner refused to give either of them marks. The fact that this resulted in their final degree being seriously downgraded was justified by the comment he is reported to have made to the other examiners in the final stages of marking which betrayed an assumption that as Asian women, the twins would be married upon completion of university and thus never become professional artists.

This experience was significant for the Twins, symbolising the Institutionalised prejudice of the Art Establishment – to the extent that even attempts to show the existence and importance of non-Western styles, as the Twins did in their dissertations, was out of the question. Furthermore, the examiner’s rebuff of the twins and his assumptions regarding their future careers illustrated how disengaged contemporary arts in the UK were with minority communities and cultures. Even the so-called liberal ‘arts’ was rife with racism and cultural homogeneity. The Twins developed their unique partnership and artistic style, in part, as a political statement against the discrimination: “Our art and collaborative partnership developed largely in response to the serious criticisms we faced during our first degree for pursuing common interests and goals in developing personal styles which were deemed to be unacceptable because they were 'inappropriately' rooted in Eastern cultural aesthetics and our experience as British Asians.”

Developing a Style: The Indian Miniature Tradition

In 1989, the Singh Twins registered at Manchester University for postgraduate research into Sikh Art. The following year in 1990, they both won the competitive INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) scholarship to carry out a year’s field research in India on religious art and the miniature tradition.

This image is used as part of the publicity material used by the Singh sisters. The image depicts the artists working on an artwork together

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Twins Painting Photograph by Howard Barow, Date Unknown

It was during the Singh Twins’ first trip to India as teenagers, however, that they discovered and became enthralled with the Indian miniature art form. Several years later when they were at university and began to study art formally, they found themselves once again inspired: “we were amazed by the technical skill and symbolic content of miniatures and the power they had to communicate to people. We also had a natural inclination towards this particular form of art as it belonged to our cultural heritage.” The Indian miniature form offered the Twins an established Eastern model of art, drawn from Persian and Indian roots that, in their view, had played and continued to play a crucial role in the development of Western contemporary art forms and styles. Furthermore, the miniature tradition still had resonance in modern society; it enabled the Twins to represent both their experiences as British Asians and as members of modern society more accurately than the art forms that were impressed upon them in university. It is this interplay between the past and modern that has made so many, including the Twins, describe their art as ‘Past Modern.’

Added Knowledge: Understanding the Work of the Singh Twins

The highly decorative and ornate style of the Twins’ paintings thinly veils a careful and thorough exploration of pertinent social and political issues. Every object in their paintings has a place and a meaning; how each object is represented and manipulated adds a further layer of significance. In the work Nyrmla’s Wedding, Amrit KD Kaur Singh depicts a classic scene from an Asian wedding: the painting of ‘mehndi’ or henna on the hands of the bride-to-be. Ronald McDonald appears to be staring at the bride from a window. Behind him is a landscape of waste and ruin. The work represents how globalisation and economic development, if left unchecked, though equated with progressiveness can be negative or disruptive forces, whilst so-called primitive and third world cultures, though often equated with backwardness, can provide a model for global and social stability.

This painting looks at the role that both the media and the commercialization of sport have played in turning the humble sportsman into Universal Hero, celebrity Super Star, and popular culture Icon.

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Zero to Hero by Rabindra K.D. Kaur Singh, 2002

Other times the message of the Twins’ work is found in their subtle reworking of major historical and modern day events. In the work Nineteen-Eighty-Four, which depicts the storming of the Golden Temple by Indian troops, the Twins have added objects and individuals that were not at the original event. Blindfolds are placed on the eyes of the press, representing their imbalanced coverage of the event; Indira Gandhi is present and holding her left palm up, symbolising her complicity to an atrocity perpetrated against a community traditionally recognised for its noble and proven record of loyalty to India. It is through this ‘added’ that we are meant to understand the painting and the 1984 riots at the Golden Temple.