Farheen Haq and Russna Kaur trace memory through paint, video and textiles at Surrey Art Gallery
Left: Russna Kaur, Nice Ending (detail), 2021, acrylic on canvas, Collection of SAG. Right: Farheen Haq, Revelation #2 (detail), 2017, bricks and digital video loop, Collection of SAG. City of Surrey
Photo credit: Dennis Ha Photography (left) / SITE Photography (right)
Farheen Haq and Russna Kaur have brought In the Folds of Memory to Surrey Art Gallery, where the exhibition opened Oct 3 and runs through Dec 6. Admission is free.
Curated by Jas Lally and originated by Surrey Art Gallery, the exhibition starts with two works already held in the gallery’s collection: Haq’s Revelation #2 from 2017, an installation of bricks and a digital video loop, and Kaur’s 2021 painting Nice Ending. The gallery uses those works as starting points for a larger pairing of new and loaned work across painting, installation, video and textiles.
Surrey Art Gallery frames the two practices through memory, language and transformation, with textiles, text, mark-making and material recurring across the exhibition. In the City of Surrey’s exhibition announcement, Lally describes the show as a consideration of “what we inherit, what we remember, and how these stories can connect us to one another.”
Two artists, two approaches to memory
Kaur, a Brampton-born Canadian painter, studied at the University of Waterloo before completing an MFA at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Surrey Art Gallery describes her work in In the Folds of Memory as drawing on personal, emotional and intergenerational histories, with colour and layered surfaces carrying much of that history on the canvas. Another work shown on the gallery’s exhibition page, If I wished, such fancies-lazy voices in the crowd soften to slanted waves from 2023, is made with acrylic and sand on canvas.
Haq’s practice moves among performance, video, installation and community-based textile work. In her own biography, she says she was born and raised in Ontario’s Niagara region and has family roots in Bihar, India, and Karachi, Pakistan. Her current biography says recent work focuses on the teachings of Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb and their application to settler-Indigenous relationships on Turtle Island through culture making and ceremony.
One of Haq’s works in the exhibition is Aankhein Band Kar Ke Dekho (Close Your Eyes and See), a 2022 single-channel video projection. Her recent textile projects also provide context for the public programming attached to the Surrey show, including community-engaged stitching circles and collective making.
Public programming continues through December
The first exhibition-specific event still ahead is Community Weaving with Farheen Haq on Oct 22 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The free session invites participants to contribute to a communal artwork that will become part of the exhibition.
Surrey Art Gallery’s Family Art Jam follows on Oct 25 from 1:30 to 3 p.m., with artmaking and an interactive tour of the fall exhibitions. The event is free, but advance registration is required and space is limited.
On Nov 21, the gallery hosts Weaving with Memories: Media Arts Symposium from 1 to 5 p.m. Haq is scheduled to present a new media work based on a ghazal using text, moving images and poetic recitation. The symposium is also free.
Two more public events extend the exhibition into its final weeks. Family Art Party runs Nov 29 from 1 to 5 p.m. as a free drop-in afternoon connected to the gallery’s fall exhibitions, and Lally leads a free Panjabi-language tour of In the Folds of Memory on Dec 5 from 1 to 2:30 p.m.
How to visit In the Folds of Memory
Surrey Art Gallery is at 13750 88 Ave. in Surrey, B.C. Regular gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. The gallery is closed Mondays and holidays.
In the Folds of Memory runs through Dec 6, with free admission throughout the exhibition.
