The spring exhibition at Art Fund Museum of the Year, Firstsite – Slaves of Fashion: The Singh Twins -explores narratives around Empire, enslavement, luxury consumerism, and the contemporary relevance of all these issues in our world today, through the colonial history of Indian textiles.
Slaves of Fashion: The Singh Twins will showcase artworks by the internationally renowned artists, which focus on the relationship between Britain and India, hidden details of Europe’s colonial past and its legacies, including current debates around ethical trade, responsible consumerism and decolonisation and racism.
Primarily known for their hand-painted work in a modern development of the Indian miniature tradition, The Singh Twins’ latest work combines traditional hand-painting techniques with historical archival material and digitally created imagery.
The exhibition features two significant bodies of work from their Slaves of Fashion series produced over the past five years. Supported by a wealth of material that documents the artists’ process from an archive of original historical objects and documents which have inspired the work on display, to original drawings, time lapse video of work in progress and three artist films.
Included are eleven digital fabric artworks displayed on lightboxes, with each one highlighting a different theme relating to India’s textile industry. Each work features life-size symbolic portraits of historical figures to reveal the full intricacy of their design and the eclectic, detailed, symbolic and narrative style for which The Singh Twins are renowned.
For example, Indigo: The Colour of India, features an image of the Mughal Queen Mumtaz Mahal wearing jeans, in a detailed life-size portrait that tells the story of Indigo, which was used in India as a fabric dye for thousands of years. Known as ‘blue gold’ (currency for buying slaves), it was highly valuable and prized for its rich, deep shade and colour-fast qualities. Today, one might associate denims with western fashion, but The Singh Twins challenge that notion, backing it with extensive research and tracing the roots of “Dungaree” (another term for Denims) to “Dongri” village in Mumbai where 16th-century Portuguese sailors had first used the coarse material as pants and popularised them.
The exhibition also explores present-day debates about industry and globalisation, fair labour and equal pay; pollution and climate change; corporate politics and business ethics driven by a number of artworks on paper. The works include instantly recognisable figures such as Donald Trump (Get Your Knee off Our Necks), Boris Johnson and Angela Merkel (Fighting for India 2.0), Theresa May (Colossus of Woes), Tony Blair and George W Bush (Partners in Crime: Deception and Lies).
While each work in the show highlights a different theme relating to the colonial history of India’s textile industry, collectively they reveal not only the beauty, and craftsmanship of Indian fabrics, but also the human cost of luxury goods and the global politics of trade past and present.
A version of this exhibition was first seen at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool in 2018, but since then the Twins have added more exhibits, including new work made in lockdown as part of Grayson’s Art Club. (Channel 4).
The Twins say, “If you care about the environment and you care about human rights, then you should really care about what you put in your shopping basket too, and that’s partly what the message of these works is, but it’s also about showing how we are all connected through our colonial past and how our understanding of global narratives around Empire can help us to see ourselves and the world around us in a new light.”
Sally Shaw MBE, Director of Firstsite says “We’re really excited to be able to host this vast, colourful exhibition from The Singh Twins that poses such important questions about equity, sustainability and the climate crisis. This exhibition offers us an opportunity to explore wider societal issues through art and we are hoping this show will fire the imagination, raise awareness of hidden histories and help us all think creatively about how we as a community can address these issues.”
The exhibition is supported by the Essex Cultural Diversity Project (ECDP), Indi Sandhu ECDP Creative Director & CEO says, “This is an excellent opportunity to showcase the work of internationally renowned artists The Singh Twins at Firstsite. Their artwork focuses on key issues facing our world today and highlights the need for change. ECDP have developed a strong partnership with Firstsite over the years and through this exhibition we are keen to develop a more collaborative approach for joint working.’’
