Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep?

Kulvinder Kaur Dhew

Whilst walking through a city that reminded me of London, I was struck by a memory of when I lived there. I would read science fiction as I travelled around in the underground aware that perhaps one day the outlandish notions that I came across would become fact. The imagination allows us infinite time traveling capacity and artists of all stripes fashion the context. It is a gratifying thing. Real Sensory Energy.

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Quantum annoucement

Kulvinder Kaur Dhew & Bruce Dehnert

'Quantum'

Kulvinder Kaur Dhew. 'Phosphorus Interior. Acrylic on canvas. 30x40ins

Kulvinder Kaur Dhew. 'Tectonic'. Acrylic on canvas. 40x40ins

With reference to my painting practice I have always been fascinated by the notion of editing or curating my actions in a focused manner.  I try to contain every thing that is meaningful in the moment.  It is a challenge that I find appealing.  However ironic, the mannered anarchic splash of paint feels authentic in its materiality coupled with the process-bound stencil, or the slow steady manipulation of paint on canvas as geometry.

Various notions of the ‘sublime’ and ‘transience’ underpin the aesthetics of what I paint.  As a conceptual material, paint has immense history embedded within it. I have a desire to explain visually those notions as vignettes into the window of my imagination, it represents time and place and the way the paintings were made.

The resultant work serves as documentation, a lens of politics, history and culture.

"Rick Rubin" by Alison Chernick

An insightful portrait of the Grammy-winning guru of record production, 
who contemplates life and art outside his Malibu residence.

Flow

Kulvinder Kaur Dhew. Drawing.

Delaware River Valley

Kulvinder Kaur Dhew. EastCoast

Kulvinder Kaur Dhew.
Pasque Rises You Will See.
Acrylic on canvas.
40 x 40 in

Kulvinder Kaur Dhew.
Whereupon Glows Botany.
Acrylic on canvas.
40 x 40 in

It was the cacophony of sound and density of forest that struck me when I first visited this east-coast region.  The area is rich with a micro-biome that is both sustaining and dangerous.  There is flora and fauna that offer such beauty it makes the knees quiver upon discovering a ‘red in tooth and claw’ under-carriage. The vivid purple hyacinth, otherworldly, part plant, part animal, ushers in the spring season blasting its song-lines through the verdant landscape with dramatic fervor. I cannot help but feel respect for the seemingly ordered chaos accompanying this strange phenomenon.

Amongst the many delights of living in such a diverse environment is the knowledge of the ever-changing visual, be it hourly or seasonal. It is always moving, giving one the sense of being part of a massive thing.   During late summer, the heat of the day gives way to a cooler evening. Tree frogs, lunar moths and other visitors take center stage to carry out duties with intensity.  The moment embodies all that is past, present, future and to tell the tale is one of time travel. 

The liquid sunshine accompanying the onset of long summer shadows, fireflies continuing their code into the moonlight, light reflected from snow, a raucous dawn chorus that awakes us from our slumber, and many other sources of poetic ranting, make it a challenge to explain how the paradoxes and contrasts of this river valley conspire towards inspiration.  My paintings are vignettes of various experiences, thoughts and reflections of this landscape.

A film by Frederick Wiseman

Frederick Wiseman’s film takes the audience behind the scenes of a London institution, on a journey to the heart of a museum inhabited by masterpieces of Western art from the Middle Ages to the 19th Century. The film is the portrait of a place, its way of working and relations with the world, its staff and public, and its paintings. In a perpetual and dizzying game of mirrors, film watches painting watches film.

Horses for courses

Kulvinder Kaur Dhew. National Gallery. London. UK

The Arnolfini Portrait is quite fascinating. Will we ever know the story contained within the theatre of the imagination or does it change according to happenstance? Always sustaining. Happy to see collections of art in such good hands. The engagement is real.  
 https://youtu.be/U38V_XwaRxM