July

July

Artist: Keerat Kaur, CA
Title: Karkhana
Medium: Natural pigments, 24k shell gold on Wasli Paper
Commissioner: Aran Sidhu

Artist: Keerat Kaur, CA

Title: Karkhana

Medium: Natural pigments, 24k shell gold on Wasli Paper

Commissioner: Aran Sidhu

Set in a modest kārkhānā (workshop) in post-Mughal Punjab, artisans demonstrate resilience under Sarkar-e-Khalsa. Amid crumbling walls and flickering oil lamps, they work late into the night. A woman gilds a Khalsa battle standard, while a man embroiders a Rumal Sahib to robe Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, symbolising the union of Miri (martial) and Piri (spiritual) forces.

This scene honours Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s patronage, which revitalised the arts by welcoming Mughal-skilled artisans. His support led to a thriving textile industry, producing sought-after wool, silk, and cotton goods. The borders of their work feature life-filled motifs; crocodiles, bhujangis, and lotus flowers, which represent the empire’s vitality and spiritual depth. Despite decline, the artisans embody the promise of renewal.

Artist

Keerat Kaur, CA

Keerat Kaur is a Canadian-born Artist & Architect (lic. OAA) with Sikh-Panjabi roots. Her work takes shape through the disciplines of painting, sculpture, writing, music, and architecture. Drawing inspiration from Sikh philosophies, she employs the art of metaphor and symbolism to revolutionize our relationship to nature and spirituality. Her aesthetic sensibility lies within a realm where the ordinary merges with the dreamlike. Regardless of the chosen medium, Kaur’s work is firmly rooted in the written word, serving as a pivotal starting point. This characteristic lends her work a profoundly narrative and illustrative quality, as imagery and language seamlessly coalesce, enriching each other’s impact. She completed her schooling in French Immersion, received her BA in 2012 (Western University) and her Master of Architecture in 2016 (U of T), while continuing her formal training in the Dhrupad and Khayaal schools of Indian Classical Music. Having a passion for languages, she is able to read, write and speak Panjabi, French, and Hindi. She is currently learning the Shahmukhi script and is studying the ancient language of Braj through the examination of historical Sikh texts. More recently, her work has contributed to the advancement of language-learning and preservation. Keerat currently lives and works between Burnaby, BC and London, Ontario.