A Nightmare on BAME Street

2018
Pandhal, Hardeep
Hardeep Pandhal’s work employs lurid colour and content to create work in an array of media. His sketches and texts borrow from a variety of sources such as comic books and political satire, while his collaborations with his mum span crochet, knitting and embroidery. His animation A Nightmare on BAME Street (2018) is an urban tableau set in a skewed version of Birmingham, in the area where the artist grew up. In an imagined outdoor cinema, loitering characters envision excessive scenes in thought bubbles, which also carry double entendres from the African-American verbal duelling game known as The Dozens. Baba Deep Thing by Mum (2014) consists of a white wool sweater incorporating the decapitated Sikh martyr Baba Deep Singh, his head at the end of one arm and a blood-covered sword sewn to the other. It is inspired by the legend, which tells that Baba Deep continued to battle his Afghan enemies even as the blood drained from his headless body. But just as the distance is vast between the artist and this 18th century tale, Pandhal and his mother are divided by language, he speaks little Punjabi, while she speaks little English. What is lost in translation is found, hinting at things that are known without being spoken.
  • Artwork Details: running time: 10 minutes 32seconds
  • Edition: 1 of 3 + 2 AP
  • Material description: 4K animation
  • Credit line: © the artist
  • Theme:
  • Medium: Film and Audio Visual
  • Accession number: ACC43/2017

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The Arts Council Collection is the UK's most widely seen collection of modern and contemporary art.

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