Create and FSAS 2019 Residency Recipient Rajinder Singh

Create and Fire Station Artists’ Studios are pleased to announce Rajinder Singh as the recipient of the 2019 Artist Residency Award based at Fire Station Artists’ Studios. The Residency will run during the month of June, incorporating International Refugee week (17-23 June 2019) offering opportunities for discussion and development of work. This residency is funded through the Arts Council of Ireland’s Artist in the Community Scheme, which is managed by Create. This residency, which aims to support an artist from an ethnic minority to develop their collaborative and socially engaged arts practice, is offered through a partnership between Create and Fire Station Artists’ Studios, supporting collaborative and socially engaged arts practice.

Rajinder Singh’s photography, video and performance work explore ideas around the vulnerable body and its pain, interrogating the economies of power that deny it space and shape. Often focused on the power of ritual action in the construction of the social body, his practice uses choreography and performative objects to explore the ways the human body unfolds around various topographic and symbolic borders. Rajinder examines borders as markers of inclusion and exclusion through his collaborative work.

Rajinder has spent the last three years working with groups of dancers and actors on a durational research project to archive the gestures, movements and rhythms of worship, in order to understand their impact on everyday movement. This project formed the basis of several performances both in Ireland and Asia. Recent performances and exhibitions by Rajinder include Teh Tarik and the Flag, National Visual Arts Gallery of Malaysia, Ex-Voto, Galway Arts Centre, Ireland (2018), WoundBloom (performance) Wei Ling Gallery, Kuala Lumpur (2017); Cage of Deliverance, Wei Ling Gallery, Kuala Lumpur (2016); Common Ground, Chan Hampe Gallery, Singapore (2015).

The panel which awarded this residency was chaired by Áine Crowley, Programme Manager Arts and Engagement, and consisted of Anthony Haughey, artist and a lecturer in TU Dublin, Evgeny Shtown, Cultural Diversity Researcher with Create, and Helen Carey, Director of Fire Station Artists’ Studios. Create staff member Jane O’Rourke observed and took minutes.