Bio

Kajal Nisha Patel. (b.1979, British South Asian)

With her interests intersecting art, race, yoga and social practice, Kajal works with visual media, within personal and participatory contexts. Shifting between representation and abstraction, a patchwork of archival memory is represented through personal ephemera and industrial materials. Much of her practice focuses on the intersectional lives of South Asian women, as they negotiate the politics of power to seek self-determination. 

Yogic philosophy merges with the Russian avant-garde. Hierarchies of artisanal production, craftsmanship, urban-industrialisation and the ongoing exploitation of feminised labour, recur as themes. By disassembling and reassembling Indian garments, including cotton, silk, calico, polyester and other synthetic materials, binary distinctions of race, class, gender and caste are symbolised. This highlights the quiet and sophisticated labour of India’s estimated 200 million-strong, informal workforce. Issues surrounding poverty, rural to urban migration and the forced displacement of indigenous people concern the artist. 

Kajal is the recipient of numerous grants, international awards and residencies. In 2016 she was awarded the prestigious Leverhulme Artist Residency within the department of Sociology, Media and Communication at the University of Leicester. Following an artist residency in Wilson, North Carolina, USA, ‘White Mirror’, was published in ‘The Image of Whiteness’, an artist anthology. Kajal has exhibited in venues across the UK and internationally, including the 2017 Venice Biennale,

In 2008 she founded Lightseekers, a collaborative social practice which uses art, advocacy and co-production to encourage critical action, care and listening. She holds a Masters in Social Practice, with distinction and a special award, for her thesis on yoga in museums and galleries.

She is currently employed by The Centre for Ethnic Health Research at The University of Leicester. Her work relates to the Psychology of Media Communication for Public Health.