Gut Feelings Meri Jaan

Gut Feelings Meri Jaan responds to the local archives held at Touchstones by fore fronting the voices of migrant communities within the social history of Rochdale which have historically been marginalised and misrepresented.

During the dark winter evenings of lockdown a group of women and gender non-conforming people from Rochdale’s Pakistani, Bengali and Punjabi communities were invited by Jasleen Kaur to join her in a series of online conversations examining and responding to the contents of the local history archives at Touchstones. Kaur and the group interrogated how our cultural memory is preserved, exploring ideas around inheritance and belonging, land and migration, ritual and healing. Gut Feelings Meri Jaan is the result of this collaborative process, culminating in a book and a series of films which meddle with traditional archival approaches.

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UP Projects recently launched an exhibition at Touchstones Rochdale (@touchstones_rochdale) with Gut Feelings Meri Jaan by artist Jasleen Kaur (@_jasleenkaur_). The work responds to the local archives held at Touchstones by fore fronting the voices of migrant communities within the social history of Rochdale which have historically been marginalised and misrepresented. Kaur worked with a group of women and gender non-conforming people from Rochdale’s Pakistani, Bengali and Punjabi communities in a series of online conversations examining and responding to the contents of the local history archives at Touchstones to interrogated how our cultural memory is preserved, exploring ideas around inheritance and belonging, land and migration, ritual and healing.

Accompanying the exhibition is a small book which features a collection of letters written between Dr Alice Correia and Jasleen Kaur around the themes of remembering, history and community. In a parallel process of bringing hidden or forgotten histories to light, Art Historian and Research Curator Dr Alice Correia, writes to Jasleen Kaur about her current research project in the archives at Touchstones Rochdale, examining the legacy of South-Asian diaspora artists active in Britain since the 1950s, and draws out points of connection with Gut Feelings Meri Jaan.