Strange Loop

A solo exhibition by Karanjit Panesar

Opening night 21 March 5-9pm

Open Wed-Sat 11-5pm & until 8pm on Thursdays // Free & open to all

Listen to the audio description of this exhibition below

Forged Egyptian figurines, a Saxon cremation urn that has been pieced back together at an uncertain time, and an album of watercolours of British plant families – artist unknown.

Once in a museum, everything we know – and don’t know – about these things is cemented into place.

The strange loop paradox is found in stories of time travel and simulated reality. There is uncertainty about what comes first and what follows – what is above and what is below. Following the path leads you back to where you started.

The starting point for Strange Loop has been a response to objects from the Museum of Croydon‘s collection. I was immediately drawn to some of the older objects in the collection. Due to their age, these artefacts conjure a sense of truth: we believe in and trust them. Who can argue with something ancient? I was interested in objects with ambiguous histories, or gaps in our understanding of them.

The exhibition’s focus point is a moving image work set between the store-room at the Museum and the artist’s studio in Leeds. The film is presented within an installation influenced by the layout of the Museum of Croydon, where visitors are encouraged to travel through in a loop.

Strange Loop is an attempt to overlap the different lives of the sculptural object, the prop, and the historical artefact. The exhibition builds on my interest in intersecting the spaces of production and presentation. The dialogue between content and its container, which can seen in the idea of the ‘behind-the-scenes’.

How is knowledge processed when given in the authoritative space of the museum compared to in an art gallery, or in film? Does the way in which we receive information impact our understanding of something?

The exhibition features two paintings loaned from the Museum of Croydon’s art collection – ‘An Egyptian’ by Franz Xavier Kosler, an Austrian ‘Orientalist’ painter; and ‘The Rehearsal’ by Edmund Blair Leighton, an English historical genre painter.

– Karanjit Panesar

The exhibition and events were made possible with the generous support of the Museum of Croydon, Arts Council England & Croydon Council.