‘The World that Belongs to Us’ traces the complexity of colonial history, StirWorld, February 2024

The cultural history of England is synonymous with the cosmopolitan life the English live and breathe.   Today, the legacies of the British Empire continue to shape the vibrant and multicultural identity of the country. Deeply intertwined with its colonial past, the place has evolved from an imperial centre to a global melting pot. Yet, over recent years, across the globe, the wave to stifle the presence of multiple ethnicities has been exponentially on the rise. Keeping these salient features in mind, the exhibition The World that Belongs to Us at The New Art Gallery Walsall takes a deep dive into intergenerational artists from the South Asian diaspora – Chila Kumari Singh Burman, Chitra Ganesh, Sunil Gupta and Charan Singh, Roshini Kempadoo, Pamila Matharu, Hardeep Pandhal, Jagdeep Raina, Sa’dia Rehman and Salman Toor.

Curated by Pakistani curator Aziz Sohail and the gallery’s Head of Exhibitions, Deborah Robinson, the show has been in development since the pandemic in 2020. Sohail was invited to guest curate following a British Council-supported curatorial residency in 2015 at the New Art Gallery Walsall. Sohail’s research focused on networks of friendship, making and community in the South Asian diasporas of the UK, USA and Canada, and the exhibition was developed by following these traces and grounding it in the Midlands, with a strong focus on queer artists. It relies heavily upon the multiple identities of diasporic communities propounded by the late theorist Stuart Hall. The show contends that art can contribute to community growth forming, what Sohail and Robinson describe as “a means of resistance and survival’.

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