Jagdeep Raina

COOPER COLE is pleased to present Beautiful Zameen, a solo exhibition of the work of Jagdeep Raina. This is the artist’s second exhibition at the gallery and spans both our east and west locations.

Beautiful Zameen is a series of works that explores the Green Revolution in Punjab. The Green Revolution—a U.S. sponsored agricultural framework based on high-yield seed varieties, intensive irrigation and drainage, and chemical fertilizers and pesticides—was implemented in the 1960s and has since damaged the landscape in Punjab by causing declining water tables, widespread soil erosion, low forest cover, and an epidemic of farmer suicides. Extending from that, global corporate involvement in agriculture, and neoliberal policies in India has led to India’s rapid increase in consumption, leading to further exploitation of natural resources.

The material history of South Asia is a central tenet of Raina’s practice. Many of his works possess a geometric border called a Phulkari, which is a traditional form of weaving on muslin cloth using hand-dyed and organic materials invented in Punjabi villages. The inclusion of the Phulkari in Raina’s work is significant, as following the fall of the Empire, the relinquishing of control over India by the British and the violent upheaval of the Partition, there was a mass disappearance and heavy destruction of many Phulkari pieces in Punjab. Globalization, the breakdown of Punjabi villages and workplace exploitation of Punjabi women has led to difficulties in the Phulkari’s renewal as a collective and collaborative form of art.

The drawings and embroidery in Beautiful Zameen—which means beautiful land— have emerged from Raina’s archival research, including a collaborative study of the playwright Satinder Chohan’s photography of the Green Revolution. Raina’s works depict farmers, agricultural land, and hands that hold crops and photographs, fusing his research with an ancestral material practice. He treats his subjects with care and commemoration, drawing attention to the everyday lived experiences and losses related to the Green Revolution, which was also the catalyst to an exodus of migrants to North America and the UK. Raina also explores material history through his films, which include video footage, stop motion animation, poetry, and music to position this textile within the Phulkari’s broader history.

Jagdeep Raina (b. 1991, Guelph, Ontario, Canada) has an interdisciplinary practice that spans drawing, textiles, writing, and, more recently, video animation, film and ceramics. Raina is currently a Fellow at the Core Program, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and was previously held a MacDowell Fellowship, was a Paul Mellon Fellow at Yale University, a recipient of the 2020 Sobey Art Award, and a resident at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. He received his BFA from Western University in 2013, his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2016. He has exhibited internationally at Blaffer Art Museum, Houston (2021); Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai (2021); Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto (2021); Textile Museum, Toronto (2021); Soft Opening, London (2020); (Midway Contemporary, Minneapolis (2019); Art Gallery of Guelph, Guelph (2019); Cooper Cole, Toronto (2019); Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton (2018); Rubin Museum of Art, New York (2018); RISD Museum of Art, Providence (2017); Humber Galleries, Toronto (2017); Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown (2017); Camden Arts Centre, London (2016); and Modern Fuel Artist Run Centre, Kingston (2016). Raina lives and works in Houston, Texas, USA.

The following text written by Hasabie Kidanu accompanies the exhibition:

Dear Jag,