Surrey Art Gallery partners with KPU instructor to celebrate 20 years of South Asian arts

The Surrey Art Gallery has partnered with the South Asian Arts Society (SAA) and Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts to display 20 Years of South Asian Arts: A Photographic Journey until Nov. 2. 

The free exhibit at the gallery celebrates 20 years of the SAA, which started in 2005, and a decade of the Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts, a multidisciplinary arts festival presented by the society. The SAA helps create performance and educational opportunities for the community and aims to foster spaces to preserve and re-imagine the culture through creative outlets. 

SAA Executive Director Gurpreet Sian, who is also a Kwantlen Polytechnic University language and cultures instructor, was approached by Surrey Art Gallery Assistant Curator Jas Lally, who had told him about a community space at the gallery that was open for an exhibit. 

“It was a perfect time to just look back at our history and look through some of our old photographs … and highlight some of the work we’ve done over the past 20 years, especially in Surrey,” he says. “It just aligned perfectly on its own.”

On Oct. 2, Sian will share his reflections and answer questions about the photographic exhibit at the gallery’s free Thursday Artist Talk Series. 

Photographs featured in the exhibit cover the themes of dance, music, and theatre practices that have flourished among the South Asian diaspora. Bhangra performances, Qawwali concerts, and sketch comedy pieces from the last 20 years are highlighted in the photographic exhibit.

After having discussions with Lally about what the SAA could display, such as paintings, textiles, or sculptures, Sian says the best way to depict the society’s story was through photographs.

While this was Sian’s first time curating an exhibit, he says he had help from Lally, who guided him along the process.  

Featured alongside the photos in the exhibit are cultural objects such as a dhol (drum), chimta (tongs), ghunghroos, which refer to musical anklets with bells that are worn by dancers, and other musical instruments and dance props. Traditional attire like lehengas are also at the exhibit. 

Some instruments and costumes displayed in the exhibit are also captured in photographs accompanying the objects.

“It’s always different when you see something physical as opposed to a picture of it,” Sian says, adding that the objects will also help give viewers a visual representation of the items included in the photographs.

Sian says while choosing the featured photographs for the last 20 years was challenging to narrow down, his main focus was including some key moments of historical significance from 2005 to 2024. 

“The main thought process was representing each of the years as best as we can,” he says. 

Originally focused on dance in Surrey, the exhibit expanded to include other topics such as music and theatre. 

“I’m very involved in dance. That’s how our organization started,” Sian says. “But from there, [the exhibit] just grew … beyond dance because South Asian Arts Society has presented a lot of South Asian theatre and we wanted to represent that history accurately as well.”

He hopes the exhibit can be an “eye-opener” and inspiration for people to learn about the rich ecosystem and history of South Asian arts in Surrey, Vancouver, and British Columbia more broadly.

The exhibit’s closing will be celebrated at the Fall Opening Art Party, an event that also marks the launch of the Surrey Art Gallery’s next exhibit, Kinesthesia, on Oct. 25 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. 

For more information about the exhibit, visit www.bit.ly/SurreyArtGallery.