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Book Planting

Jasleen Kaur and UP Projects

Yoghurt, biryani, memories and knowledge all pass through and get digested in your guts, particularly in an Asian household. In 2022, the artist Jasleen Kaur worked with a group of first second and third-generation South Asian women and gender-non-conforming people to revisit their local archive library in Rochdale. Together, they created artworks questioning what an archive is and whether the body can be regarded as one. We helped design the book, summarising all of their conversations and exchanges. The book was created to hold translations in Urdu as well as give a nod to nostalgic everyday Pakistani household items. In line with the theme of oral histories and natural means of archiving, we printed the book on seed paper. The book was later used as a prop for a performance and buried. There are no more physical traces of the book today, only the flowers it left behind.

Collaborators:

Jasleen Kaur

Lucy Shanahan

Plaintiff.press

Timeline:

September 2020 – October 2021

Holding the inside of the gut feelings mere Jaan book by Jasleen Kaur
Cover of the gut feelings meri jaan book by Jasleen Kaur
'Gut Feelings Meri Jaan' title graphic by Jasleen Kaur animated on a pink background
Jasleen Kaur's book made out of seed paper
Gut Feelings Meri Jaan stencil made for Jasleen Kaur's book project
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During our MA at the Royal College of Art, we interviewed Jasleen on her opinions of the art and design industry regarding decolonisation. A few years later she reached out to us to collaborate on this book.