Karanjit Panesar: Parts of Wholes

Workplace Foundation is delighted to present our next solo exhibition Parts of Wholes by Leeds based artist Karanjit Panesar. The exhibition comprises film, sculpture, drawing and CG animation concerning ideas of artifice, constructed truth and an interest in the potential of the ‘behind the scenes’ space.

The exhibition is focused on Panesar’s recent film Actor, Container, which uses a narrative device called a ‘strange loop’. ‘Strange loops’ are structures, either narrative or philosophical, that lead the viewer through nested ontological levels, eventually arriving at the starting point. In fiction these loops are often found in stories of time travel and the supernatural, and typically result in narrative paradoxes. Actor, Container explores such a paradox through an endlessly looping format in which the duration of the film is simultaneously negated and stretched to infinity.

Alongside the film are drawings, sculpture and a 3D render that all imply a sense of continuation beyond the frame. The exhibition’s title Parts of Wholes references this sense of continuation and alludes to the mechanics of presentation. Notions such as ‘on’ and ‘off’, or ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ imply a partial view, suggesting a whole that is incomprehensible in its entirety. Through interrogation of these mechanisms, Panesar’s work investigates our relationship to larger complex political and economic realities.

Drawing upon philosophical theories, Parts of Wholes is an exploration into ideas of authenticity and agency subject to capitalism, and the relationship between memory, fiction and reality.

Karanjit Panesar is a multimedia artist based in Leeds. He is Co-Founder & Co-Director of East Bristol Contemporary, a member of Serf, Leeds and graduated from UWE Bristol in Art and Visual Culture. Panesar has exhibited nationally including: Actor, Container, Two Queens, Leicester; Strange Loop, Turf Projects, Croydon; and THE WAY THINGS ARE, arebyte Gallery, London. Upcoming projects include: eXRe Commission, Aspex Gallery Portsmouth in association with CCIXR University of Portsmouth.