From the Studios: Rajinder Singh and Áine Byrne 'The Headcoils of a Ban'

08 June — 10 July 2021

Sikh member of the Reserve is banned from wearing turban
- August 13, 2007 - Independent.ie

Badge of distinction: Meet the first Sikh in the Garda Reserves
- January 23, 2021 - The Irish Times

'Gardaí urged to ditch 'racist' turban ban'
- August 21, 2007 - Irish Examiner

'TURBAN VICTORY: Indian man waiting 12 ‘patient years’ to join Garda Reserves delighted he will soon be able wear turban in new role'
- October 10, 2019 - The Irish Sun

Temple Bar Gallery + Studios presents The Headcoils of a Ban, a project by artists Rajinder Singh and Áine Byrne, as part of From the Studios, an online series of work by our studio artists.

From the Studios features new and existing artwork, alongside opportunities for experimentation and testing ideas as online projects. We present a glimpse into artists’ studio practice through our website and social media platforms.

Rajinder Singh is a movement artist and a choreographer working from his studios in Dublin and London. Rajinder Singh’s paintings and installations as well as photography, video and performance work explore ideas around the vulnerable body and its pain, interrogating the economies of power that deny it space and shape. Often focused on the power of ritual action in the construction of the social body, his practice explores the ways the human body unfolds around various topographic and symbolic borders.

Rajinder Singh graduated with a PhD in Engineering (UK) in 1993 and a Master's in Fine Arts (Singapore) in 2010. He is presently the artist in residence at UCD and part of the migrant artist group Art Nomad. He teaches as a guest lecturer at both Maynooth University ( Geography) and UCD (Sociology). In 2019 Rajinder Singh was a recipient of the Artist-in-Community Award from Create Ireland and FireStation Studios and a followup 2nd round funding for a set of border area movement based workshops called ‘Ireland as Borderland’. His works are part of the Irish Museum of Modern Art national permanent collection. Rajinder Singh is the founder of the contemporary art review magazine Drenched Reviews. Rajinder Singh has a Project Studio at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios.

Áine Byrne is an Artist, Designer, and Lecturer working in Dublin. She received her MA in 2015 at the Royal College of Art, London and BA hons at NCAD in 2012.

Áine Byrne’s studio textile practice involves textile construction, film, costume and sculpture. She is interested in the mutability and memory of materials. Through her training as a weaver, her work investigates ritual, reappropriating and reforming of fabric, making connections between soft materials and the human condition.

Her work has been internationally exhibited at galleries including: Talking Textiles (curated by Lidewij Edelkoort & Philip Fimmano), New York, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. FashionClash Festival, Maastricht. M17 Gallery, Kiev. Hackney WickED, London. She was awarded the Texprint in 2015, Cosmique Global Residency, Delhi, India [2015/16] and the Textile Centre Residency, Blönduós, Iceland in [2018]. Recent exhibitions include: Open Submission Exhibition, Highlanes Gallery June 2020 and All in! Catalyst Arts, May 2020. Byrne has created and led workshops for The Barbican, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Somerset House, and Coal Drops Yard. She currently is a Textile Lecturer at NCAD.