Kulpreet Singh’s Installation Opens In Kochi Biennale 2025–26

Patiala based artist Kulpreet Singh’s installations will be on display at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2025–26 from 12 Dec. Sounding more like a farmer than an artist, he says, ‘My installations are an art of urgency’. His installations are an urgent reminder of the perils of the Green Revolution in Panjab drawing attention to the soil, grain, and the producer. One of his recent works, Green Revolution features acrylic paint drawings on rice paper sandwiched with stubble ash, dipped in pesticides, and subjected to laser. The complex narrative, centered on the steady erosion of the earth’s biodiversity, is led by a cluster of 1K small panels bearing diagrammatic sketches of extinct reptiles, birds, insects, fungi, and plants. This outpouring of angst is crowned by two years of keen research and study of the conservation status data put up by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species. ‘Even as we scream for our human rights, there are many species on earth that are slipping away quietly, unnoticed,’ he points out. ‘We are all interconnected, and I wish we realize sooner how deeply,’ he adds. His major series called Indelible Black Marks draws attention to wounds not just of the body but of the mind. The work  has evolved as a multi media narrative with production quality matching that of a feature film. In Indelible Marks III, he turned a paddy stubble field into a mirror of a farmer’s misfortune and loss. The loss is not just financial and emotional but also the loss being denied a place in narrative. ‘A farmer is left with no choice but to burn the stubble,’ he says. ‘And that screams failure of a system that does not support our food producers’, he adds. Whether his installations at Singhu and Tikri border during the Farmers Protest 1.0 (2020-21) or his take on the power play during the COVID pandemic, his installations are hard hitting and echo the pain of the marginalized. Kulpreet Singh is also the recipient of the 2026 Asia Arts Award.