Roundtable
Art, Artefacts & Antiques
The Roundtable Open Forum XXII: March 31 - April 6
EDITOR
The Rules of the forum are posted here on the right, and need to be followed strictly by all participants.
The following is this week's (March 31 - April 6) topic for discussion, which should focus on the questions posed therein:
ART, ARTEFACTS & ANTIQUES
1 We in the worldwide Sikh community are experiencing a renaissance in the area of producing or collecting, identifying and cataloguing, studying and interpreting Sikh art, artefacts and antiques.
2 Our rich heritage has, until recently, been largely ignored or neglected - largely because we left it to Indians and Indologists to do what they were supposed to do, but did not. A far older, richer and more vibrant art and heritage scene of Punjab and the Sikhs has been systematically overlooked in favour of dubious and trivial areas and the whole mish-mash thrown together under the questionable rubrics of Indian and Hindu culture.
3 Recent works by scholars, academics, collectors and enthusiasts have begun the correction and a large body of work is now emerging around distinct Sikh and Punjabi art forms and culture. We are now quickly discovering - surprise! - that Punjabis not only constitute one of the earliest great civilizations in the history of man; not only is Punjabi one of the oldest languages which is still alive and flourishing; not only do Punjabis rule the roost on the subcontinent in sports, entrepreneurship, soldiering, human rights, entertainment, education, the corporate scene, agriculture ... but also in CULTURE!
4 This revival has given rise to an interesting spill-over: it has created a legion of collectors of things Sikh - art, artefacts, antiques ... As a direct result, prices of these items have gone sky-high and investment in things Sikh easily into the blue-chip category.
5 Suddenly, Sikh items are finding their way into, and being given pride-of-place in Sikh homes and décor. Our children are now, from birth, being exposed to our own history, traditions, stories, legends, myths, literature and so on.
6 And, artists in every genre are not only turning to Sikh subjects but also making a decent living in delving into them.
QUESTIONS TO PONDER
- What do you make of this trend?
- Do you have Sikh art, artefacts and/or antiques displayed at home or your work-space? How and when did you acquire them? Why?
- Are your children, relatives, friends affected by them in any way?
- Have you noticed any difference in your own collection habits or those of others around you, in recent years and decades? If yes, what is the difference, and what do you attribute it to?
- Do you see any benefit in owning, collecting and/or displaying these things in your personal environs? What are those benefits? Any drawbacks?
- What advice would you give to anyone starting out on this journey?
- What are the types of things you own?
- Have you visited any of the Sikh exhibitions and/or galleries that have appeared in the large population centres in recent years and decades in U.K., Canada, U.S.A., Australia, South-east Asia, as well as in India and other parts of the world? Which ones? What did you think of them?
[If you are hesitant to describe what you have, for security reasons, we can simply post your initials on the comment, and merely give the country where you live as an address - a practice which we normally avoid otherwise.]
Conversation about this article
1: Gurjender Singh (Maryland, U.S.A.), March 31, 2010, 9:02 AM.
Art and Sikh history should be maintained at all cost. This is as important as Sikh values and fighting for human rights, because if we do not maintain Sikh art or history, the present will be gone with our memories and life. I have the following comments: 1) No one can or should rely on collections in India. I have seen the Sikh History Museum at Darbar Shiab, Amritsar, Punjab, India, before and after 1984. Now, after the plunder by the Indians in 1984, it only contains a few picture frames and all the Sikh history is destroyed. In India, it is easy to destroy anything by mobs or by artificially set fires, etc. 2) A few years ago, Sikhs collectively opened a Sikh exhibition at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C for 5 years. But I heard that to make it permanent, Sikhs could not come up with the money needed. That was a good and secure place to see Sikh art and history. 3) If Sikhs spent less money on fighting in courts for gurdwara management positions, that money can be used for this purpose at a secure place outside India. 4) Do not make more gurdwars merely because you have a dispute with the current management: it drains out all the money which we can use for preserving arts and history. 5) Hospitals run by Sikhs ... to maintain art and history, as it is done by Christian and Jewish institutions in the U.S. Otherwise, after some years, Sikhs will be living in a world where their history has been written only by their enemies and detractors.
2: Jiwand Singh (Michigan, U.S.A.), March 31, 2010, 11:54 AM.
I believe there is a phenomenal amount of Sikh art, artefacts and antiques in the hands of a legion of private collectors in North America alone. It is about time we started the process of establishing full-fledged Sikh museums, galleries and exhibits in all major population centers here. The toughest part is already taken care of - the collectibles! They could be loaned by the collectors to these institutions on a rotating basis. And, instead of paying exorbitant sums to increasingly greedy mainstream museums and galleries to entice them into giving us a bit of space, we should use the money strategically to acquire properties to house and display these items. Also, we should be getting our fair share of government and foundation grants to facilitate such projects, instead of helping Indians to get all the money so that they can keep on building the facade of what is nothing but a mediocre culture.
3: Sandeep Singh Brar (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), March 31, 2010, 12:45 PM.
It's time to tell our own stories and preserve our own history and cultural heritage rather than always relying on others to do it or keep on blaming others for its loss. That's the premise that I have worked on passionately for the last 10 years in research and documentation of art and artefacts in various private collections around the world. The object of this exercise has been to create a permanent digital archive and to tell our stories and that is now becoming a reality at SikhMuseum.com with every new exhibit that is launched and being worked on as we speak. Collecting Sikh artefacts and art is great, but what good does it do to inspire our younger generations if these items remain hidden and locked away in private collections? Over the years I've had the pleasure to work with many wonderful and kind Sikh collectors around the world who have allowed me access to their private collections to research, document and photograph the items and interpret these items in collective themed exhibits, telling their stories in an engaging way online. SikhMuseum.com provides a win-win scenario for everyone. The collectors get to keep and enjoy their priceless and fragile items in their own private collections while sharing them with everyone around the world either with credit, or anonymously, if they prefer so. Unlike a physical museum which can cost millions to build and run and only has a limited reach in terms of where it is located geographically and who can view the items, the Internet allows SikhMuseum.com to have a global reach, open 24 hours, every day of the year, without all of the complexities of loaning and acquiring items. Rather than only having objects or art on display for a limited time before they are returned to their owners or the exhibit eventually closes - as the wonderful Smithsonian or Rubin Museum exhibits did - the exhibits at SikhMuseum.com are designed to far outlive all of us and provide a permanent 'Virtual Museum' that is a cultural repository, a heritage archive, an educational resource and hopefully an inspiration to younger generations and those yet to come. Our future is defined by how good we feel about ourselves as Sikhs and that can only happen if we feel proud of our cultural heritage. Why is it that growing up I learned more about Ancient Egyptian art, Chinese art, Greek and Roman culture, than about my own Sikh cultural heritage? The tremendous growing interest in collecting Sikh art and artefacts today, shows that the issue is not a lack of interest - there is a tremendous interest. The problem has been a lack of accessibility to items which are dispersed around the world in thousands of collections big and small and finding the time to research the many stories that these wonderful objects have to tell. SikhMuseum.com is focused on telling those stories and doing the often tedious and time-consuming research work and working with collectors around the world who have that same vision and realize the long-term importance of keeping that spark of enthusiasm, discovery and pride in our identity and rich cultural heritage alive and accessible.
4: Parveen Kaur (Brampton, Ontario, Canada), March 31, 2010, 6:15 PM.
Sandeep Singh, I have been following your work since the inception of your website, Sikhs.org. Excellent work, a true pioneer in unveiling, documenting and exhibiting Sikh artefacts. How about developing a series of lectures for children in the public school system about Sikh history, going into individual classrooms as a guest speaker. I think you will find tremendous support for this.
5: Ranbir Singh (Ludhiana, Punjab), April 16, 2011, 1:44 PM.
I have some items - philatelic, printed old paper, books, coins, etc.