To celebrate the release of Beautiful Zameen, PS Guelph is holding two book launches with the artist, authors, and designer in attendance!

The collection Beautiful Zameen presents short essays, poetry, and a letter nestled between full-colour prints of Jagdeep Raina’s gorgeous embroidery works. Raina’s art series of the same name is inspired by research into India’s Green Revolution — a U.S. sponsored agricultural initiative whose effects are still being felt 80 years after its inception. Raina’s works depict farmers and their families, flora and fauna, and hands that hold crops and photographs, fusing his research with an ancestral material practice. He treats his subjects with care and commemoration, drawing attention to the everyday lived experiences and losses related to the Green Revolution, which was also the catalyst to an exodus of migrants to North America and the United Kingdom. With illuminating essays by Satinder Kaur Chohan and Jhani Randhawa, and poetry by both Randhawa and Raina, this book serves as documentation of Raina’s intricate textile works, and an exploration of the complex histories that have informed many artists’ interest in the Green Revolution archives.

Join Jagdeep Raina, Jhani Randhawa, Steph Yates, and Curtis Walker as they discuss the artwork and the book, and watch a rare screening of the short film Punjab: Land of the Five Drying Rivers by Sirjaut Kaur Dhariwal: