Re-Rooted

Saturday 18 Oct 2025 - Thursday 20 Nov 2025

18 October – 20 November
An exhibition by Suman Gujral
Partition Museum, Amritsar, India

As part of our project, After the Partition we are taking the work of Essex based artist Suman Gujral to the Partition Museum in Amritsar.

At the centre of Suman’s practice is the exploration of Indian history, in particular Partition when India was divided and many communities displaced; she explores the effect this had on her own family, and more broadly on India itself. She is interested in how the cycle of displacement and division of families is still happening today in places all around the world.

Suman Gujral emigrated to the UK in 1965, aged 3, only 18 years after the 1947 Partition of India, imposed by Colonialism, had permanently displaced her parents. As an immigrant and descendant of refugees, stories about dislocation, and loss resonate with her. Through conversations with her mother, Trilochan Kaur, she has come to understand the intergenerational impact of Partition. Her practice explores the parallels between what happened to her family, the continuing cycle of war and forcible displacement and climate change we are caught up in, how we survive and remake ourselves after traumatic events and can stay connected to our heritage through art and poetry. She is interested in how we pass on and receive stories about family history, how objects carry memories and thus women are often the caretakers of family histories.

Suman is a multidisciplinary artist based at Parndon Mill in Harlow, Essex, who works with print, stitch, bookmaking and poetry, to explore identity, culture and belonging. In 2024, she founded Third Space, a platform for South Asian voices. She is literary lead for the South Asian Heritage Trust. Suman has shown work and given poetry readings at internationally renowned institutions- the Royal Albert Hall, the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Whitworth, Tara Arts, UAL, Warwick Arts, The Horniman, Coventry Cathedral and South Asia Gallery in Manchester amongst others.

Works in the Exhibition

In many of the works in Re-Rooted, Suman has drawn inspiration from paraphernalia given to her by her mother, Trilochan Kaur, who died in 2024.

Fractured Earth by Suman Gujral

The suite of etchings are based on episodes in Suman’s life. Etching is an important part of Suman’s practice – it echoes how life leaves its traces: the acid creating intentional and accidental marks on the plate as events, personal and political, do on us and our planet.

The exhibition also includes embroideries the artist’s mother sewed with her in their new home in Ambala. Trilochan Kaur was very proud of this work which she made as a 13-year-old, sitting and talking to Bibji. They speak of the importance of craft in holding on to our heritage and culture and how important it is to preserve traditions.

Suman is donating her work Daag to the Partition Museum in the name of her mother, Trilochan Kaur Gujral and father, Surindar Singh Gujral. This work is about the damage done to India by Partition, which led to the largest mass migration in history. Millions of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims were forcibly displaced, never to return again to their homes. The artist uses book thread to reference she telling a story. The textured Himalayan paper recalls the arid landscapes that the displaced had to cross. The red knots are to remember but also recall sutures, which are used to heal scars. The knots are running like a river because it is often said that the rivers flowed with blood as people fled.