Hardeep Pandhal: the rapping artist who works with his mum.

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His cartoon creations unravelling identity and empire have made him a rising star. Now he’s going global – and taking Punjabi lessons so he can speak to his nearest and dearest.

Loose flow… Hardeep Pandhal, whose two-site Nottingham show is called Paranoid Picnic. Photograph: Dan Weill
▼ You can learn a lot about Hardeep Pandhal from the title of his new solo exhibition, Paranoid Picnic: The Phantom BAME.There’s the ever-present wordplay, the tense yet humorous relationship to race and identity, and even a reference to the Glasgow-based artist’s taste in video games ( Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is known for having an absurdist streak amid its violence).
Pandhal describes the show as “straddling” two Nottingham art venues: Primary – a repurposed school building that suits Pandhal’s DIY approach – and the more typical, white-walled New Art Exchange. That term could also apply to his work, which straddles the complexities  of identityas a British-Indian man. For Pandal, identity is rife with conflict, but also something he approaches with an acidic sense of humour, to poke holes in the tension.
On a new animation, Pandhal angrily appropriates a racial slur
His drawings and animations feature the recurring image of the sepoy– locally recruited soldiers in British-ruled colonial India – rendered as absurd caricatures in Pandhal’s psychedelic, half-melted hand-drawn style. On a new animation that gives the exhibition its title, Pandhal repeatedly raps the phrase “Paki visionary”, angrily appropriating the racial slur in a moment of self-aggrandisement. It’s the sort of ego we might expect to hear from any number of mainstream rappers, but one that’s also self-aware and critical. He knows that, as an artist of Indian heritage, he’s likely to be labelled in certain ways that white artists would not be, and that his work will be expected to hold the special “cultural signifi-cunts” he alludes to in his rap.
Art rap … watch an excerpt from Hardeep Pandhal’s video Pool Party Pilot Episode, 2018
Rapping has increasingly become an outlet for Pandhal, whose loose flow hangs over his work, giving a window into his way of thinking. “It’s economical and it’s fun,” states the artist.
2018 was undoubtedly a big year for Pandhal. He was nominated for the Film London Jarman  award, and included in  (▪ ▪ ▪)

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