(KP)
A Photographic Exhibition by Bhai Gurmit Singh Virdee
Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha (GNNSJ)
Saturday 14 May 2005 to Thursday 16 June 2005
Picture House announces a photographic exhibition by Bhai Gurmit Singh Virdee, a resident of Leicester for 22 years. Sadly, his untimely death on April 2005 means that he will not now be here to present his works. The exhibition is a tribute to his excellence in photography.
We are honoured to continue this exciting exhibition on his behalf through the help of Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha (UK), friends and family. ‘Labour of Love’ is Gurmit Singh’s second exhibition at the Picture House - the first being ‘Images of Punjab.’
Since retiring, Gurmit Singh has devoted himself to the service of the Sikh faith, teaching music and photography. This exhibition shows photographs of hundreds of thousands of Sikh devotees manually removing silt from the sacred pool surrounding their holiest shrine, the Darbar Sahib or Golden Temple in Amritsar. The silt removal, which took place on March 25th 2004, was part of an
officially organised Kar Sewa, the selfless voluntary service carried out with one’s own hands – one of the key tenants of the Sikh faith. The first official Kar Sewa took place in 1923 and the next one was in 1973.
The sludge removal prepared the way for a new filtration system that removes silt from the stream as it flows into the pool. Deposits regularly reduced the quality of water in the pool which Sikh’s use for bathing. The cost of the filtration system was borne by the Tut brothers – a Sikh family from California.
Contractors estimated that cleaning the pool would take seven days. But without any mechanical equipment, men, women and children removed the sludge within ONE day! In the days that followed March 25th, an estimated three million Sikhs, many from abroad, arrived in Amritsar hoping to take part in this historic event.
Aside from the photographs from Amritsar, the exhibition also presents some of Gurmit Singh’s photographs of the Ajanta caves where Hindu, Buddhist and Jain sculptures are hewn out of bare rock, as well as wildlife photographs from India and Kenya.
Gurmit Singh always kept up-to-date with the latest technology. This exhibition presents his prints made from negatives, transparencies and digital files from his latest cameras – Bronica, Nikon D100 and his much loved Canon G5.
For further information contact Diane on 0116 255 5282 or email photo@pichouse.demon.co.uk
