Subverting Via Surrealism with Sequoia Danielle Barnes & Hardeep Pandhal

RRS: Subverting Via Surrealism with Sequoia Danielle Barnes & Hardeep Pandhal
6 - 7pm Thursday 30th April 2026
Reid Lecture Theatre
Free but ticketed - Book via Eventbrite

Join Sequoia Danielle Barnes and Hardeep Pandhal to explore the intersections of surrealism and storytelling - from the familiar to the unfamiliar.

Barnes and Pandhal’s respective practices see them create and re-create narratives, inviting audiences to witness multiple transformations of meaning. Throughout, we’ll unpack the artists’ use of mainstream culture - both contemporary and historical - to challenge racial hierarchies and discuss how playful semiotics subvert colonial conceptions.

Sequoia Danielle Barnes is an African-American artist and theorist living and working in Edinburgh since 2017. Using ceramic sculpture, quilting, stitching/embroidery, soft sculpture, and illustration, Barnes’ practice engages in the semiotic and material deconstruction of black representation. Her practice invites scrutiny of racist stereotyping. Her work problematizes the intersections of cuteness, oppression, grotesqueness, and exposes the insidious weaving of anti-blackness into the fabric of visual culture and nostalgia. Through a blend of afro-surrealism, materiality, and narrative, her work serves as a reminder of the uncomfortable truths that cuteness cannot completely mask.

Hardeep Pandhal’s work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including: Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham (2025-26); Drawing Room, London (2025); British Art Show 9 (2021-22); Goldsmiths Centre of Contemporary Art (2020); Tramway, Glasgow (2020); Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (2019); South London Gallery, London (2018); New Museum, New York (2018); Modern Art Oxford, Oxford (2016). Pandhal’s work is also part of several prestigious public collections, including Arts Council Collection, UK; British Council Collection, UK; Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow; The New Art Gallery Walsall, UK. Pandhal received the Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists (2021) and was shortlisted for the Jarman Award (2018).

This event is part of the Race, Rights & Sovereignty ‘States of Matter’ strand. ‘States of Matter’ is a programme strand which considers interactions between art and statehood, asking how practitioners shift our present states of living. Race, Rights and Sovereignty is a programme supported by the GSA Students Association in partnership with GSA Exhibitions.

Image: Hardeep Pandhal - A Familial Romance (left) / Sequoia Danielle Barnes - Tumble Twins #3 and #1 (right). Courtesy of the artists.

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