The Singh Twins EnTWINed
A colourful and contemporary painting which looks at the impact of Indians on London’s history.
EnTWINEd is a commissioned response by the Singh Twins (Amrit and Rabindra Singh) to the Museum’s paintings by Henry Nelson O’Neil, Eastward Ho! and Home Again, acquired in 2004. These pictures are displayed in the Museum’s Galleries of Modern London.
O’Neil's canvases, painted in 1857 and 1858, show British soldiers embarking for the First Indian War of Independence and then disembarking after completing their tour of duty.
The Singh Twins have used this idea of disembarkation to develop an image which touches upon the experience of the Indian diaspora throughout the British Isles.
Among the figures disembarking from the ship are Mahatma Gandhi, Indian veterans of the two World Wars and the artists’ grandmother and father. The Twins appear at bottom right wearing the official Singh tartan.
Almost in the middle of the composition is the prominent suffragette, Princess Sophia Duleep Singh. The photograph from which this image derives, is in the Museum’s suffragette collection. The picture also draws parallels between the Indian War of Independence and the current War on Terror.
