Kulpreet Singh's 'Indelible Black Marks' at Hayward Gallery Examines Farmer Protests
Kulpreet Singh's show, 'Indelible Black Marks,' is on display at HENI Project Space, Hayward Gallery, London, from 16 June to 2 August. The exhibition includes an eight-minute film titled 'Indelible Black Marks' (2022–24), screened in a room furnished with hay bales, alongside 'Painting 7' (2025), a black monochrome pentaptych. The film features a haunting soundtrack that implies violence and was first shared on social media amid the farmer protests in India against the proposed 'Farm Acts,' in which Singh was involved. It portrays men dragging soiled canvas strips across scorched fields, symbolizing the farmers who perished during the protests. The exhibition's themes evolve from specific conflicts to a more abstract connection with land, alluding to devastating wildfires in Europe. A review appears in the September 2026 issue of ArtReview.
Key facts
- Kulpreet Singh's exhibition 'Indelible Black Marks' is at HENI Project Space, Hayward Gallery, London, from 16 June to 2 August.
- The show includes an eight-minute film 'Indelible Black Marks' (2022–24) and a black monochrome pentaptych 'Painting 7' (2025).
- The film was originally released in clips on social media to accompany farmer revolts in India against the proposed 'Farm Acts'.
- Singh is also a farmer and participated in the protests along with some performers.
- The gallery installation features hay-covered benches and straw-padded walls, creating a 'Marie Antoinette-style farmer cosplay' atmosphere.
- The film depicts men running across burning fields with white canvas strips, later stretched as if to bandage the earth, with drawings of a gun, wolf, tree, and bird.
- The opening drone shot shows crop rows set ablaze, explained as 'the ritual of stubble burning' adopted during India's Green Revolution in the 1960s.
- The exhibition is reviewed in the September 2026 issue of ArtReview.
Entities
Artists
- Kulpreet Singh
Institutions
- HENI Project Space
- Hayward Gallery
- Southbank Centre
- Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke
- ArtReview
- Kochi-Muziris Biennale
- RC Foundation
Locations
- London
- United Kingdom
- India
- Mumbai
- Europe
- Kochi