Nicola Singh

Our current exhibition Sincere Seeker by Nicola Singh @nicolasingh continues throughout October. Exhibition run: 5 Sept - 25 Oct Open: Wed - Fri 12 - 6 Sat 12 - 5 Sincere Seeker is a new exhibition comprising sculpture, sound, and performance by British-Punjabi artist @nicolasingh Nicola Singh. In this solo presentation at Cubitt, the gallery becomes home to three monkey statues, cast from a soft-toy monkey that belonged to her Dad. The manifold meanings of these monkeys include; their familial significance to Singh; the mantra of the three wise monkeys (See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil); the concept of the ‘monkey mind’, an East Asian metaphor for a restless thinker, seeking meaning and interconnectedness through wandering thoughts; and as vessels for sound and the somatic science of the Sanskrit alphabet. The sound of entirely improvised vocalisations, inspired from a myriad of practices, play from inside each monkey. Influences come from Singh’s recent training in Dhrupad, a North Indian classical music tradition; her experience with Pranayama and in therapeutic vocal practices, as well as experiments with Sanskrit syllables and mantras from ancient Vedic texts, the sounds of monkeys both real and imagined, and samples from the single Denial Is a River by Doechii and Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Natural Mystic. The sounds and images present in this newly-commissioned body of work rely on repetition, a device used in many vocal traditions to bring the practitioner to a transcendental state. In Sincere Seeker, these mantric-like repetitive cycles move between states of meditation, play and agitation, complicating a singular narrative for engaging with Singh’s expansive practices. Singh’s vocals imbue the hollow monkeys with traces of esoteric ritual, vocalised gibberish, and hints of every emotional pain. The monkeys sit stunned–cute, abject, lost little gods. This is the concluding exhibition of Cubitt’s 2023–25 Curatorial Fellowship, Feeling Still in a World Which Runs, curated by Seán Elder. @seanelderw Photo: Kadeem Oak

Gobsmacked to have been awarded the Adrian Piper Research Archive Multidisciplinary Fellowship 2025-2026. Pipers work cracked my consciousness way back when. It’s sublime. I’ve been all eyeballs since. Seeing stars. I will begin the fellowship in September and develop my research over a year. The aims of fellowship is… “to promote research on the conception, constitution and structure of the self, with the educational goals of (i) increasing knowledge and public awareness of individual and societal strategies for surviving and flourishing in a global environment; and (ii) discovering, identifying and promoting the cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural flexibility through which these strategies are expressed.” Pretty dreamy huh. Broadly my practice-led research looks at comparative conceptions of the(my) self in Vedic and Western philosophy. My flow below comment if wanna. /edinburgh/M-DFellow_2025.shtml #adrianpiper #adrianpiperresearcharchivefoundationberlin Lovely photo thank you by @gautam.pemmaraju

I made a Kecak pilgrimage. Totally obsessed with this vocal ritual performance - originating 1930s, it tells the story of Hindu epic Ramayana. Kecak evolved from ancient Balinese sanghyang trance ritual, where chants were used to invite spirits for healing or protection. And later evolved into this theatrical performance. It knocked my socks off. First videos Uluwatu. Second Ubud. On-on-ongoing research into ritual vocal practices and the symbolic, spiritual and sonic significance of monkeyysssss in different devotional and religious traditions.

Stills from ‘Cosmic Dancer’ (2026), commissioned by pp+a performance, possession and automation - a collaborative research project led by Nicholas Ridout, Dhanveer Singh Brar and Orlagh Woods. See previous post for infos.

Snippet - film commission from performance, possession + automation (pp+a). An ongoing, in-progress project with teacher of dance and meditation Mikael Spector. Info and link to full film below. *** Cosmic Dancer shows Singh and Spector engaged in the practice of Mudrasana. Developed by Spector, the practice integrates the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo (Indian philosopher and revolutionary nationalist) and Mirra Alfassa ‘The Mother’ (French spiritual teacher) alongside Merkabah mysticism and Toltec shamanism. Using gesture, posture, movement, and breath to work with the five elements—space, air, fire, water, and earth—Spector describes Mudrasana as cultivating a “unity of Consciousness, Energy, and Substance”. Filmed inside a circular earthen building in Auroville (near Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu, India), the work situates Singh’s practice in a location shaped by its founder Sri Aurobindo’s vision of spiritual transformation as anti-colonial liberation. Archival footage from Bikaner, Rajasthan, shows a performer balancing a bullock-cart wheel—a ritual associated with Devi- or Shakti-oriented traditions—evoking endurance, devotion, and virtuosity. This connects with the symbol of Auroville, a petalled wheel designed under The Mother’s guidance. The wheel symbolizes consciousness in motion, with each petal representing a distinct “soul-quality. For the Cosmic Dancer film, Singh draws on her extended practice, in which esoteric devotional traditions become sites of contemporary artistic engagement. She explores the interconnectedness of Mudrasana, the devotional balancing act, and the spinning wheel, each carrying an absorbing, attuning quality and positions this embodied attention as a site for reflecting on the entanglement of colonial histories with the contemporary wellness economy. Camera — Srimukunda Bandreddi, Udit Datta and Ramyak Samantaray. Editors — Helen Collard, Rohit Ghansham. Music licensed from Echo Season, Synphaera. Archival film licensed from Wilderness Films Ltd. Thank you to Mikael Spector, Nathan Shor Holland and Gautam Pemmaraju. possessionautomation.co.uk/nicola-singh/ @udit_datta_ @aitch_collardo @gautam.pemmaraju

Finished my integral sound studies shoe shuffle. Led by life... I focused my research around therapeutic voice and breath work for full spectrum reproductive experiences - abortion, miscarraige, labour and postpartum. Consolidated some things, and very much feels like the beginnings. Different approaches informed from Yogic Sciences, applications of the Sankskrit alphabet, contemporary art performance practices and improvisations. Also b-b-b-babbling. The research is evolving in my artistic work, and as I bob and weave the wellness.

imma valentines baby. grateful for lovely times. birth day sandwich. fun rolls with @udit_datta_ and some sweet deep silence reading in Coorg thick nature. obvs got the total hots for ZD and late to @bighedva ‘How To Tell When We Will Die’ party which turned me upside down and tipped me out 🙏🏽.

Lightship. This most beautiful gift made by @udit_datta_ ‘s levitations. Mashallah.

snip snaps pp+a day @fiercefestival lil vocal improv - ‘Singh explores a range of vocal samples and vocal techniques from pop culture, ‘sound healing’, and film sound effects that resonate with her understanding of surrender - including the descending vocal slides from Alicia Key’s song ‘Fallin’, vowel sounds from ‘vocal/chakra toning’ exercises, the sighing vocal technique ‘the vocal fall off’, patter from waltzer ride MC’s and the sad trombone sound effect #wah-wah-wah Film stills Rachel Bunce

Feeding face. Back in India, Auroville adjacent for the next couple of months - teaching yoga asana, pranayama and vocal toning at centres Pitanga and Vèritè. Shouts out local pals. Also completing a bunch for research into therapeutic vocal practices with some sway from Svaram Integral Sound Institute. Anddd getting into first chunk of research for my Adrian Piper Multidisciplinary Research Fellowship. Gonna be more monkeying around. Yes my circus. Yes my monkeys. Nice pic thanks @gautam.pemmaraju .

Snappy by @fideosfritos ✨. Mid performance last week @cubitt_gallery for my show ‘Sincere Seeker’. Here I am in the glow of a still from @aliasyed2025 stunning film ‘Eating Grass.’ We gathered to share work on devotion and faith. For my perf I improvised along to the monkeys in the show, expanding and contracting the original audio installation. Strapped myself in and really enjoyed the ride. Watching closed eyes beatific faces of friends absorbed in listening. Making fun. Whipping up. Honestly absorbing. Thanks lots n lots to everyone that joined us. & biggest thanks to @_jasleen.kaur_ for sharing a powerful many-voiced reading and to @aliasyed2025 for that shimmering film. To @seanelderw for their contribution, inviting in the words of Simone Weil and for their beautiful curation of the eve. The shows down now but the audio installation can be heard in full at the end of show @seanelderw and I did for @cubittcommunityradio . Ok. Bye.

Upcoming event! Screening and Readings with Jasleen Kaur, Nicola Singh, and Alia Syed Cubitt | Tuesday 21 October 1900 – 2100h This event brings together words, moving images, and sounds by three artists whose work has, at particular times in their practices, engaged with devotion, states of transcendence, and collective power. Booking required (link in bio) This event will bring together; Jasleen Kaur, who will present a reading of existing text pieces, Nicola Singh, who will elaborate on her sound-work present in our current exhibition, Sincere Seeker, and Alia Syed, whose film ‘Eating Grass’ (2003) will be screened. This moving image work moves through emotional and bodily states marked by the five Muslim prayers, and the title references Pakistan’s Prime Minister. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, when, in 1974 amid the nuclear arms race with India, he said his people would have their own nuclear weapon even if it meant ‘eating grass.’ Tea and light refreshments provided, free but booking essential. @_jasleen.kaur_ @nicolasingh @aliasyed2025