Growing up queer, British and Punjabi in Birmingham in the 1970s and 1980s, I often felt I was moving back and forth between different worlds. At home there was my Punjabi family and culture. Outside, I was surrounded by a different idea of what being British meant and at the same time, I was discovering my queerness and knew that this knowing of being different was something I needed to hide, to survive. After spending so much of my life feeling that parts of myself needed to be hidden, making work in response to trauma, love, intimacy, visibility and joy, through drawing, text, video, live performance art, creative writing and spoken word, feels healing for me.
My practice explores the tensions between the private and public, particularly the complexities of sharing experiences shaped by relationships with others. I am interested in what happens when intimate experiences become public, and the questions this raises about memory, vulnerability, ownership and the boundaries between self-expression and the privacy of others. Through my work, I seek to create opportunities for connection and recognition, inviting audiences to encounter experiences that may resonate with their own. I hope these encounters can help people feel less isolated, othered or marginalised.
Dan Auluk (b. 1970, Birmingham, UK) is a British-South Asian artist born, living and working in Birmingham. He graduated with an MA in Fine Art from The School Of Art, Birmingham City University, in 2014. He has worked in health and wellbeing for LGBTQ+ people and communities for over 25 years, since 2000.; facilitating groups, training sessions and one-to-one wellbeing support work for charities, NHS and Universities.