Bharti Kher (b. 1969)

Acquired from Hauser & Wirth, New York, 2010

Z. Ardalan, Bharti Kher, Cornerhouse Publications, London, 2012, p. 67 illus. [detail on pp. 2-3 and 182-183]

in good condition, minor horizontal hairline crack running through the centre only visible on close inspection, some minor movement to a few of the bindis, as viewed
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Bharti Kher is a transcultural artist, drawing experiences from both her British and Indian roots. Her work engages with issues of migration, identity, femininity and sexuality.

Over the past few years Bharti Kher has appropriated the bindi in all its various shapes, colours and forms to create complex works that are visually mesmerizing, technically time consuming and conceptually multilayered. The term bindi is derived from bindu, the Sanskrit word for a dot or a point, sometimes considered the creative seed or womb of the universe. In India, it is traditionally a mark of pigment applied to the forehead associated with the Hindu symbol of the third eye. When worn by women in the customary colour of red, it is a symbol of marriage yet in recent times it has become a decorative item, worn by unmarried girls and women of any religion transformed into a fashion accessory. The morphing of the traditional significance of the bindi from a symbol full of latent religious meaning to a mass produced object that has become an increasingly global commodity, is relevant to Kher's work which appears to be informed by her experiences of having lived and worked in both the UK and India.

 "I think almost every single piece that I've ever made carries a degree of contradiction between the form and what it's saying, between beauty and terror or the macabre” (F. Taylor, The British-born artist who became one of India’s leading talents, http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/17/world/asia/bharti-kher-indian-artist/)

Similar to other panels, view from 6000 ft, resembles a satellite photograph in which the bindis function as demographic clusters. Calling attention to the identity of the migrant and the refugee and how invasion, occupation and conflict shape the boundaries of our contemporary world. '... in looking at them it is as though we were looking down at the intercourse of oceans and continents, tracing the wanderings of peoples and rivers, the slippage of seasons and the gradation of monsoon winds.'  (Ranjit Hoskote, The Pursuit of Extreme Propositions - Recent works by Bharti Kher, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York)