An Absence of Assignable Cause

Magnificent abstract designs created by bindis swirl together to form the extraordinary textured surfaces of Bherti Kher's An Absence of Assignable Cause (2007). A frontrunner of Indian contemporary art, Kher is internationally acclaimed for her decorative use of the bindi, the traditional Indian representation of the third-eye. In an exhibition assuming the same title as the present lot, Kher's signature material is explained: "Kher plays on the role of the bindi in contemporary art. Mass-produced stick-on bindis are the low-brow versions of the Bindu (with a capital B), a conceptually loaded aesthetic and spatial device, valorized and self-Orientalized by modern Indian artists and architects. Kher's use of pedestrian bindis is an intellectual and cultural inversion of the mythology of the modern Bindu. By repeating the bindi endlessly and using it in subversive ways to cover surfaces that range from rexine (imitation-leather) carpets and broken cups to fiberglass animals and hybrids Kher pokes fun at the transcendent potential of the hallowed Bindu." (K.K. Agrawal, The In-Between Worlds of Bharti Kher, An Absence of Assignable Cause, exh. cat., Jack Shainman Gallery, New York and Nature Morte, New Delhi, 2007.)

Accentuating the undulating curves of the two-chambered heart, veins, and arteries of the blue-sperm whale, the bindis swirl together to create a marvelous surface simultaneously reminiscent of both cloth and membrane. A recurring theme in Kher's work, animals serve as a metaphor for the body and transformation. Described as "a hunt for the chimera," Kher, unable to find sufficient scientific documentation of the anatomy of the blue-sperm whale, invented the appearance of the colossal mammal's heart based on loose sketches. Absence of Assignable Cause at once prompts nautical fantasies while reminding us of the proximate threat of extinction. A negotiation between old India and the present, Kher's totemic sculpture embellishes allegories that simultaneously belong to a distinctly Indian tradition whilst being undeniably new.