Lot Essay
Bharti Kher was born in England in 1969, immigrating to New Delhi in the early 1990s. As an expatriate, she examines Indian culture from the 'outside looking in,' commenting on class and everyday life. Arriving at the cusp of the explosive globalisation of India's economy in the 1990s, she also wryly comments on the attachment of new meanings and functions to Indian iconography in the global scene.
Kher began working with bindis in 1995 after what she has described as a 'supernova' moment of revelation. She recontextualises such mundane yet culturally-charged objects as the bindi, a dot commonly worn on the forehead by Indian women. Associated with marital rites, religious and cultural practice, the bindi has historically been in liquid pigment form, and applied to the forehead either by brush or hand.
In recent decades it has been converted to a sticker form, which is mass produced and consumed the world over, garnering new layers of meaning as an exotic or Indianising fashion accessory. By appropriating this image for the creation of an artwork, Kher comments on the mechanisation and commercialisation of an item once viewed as deeply traditional. She destabilises contemporary equations of hand-made with 'traditional' and mass produced with 'modern'.
Peacock takes its name after the flamboyant beautiful bird, and is itself a raucous riot of colour. Kher creates a paradox through creating this holistic image from a multiplicity of bindis, a symbol of tradition, modesty and spirituality. In projecting the bindi on such a brightly articulated and elaborate scale, Kher poses the questions of identity, gender and race within the globalising environment. She gently subverts the bindis original associations, deconstructing their religious context and creating an abstract work of aesthetic beauty. At the same time she offers the viewer a moment of almost spiritual contemplation and meditative peace.
Kher has been widely exhibited internationally and in 2014 was the subject of a major solo exhibition at Shanghai’s Rockbund Art Museum and recently has shown at Hauser & Wirth, Zürich.
Kher began working with bindis in 1995 after what she has described as a 'supernova' moment of revelation. She recontextualises such mundane yet culturally-charged objects as the bindi, a dot commonly worn on the forehead by Indian women. Associated with marital rites, religious and cultural practice, the bindi has historically been in liquid pigment form, and applied to the forehead either by brush or hand.
In recent decades it has been converted to a sticker form, which is mass produced and consumed the world over, garnering new layers of meaning as an exotic or Indianising fashion accessory. By appropriating this image for the creation of an artwork, Kher comments on the mechanisation and commercialisation of an item once viewed as deeply traditional. She destabilises contemporary equations of hand-made with 'traditional' and mass produced with 'modern'.
Peacock takes its name after the flamboyant beautiful bird, and is itself a raucous riot of colour. Kher creates a paradox through creating this holistic image from a multiplicity of bindis, a symbol of tradition, modesty and spirituality. In projecting the bindi on such a brightly articulated and elaborate scale, Kher poses the questions of identity, gender and race within the globalising environment. She gently subverts the bindis original associations, deconstructing their religious context and creating an abstract work of aesthetic beauty. At the same time she offers the viewer a moment of almost spiritual contemplation and meditative peace.
Kher has been widely exhibited internationally and in 2014 was the subject of a major solo exhibition at Shanghai’s Rockbund Art Museum and recently has shown at Hauser & Wirth, Zürich.