Bharti Kher

About this book

Bharti Kher (b. 1969, UK, lives and works in Delhi), works in a wide range of media, encompassing painting, sculpture, drawing and installation. Kher refers to her practice as a search for the chimera, the area between reality and illusion. She seeks visual clues and imagery from her daily life as well as different cultures, creating works that are radically heterogeneous. Often monumental in scale, her works map a tension of identities, social roles and gender. In the linking of the animal and human worlds the artist produces bodies as hybrid forms. Although Kher's work appears to come from a distant world of fables and myths, it nonetheless takes a critical view of current social phenomena. A leitmotiv throughout her practice is the bindi: a symbol in India of the third eye and a popular fashion accessory. Kher uses it to connect the real and the metaphysical worlds and as a link between mind and body. Her iconographic bindi paintings reveal a personal, cultural and spiritual language that speaks eloquently about ritual and repetition and they appear to be a deliberate sign of resilience. Kher's works reflect her position as occupying the female body and its fragility in different contexts. Her works touch on the precarious balance upon which our societies rest and suggest alternative and fantastical scenarios; a strategy perhaps for an age in the grip of political unease and historical anxiety. Exhibition: Pasquart Kunsthaus, Biel, Switzerland (29.06. - 26.08.2018).