Size: 175.2 x 173 x 11 cm & 175.2 x 158 x 11 cm diptych
Bharti Kher’s practice considers the signification of the “self” as multiple, open to interpretation and projection. Her work subsumes the bindi, a found object that occupies the dual function of religious ornament and fashion accessory in Indian culture. This concurrent existence consistently defers singular meaning, a notion that has led the bindi in becoming an inextricable component and focal point in Kher’s oeuvre. In the diptych 'Questions and Answers,' bindi’s are applied in series, in ordered horizontal and vertical lines as an epidermal assemblage on the surface of painted boards. The work simultaneously conceals its coded references whilst revealing its culturally familiar origins through the materiality of the bindi. As the work deterritorialises and reterritorialises the gaze, Kher reflects on the Western history of abstraction and minimalism, infusing new meaning through the use of bind’s.
Bharti Kher has participated in numerous exhibitions since 1990, with recent solo participations at the Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China (2014); Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art, London, UK (2012), Savannah College for Art and Design, Georgia, USA (2012); and the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (2008). Recent group participations include the 'Kochi-Muziris Biennale: Whorled Explorations,' Kochi, India (2014), 'Misled by Nature: Contemporary Art and the Baroque,' Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto and Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada (Traveling Exhibition) (2012-13); 'First international Biennale of Contemporary Art: The Best of Times, The Worst of Times. Rebirth and Apocalypes in Contemporary Art,' Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kiev, Ukraine (2012); 'Paris - Delhi - Bombay,' Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2011); 'Tokyo Art Meeting: Transformation', Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2010), 'Indian Highway,' Serpentine Gallery, London, UK (Traveling Exhibition) (2008-2012), 'Marvellous Reality,' Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi, India (2009), 'Shifting Shapes. Unstable Signs,' the School of Art Gallery, Yale University School of Art, New Haven CT (2009) and 'The Sneeze 80 × 80,' the South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa (2007). Kher was awarded the YFLO Woman Achiever of the Year in 2007, the ARKEN prize in 2010, and was conferred with the ‘Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres’ (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) in 2015. Kher lives and works in New Delhi.
Image credit: Annik Wetter
