LAWRENCE WILSON ART GALLERY AT THE DR HAROLD SCHENBERG ART CENTRE

18 FEBRUARY - 16 APRIL 2016

BHARTI KHERIN HER OWN LANGUAGE

Cloud Walker, 2013, fibreglass, wooden rake, sari, resin, stone, steel, 186 x 115 x 93cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Warrior with cloak and shield, 2008, Edition 3, resin, steel, banana leaf, thread, fabric, 241 x 170 x 196cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

BHARTI KHER“Kher changes the taxonomy of an object by rendering it abstract, and shifts its figuration and subject matter from rationality towards the realms of signs, symbolism, and conceptual thought.”

Sandhini Poddar

Bharti Kher: In Her Own Language underpins how Kher’s art morphs between the real and the abstract, and how in this liminal traversal between forms, she has forged her art language – a language that is highly personalised, aestheticised and narrative, borne of a vigorous pursuit of information and life lived between the pulse of her New Delhi studio and her formative years growing up in the UK.

The works distilled for this exhibition focus upon bindis, bodies and saris. The addition of Sing to them that will listen, - a Tibetan singing bowl filled with inscribed rice grains - stands like an offering at the threshold or as a coda for what is perceived.

At its essence the duality of the real and the unreal, the known and the unknown, the dynamic and the static thread through. In this flux this project also celebrates the feminine and the domestic as touchstones for Kher.

Portrait Meera, 2013, sari, resin, concrete, 175 x 45 x 40cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Dark Matter (M M) (detail), 2015, bindis on painted board, 244 x 183cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Her work in all its trajectories can most persistently be traced to the body. The figures - though part hybrid and mythical - are goddesses, saris and bindis adorn women exclusively, and the ingrained rice might signify nourishment and nurturing.

Bharti Kher’s art is imaginative, sentient and visceral yet in its physicality it can be strangely ethereal and allusive. Exhibitions filter though never entirely define Kher’s art such is her conceptual agility and mutability. From the cacophony of life in Delhi, with a method somewhere between sorcerer and provocateur, Kher unleashes elegant and eloquent art into the world. She blends poetics with the portentous. Her work is life affirming in all its’ vicissitudes and her language is her own.

Margaret Moore, Curator

Bindis

The bindi, powerful in its versatility, has been a primary force in the Kher arsenal since 1999. In the wall panels Cells I, II and III and Dark Matter, for example, the bindi is both the mark and the surface. These panels are reminiscent of colour field painting until the dimension of the bindi is registered. Accreted into orbs and lozenges in space they are macro and micro, equally suggestive of molecular systems in the body or vastness of the cosmos.

VIRUS, the commanding work of 10,000 bindis formed into a mandala, is paradoxically abundant and minimal. The gift box is disarming in a time where virus proliferation is as unsettling in the technological arena as it is in the biological world.

Cell III (detail), 2013, bindis on painted board, 249 x 188cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Bodies

Although the sculptures are cast from life, they are veiled in otherworldliness through the application of attributes, surface treatments or through their indeterminate persona. With its spectacular antlers Warrior with Cloak and Shield also points to an enduring interest in hybridity of human and animal, which in Kher’s hands is sometimes realised aggressively with primordial fervour, or in this instance, with the almost transcendental power of an avatar. The Cloud Walker is also at once animated and serene.

Saris

The sari works convey Kher’s capacity for abstraction and minimalism in opposition to the goddesses. The saris are sashayed around concrete pillars until the resin coating ceases and seals the movement. In place of paint Kher has swept fabric into abstract approximations of people and matter. These works exude absence and presence, and once the sense of portrait is captured it is difficult not to perceive differing energies. Some seem almost burdened by the swathe of saris or its entanglement, others restrained, refined or proud.

Sing to them that will listen (detail), 2008, rice grains inscribed with text, metal bowl, marble stand, 110 x 31 x 31cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

LIST OF WORKS

Honeysuckle, 2012, sari, resin, 138 x 87 x 20cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Cloud Walker, 2013, fibreglass, wooden rake, sari, resin, stone, steel, 186 x 115 x 93cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Cell III, 2013, bindis on painted board, 249 x 188cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Dark Matter (M M), 2015, bindis on painted board, 244 x 183cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Cell II, 2015, bindis on painted board, 244 x 183cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Cell, 2013, bindis on painted board, 244 x 183cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Code Cell Grid, 2015, bindis on painted board, 244 x 183cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Warrior with cloak and shield, 2008, Edition 3, resin, steel, banana leaf, thread, fabric, 241 x 170 x 196cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Portrait from memory I, 2012-13, cement, saris, resin, 109 x 30 x 44cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Portrait from memory IV, 2012-13, sari, resin, concrete, 201 x 30.5 x 40cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Portrait of a girl, 2013, sari, resin, concrete, 26 x 27 x 106cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Portrait Meera, 2013, sari, resin, concrete, 175 x 45 x 40cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

My friend un-named, 2013, sari, resin, concrete, 41 x 36 x 113cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Untitled, 2015, sari, resin, concrete, 145 x 28 x 29cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

VIRUS VI (Blue), 2015, (Blue) mahogany, brass bindis, ribbon, 28 x 35 x 0.5cm & 30 x 40 x 0.5cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Sing to them that will listen, 2008, rice grains inscribed with text, metal bowl, marble stand, 110 x 31 x 31cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Portrait from memory III, 2012–13, sari, resin, cement, 136 x 43 x 50cm Courtesy the artist and Galerie Perrotin

Published by the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery at The University of Western Australia, 2016. All rights reserved.ISBN 978 1 876793 72 2

CAMPUS PARTNER

We would like to acknowledge and thank our campus partner.

Linguistics in the School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts. The school offers a rich learning and research environment spanning social and cultural studies in Australia, Europe and Asia. As well as undergraduate and postgraduate programs, the school supports an active research program.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Margaret Moore, the exhibition curator and Program Manager: Visual Arts for the Perth International Arts Festival, wishes to extend her gratitude to the entire team at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery and to Professor Ted Snell, Director of The University of Western Australia Cultural Precinct for their support of this project. Also extended is warm thanks to colleagues at the Perth International Arts Festival, Julia Lenz and Tom Hunt, Hauser & Wirth, Julie Morhange, Galerie Perrotin, Bharti Kher’s studio Delhi and most especially to Bharti Kher, herself for her committed enthusiasm and time shared in planning this exhibition.

LWAG+

LWAG+ is a free app that you can use to learn more about the art on display in this exhibition.

Download it from the App Store or Google Play and enable Bluetooth on your phone. When you stand in front of an artwork, the app will prompt you with information about the work’s origin, meaning and context.

For more information, visit lwag.uwa.edu.au/app

Join the conversation with #bhartikher

Cover image: My friend un-named (detail), 2013, sari, resin, concrete, 41 x 36 x 113cm Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

@LWAGallery

LAWRENCE WILSON ART GALLERY DR HAROLD SCHENBERG ART CENTREOPEN TUES - SAT 11AM - 5PM

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