Bharti Kher (1969) is a British/Indian contemporary artist. Her work encompasses painting, sculpture, and installation, often incorporating bindis and the popular forehead decoration worn by women in India.
Kher was born in London, England. From 1987-88 Kher studied at Middlesex Polytechnic, Cat Hill, London, UK. She then studied at Newcastle Polytechnic where she graduated with the Foundation Course in Art & Design Newcastle Polytechnic, BA Honours, Fine Art. At 23, she moved to New Delhi in India, where she lives and works today. She is married to Indian contemporary artist Subodh Gupta.
Kher is an artist committed to exploring cultural misinterpretations and social codes through her art practice. She uses the bindi as a central motif in her work to link tradition and modernity, East and West. The bindi, an adornment wore by Indian women on their foreheads, is traditionally seen as the sign of a married woman, and the third eye that links the spiritual and material worlds. The painting series Untitled is composed of multi-layered and multi-colored circular bindis, which refer to the changing roles of women in India, as the bindi lost its traditional meanings and became a fashion accessory. Kher’s famed installation, The Skin Speaks A Language Not Its Own (2006), features a life-size elephant made with fiberglass and covered with numerous white bindis, kneeling on the floor in an ambiguous state between dying and living. In her sculptures and collages, Kher has created hybrid beings that unite contradictions of gender, species, race, and social role. Sculptures such as Arione (2004) and Arione’s Sister (2006) are part-human, part-animal; sperm-shaped bindis writhe over their bodies, completing the vision of futuristic femininity.
© 2019. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Bharti Kher. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only
Kher was born in London, England. From 1987-88 Kher studied at Middlesex Polytechnic, Cat Hill, London, UK. She then studied at Newcastle Polytechnic where she graduated with the Foundation Course in Art & Design Newcastle Polytechnic, BA Honours, Fine Art. At 23, she moved to New Delhi in India, where she lives and works today. She is married to Indian contemporary artist Subodh Gupta.
Kher is an artist committed to exploring cultural misinterpretations and social codes through her art practice. She uses the bindi as a central motif in her work to link tradition and modernity, East and West. The bindi, an adornment wore by Indian women on their foreheads, is traditionally seen as the sign of a married woman, and the third eye that links the spiritual and material worlds. The painting series Untitled is composed of multi-layered and multi-colored circular bindis, which refer to the changing roles of women in India, as the bindi lost its traditional meanings and became a fashion accessory. Kher’s famed installation, The Skin Speaks A Language Not Its Own (2006), features a life-size elephant made with fiberglass and covered with numerous white bindis, kneeling on the floor in an ambiguous state between dying and living. In her sculptures and collages, Kher has created hybrid beings that unite contradictions of gender, species, race, and social role. Sculptures such as Arione (2004) and Arione’s Sister (2006) are part-human, part-animal; sperm-shaped bindis writhe over their bodies, completing the vision of futuristic femininity.
© 2019. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Bharti Kher. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only
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| Ms. Bharti Kher |
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| 2002, It’s a jungle out there |
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| 2004, Angel |
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| 2004, Chocolate Muffin |
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| 2004, Family Portrait |
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| 2004, The Hunter and the Prophet |
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| 2005, Mimic |
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| 2006, The skin speaks a language not its own |
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| 2007, An absence of assignable cause |
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| 2007, Solarum Series |
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| 2008, And All the While the Benevolent Slept |
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| 2008, Untitled |
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| 2008, Warrior with Cloak and Shield |
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| 2011, The night she left |
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| 2012, Bind the Dream State to Your Waking Life |
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| 2012, Lady with an Ermine |
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| 2012, Portrait from Memory I |
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| 2012, Portrait from memory III |
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| 2012, The Internal Workings of My Mind When the Body is Sleeping |
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| 2012, Time Lag |
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| 2013, Portrait: Reena |
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| 2014, Dark Matter II |
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| 2014, Dark Matter II (detail) |
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| 2014, Pause, alt, delete |
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| 2014, three decimal points. of a minute. of a second. of a degree |
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| 2015, I’ve seen more things than I dare to remember I |
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| 2015, I’ve seen more things than I dare to remember II |
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| 2015, Rain |
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| 2016, Erasure VII |
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| 2016, The laws of reversed effort |
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| 2016, The Laws of Reversed Effort |
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| 2016, The Nemesis of Nations |
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| 2017, The whole is greater VI |
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| 2017, The whole is greater VII |
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| 2018, A wonderful anarchy |
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| 2018, Points of departure VII |
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| 2019, Artemis |
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| 2019, As dangerous as an albatross |
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| 2019, The offspring of a deity perhaps |
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| Chimeras |
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| Flight paths |
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