Bharti Kher (b.1969) is known for work that takes on an air of magical realism. She blurs the distinction between humans and nature, ecology and political and initiates a dialogue between the metaphysical and the material. Throughout her career, she has frequently drawn upon the symbol of the bindi. Derived from the Sanskrit word bindu – meaning point, drop, dot or small particle – the bindi is deeply rooted in traditions of South Asian women, representing the spiritual third eye. Now, she brings this motif to life once again on the exterior walls of Hayward Gallery. Target Queen adorns two walls of the museum, foregrounding the spiritual and feminine energy of the symbol on the Brutalist building. We spoke to her about the inspiration for the work, the development of her practice and why public art is so important.
A: The image of the bindi, traditionally used by South Asian women as powerful cultural and spiritual symbols, has been central to much of your work. What is it that draws you to the use of this symbol?
The bindi has always been a representation and a sign for me. It is code, language and poetry. It marks time and place, moment and action. A metaphor for the body as a unit within which many units exist or many thousands of bodies as a collective. The works are both microscopic and macroscopic. That’s the energy of them. They contract and expand simultaneously and the act of repetition is essential to the reading of the work, the gesture of placing and intent. They are a consciousness, the eyes of many watching and seeing, being witness to the world. Think about how a readymade bindi is picked off a sheet of paper by scores of South Asian women every day and stuck on the forehead between the eyes. It is removed again, perhaps at the end of a day of work or pleasure, and stuck back on to a mirror for future use; or it remains lodged on the mirror, until it catches the eye of another person who looks into the same mirror, without ever having met the original user. Mysterious and banal at the same time, these actions, gestures, movements and encounters are moments in a narrative continuum, which is transfigured by repetition, variation, magnification and elaboration into an irreducible alchemy of art-making. The bindi works have been a collage through which I’ve been drawing with singular cells and circles for many years, representing both the micro and the macro, inside the body and outside. Perhaps one way to talk about what we don’t know – the unconscious or matters of the spirit – is metaphor.
A: Target Queen is displayed on the Hayward Gallery building, how did the architecture and culture of the Southbank Centre inform the creation of the work?
BK: I responded to the brutalist structure of the building really. The bindi works have been part of a language I’ve been working with that look at perception and possibility. Target Queen became a mural in 2012 at The Rockbund Museum in China; and as with that iteration I wanted to introduce a feminine sensibility to the outdoor space. I love the idea that the bindi transformed from a tiny dot to a supersized one now becomes the third eye of the building and beyond. Many eyes watching also and being seen. Your third eye is the gate to your inner world and your consciousness. The work is reflective and joyful.
A: The installation is free and available for all who want to see it. Why is it important that art remains accessible for everyone? How should artists and galleries ensure that this continues?
BK: Because public spaces are dynamic and always changing. They cover all demography and ages; ethnicities and people who wouldn’t normally go into a gallery and see art. This is a good thing.
A: This commission is based on your 2007 diptych of the same name. How has the idea developed in the 17 years since you created that piece?
BK: The work changes for each building. all parts are scaled really for each building and since this is the second time I’m making the work; I’m looking forward to seeing how it’s received.
A: Your work often explores ideas of femininity and the female body. How have ideas around womanhood shaped your artist career?
BK: I think I transform figures through symbolism. I’m interested in the complexities of a woman’s psyche and the potential of her multi-faceted character. I work quite a lot from real-life body casts to get an idea of truth from the body, not just physically but psychologically. This preoccupation has shaped a large part of my sculptural works; the body is central to my practice. How it leaves its presence, how it can be described through material and how the inner world of the body manifests.
A: Who – or what – have been your biggest creative inspirations?
BK: Other artists, poets, writers, musicians. And nature and animals.
A: Your practice spans sculpture, painting, installations and frequently involved found objects. Could you tell us a bit about your creative process? How do you determine which form you’d like your ideas to take?
BK: I don’t honestly know which comes before or after. The works are all moving together and act as foils for one another. I use the drawings for sculpture and the bindis for the drawings and the sculpture for the bindis. Impossible triangles that are dependent on each other and also independent of each other. I don’t really see any difference between materials because in the end it’s just a medium and my hand is what projects and connects the work. In the same way I don’t really differentiate between abstraction and figuration as limits that I must somehow keep separate. I’m conducting the sculpture, bindi works, drawings and the assembled ready-mades that are hung and drawn in space to sing. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But this is also the game: the exploration of form, the way to connect outside and inside, sculpture and painting, order and chaos, balance and entropy.
A: You also have an exhibition currently at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It takes its name from the ancient practice of alchemy, which sought to change ordinary metal into gold. How do mythologies inform your creative process?
BK: Adding narratives that create their own mythologies can be a way of charging the energy of a work. Skins of animals carry the shamanistic powers of that creature. A hoof for example gives my goddess the speed of an antelope. There is so much I can tap into. I wait for my sculptures to tell me when they are finished. I ask them what is it that they want to be, like when we talk to plants or trees. Transformation is important for me and the work. So I use materials to tap into what they have the potential to become.
A: If you could only show us one piece of work from your impressive oeuvre, which would it be and why?
BK: My two kids …they are the gift that keeps giving and teachyou how to live and stay sharp and also not think about yourself or your work too seriously.
Target Queen is on display at Hayward Gallery from 12 September: southbankcentre.co.uk
Image Credits:
Installation view: Bharti Kher: Target Queen, Hayward Gallery, 2024. Photo: Jo Underhill.
Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth.
Installation view: Bharti Kher: Target Queen, Hayward Gallery, 2024. Photo: Jo Underhill. Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth.
Installation view: Bharti Kher: Target Queen, Hayward Gallery, 2024. Photo: Jo Underhill. Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth.