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Bharti Kher
巴蒂·克爾個人作品展

Text and images by courtesy of The Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art

圖文提供: Parasol Unit 當代藝術基金會

14.09.2012 – 11.11.2012

Bharti Kher is one of India’s best-known contemporary artists. With a diverse practice, Kher’s paintings, sculptures and installations transform and reinterpret the identity and meaning of subject or matter, whether it is an everyday inanimate object or a natural life form.

Although born in the UK and trained in Fine Art in Newcastle, Kher has resided in India since 1992 and has been re-introduced to the West as one amongst an exciting new generation of contemporary artists to emerge from India today.

The Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art is presenting Kher’s first UK public solo exhibition, which focuses on the artist’s sculptural pieces.

By using everyday motifs and artifacts, Kher forces us to re-configure what we know of the recognizable form and its narrative, surprising us by turning our readings on its head, to form a different dialogue with the artwork. An example of this is the 9 foot tall fiberglass tree ‘Solarium Series I, 2007-2010. Viewed from a distance the tree appears to be normal with small leaves. On closer inspection, the leaves are constructed from miniature heads of fantastical creatures; thus inviting us into another world.

‘The Skin Speaks a Language Not Its Own’, 2006, is an archetypal piece by Kher that merges animal and artefact.  A life size fibreglass elephant is represented, covered in thousands of white sperm-shaped bindis. The elephant, a highly regarded animal in India, representing strength and stature, and the bindi, a traditional Indian head decoration representing a ‘third eye’ that connects to the spiritual world, are opposites in scale.  The bindi is a signatory mark of the artist and an object that she regularly employs, although, a small symbol, it bears great significance, and on the elephant its significance is magnified through its sheer number; the weight of the animal is counterbalanced. It has been commented that the piece is a metaphor for India, herself, either collapsing under the economic slump or about to emerge strong as one of the BRIC countries.

The unique juxtaposition of Kher’s hybrid hyper-realistic and illusory sculptures with mythologies and cultural narratives brings forth a new dimension for us to enter, bridging two worlds, that of our everyday culture and that of the artist’s.

14.09.2012 – 11.11.2012

巴蒂·克爾(Bharti Kher)是印度最知名的當代藝術家之一。在不同的實踐中,克爾的繪畫、雕塑和裝置相互轉化並重新詮釋事物的本體和意義,不論是日常無生命的物體抑或是自然生命的形式。

克爾出生在英國並在紐卡斯爾接受了藝術教育,在1992年回到印度定居至今,如今她作為從印度出現的新一代當代藝術家被重新介紹到西方。

Parasol Unit 當代藝術基金會舉辦克爾的英國首次個人展覽展,此次個展著眼於藝術家的雕塑作品。

通過運用日常生活中的圖案和物品,克爾迫使觀眾重新組合我們所熟知的形式及敘事方式,將觀眾的閱讀習慣以她的方式排列組合並使我們震驚,從而通過藝術作品形成一個不同的對話。比如她2007-2010年的九英尺高的玻璃纖維樹作品《日光浴系列一(Solarium Series I)》。遠觀,這棵樹有許多小葉子,與正常的樹別無它樣。但近觀,這些樹葉是由微型幻想生物的頭組成的,從而帶領我們進入了另一個世界。

其2006年的作品《皮膚說外星語(The Skin Speaks a Language Not Its Own)》,是克爾用動物和人工製品拼合成的一件作品。一只真實大小的玻璃纖維大象,由成千上萬白色精子形狀的bindi(印度人眉心的裝飾,點狀或用珠寶裝飾)組成。大象在印度是倍受尊重的動物,代表力量與地位,bindi是印度人頭部的裝飾,代表與精神世界聯繫的“第三隻眼”,這兩者在大小上大相逕庭。bindi是藝術家俱有代表性並經常使用的標誌和客體,如此之小的一個符號卻承載了巨大的意義,並且在大象的身上它的意義通過純然的數量被放大;而動物的重量卻被抵消。這件作品被認為是對於印度的暗喻,無論是經濟不景氣下的塌陷或是即將稱為“金磚四國”之一強。

克爾獨特的超出現實的和虛幻相並置混合的雕塑,與神話和文化的敘事性帶領我們進入一個全新的層面,架橋於我們日常文化與藝術家的兩個世界。

                   

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