Reframing Femininity: Bharti Kher

As we saw with Subodh Gupta’s practice in the previous Topic, contemporary Indian artists frequently transform everyday materials to evoke new narratives and meanings. Let’s now turn to Bharti Kher (b. 1969), an artist known for her unique use of bindis — a traditional mark on women’s foreheads, also often worn as a sticker — that she incorporates in various forms, from large scale installations to paintings. 

Born in London and trained in Newcastle, Kher moved to India in 1992 at the age of 23. She now divides her time between London and Gurgaon (southwest of New Delhi), and her works therefore bring to the fore questions of her dual displacement and identity, as well as reckon with her own positionality as a female artist practising in the context of contemporary Indian society.

Click on the video below to begin!