Bharti Kher has always felt different. Born in London in 1969, she grew up as a person of Indian origin in an English suburb, which instilled in her a sense of otherness — an experience that shapes her diverse practice today as a contemporary artist. “Which Bharti would I have been in America?” she ponders. Her desire to know how it feels to be “something, someone or somewhere else” is endless. Central to her work is the idea of having multiple versions of oneself, and that of a universal consciousness.
This is reflected in her survey show — part retrospective, part new commission — at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP). Titled Alchemies, the exhibition of sculpture and 2D work (created between 2000 and 2024) features themes of diversity, mythology, identity and gender. Like Ancestor, the 18-foot-tall painted bronze mother figure, with 23 heads emerging from her body. Commissioned for the southeast entrance of New York’s Central Park, the 2022 creation, “a mythical female force that pays homage to the generations before and after me’’, has crossed the ocean to take pride of place at the West Yorkshire art gallery.
Bharti Kher
In a light-filled space is a powerful group of hybrid figures — part women, part animals, part goddesses. Many are cast from real bodies of women known to Kher. “Each being is a mythical urban goddess, who is part truth and part fiction, part me and part you,” she says. Elsewhere, there’s also Virus, the monochromatic spiral of large bindis that Kher has been making, one a year, since 2010. Set to complete in 2039, the version she has made for YSP is bright yellow.
Kher’s The Intermediary Family
Statements in bronze
The show, in collaboration with Bengaluru-based NGO RMZ Foundation, also features Kolkata-based artist Suhasini Kejriwal. According to Anu Menda, managing trustee of RMZ, the exhibition aims to bridge cultural divides and promote female artists. “In a rapidly evolving world, international collaborations are more vital than ever. By sharing unique artistic practices and viewpoints, stereotypes are challenged, commonalities are discovered, and new perspectives gained,” she says.
While Kejriwal’s pieces seem more delicate in comparison to Kher’s, they too challenge the viewer. Garden of Un-Earthly Delights explores the divide between humans and nature. “It is a physical embodiment of an imaginary landscape — my experience in my garden surrounded by plants and birdsong,” she says, of the works that underline the evolution of her practice with totemic sculpture. “It is playful and surreal, and references the work of Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch.” For instance, an anthropomorphised plant-human hybrid with eye pods, brightly coloured body parts and foliage, depicts an unfamiliar combination of familiar things. It is part of a collection of bronze sculptures that reflect upon “the gap between the real and the imaginary, the everyday and the fantastic, and the familiar and the unfamiliar that is constantly being negotiated in our own perception”.
Suhasini Kejriwal
In the gardens also stand four giant bronze works from Kher’s Intermediaries series. What began as small golu dolls grew in size over the years, and explored different materials. “These figurines, traditionally displayed in homes during Navratri, pay homage to generational family connections, encompassing everyday people, animals, food and deities,” says the artist who lives between Delhi and London. She amassed the figurines over several years before shipping them to her Delhi studio in 2016, where many arrived broken. Through meticulous repair and reassembly, Kher created unexpected, hybrid combinations, stripping the objects of their original associations and purposes — liberating them to embody new possibilities and meanings. “These fluid beings embody an intermediate state, capturing the potential for people, animals or objects to transcend the constraints of reality and become something entirely new.”
Amplifying diversity
In sculpture, women have been traditionally overlooked, especially in outdoor, public works. Menda believes the works of Kher and Kejriwal are a good vehicle to amplify exceptional talent and more diverse representation.
Anu Menda with Bharti Kher
“The growth of Indian art is creating an impact on the global art industry. By actively supporting artists, the foundation aims to bridge global contemporary art with India’s cultural context, promoting artistic diversity and gender equality,” she says. “By celebrating artists like Bharti and Suhasini, the foundation hopes to inspire younger, emerging women artists, who can see a more inclusive and equitable space for themselves.”
The writer and creative consultant is based in Mumbai.
