About the Exhibition
Bharti Kher (b. 1969, London, United Kingdom) connects New Delhi and New York City with this nearly eighteen-foot-tall bronze universal mother figure, her most ambitious artwork to date. Its source is a miniature statue from the artist’s “Intermediaries” series, assembled by recomposing broken clay figurines. Kher finds these small objects in secondhand markets in India, where she moved in 1992 after being raised and educated in the United Kingdom.
This colossal sculpture reflects Kher’s cross-cultural identity and her appreciation for India’s rich material culture. Every meaning-laden detail and distressed surface of the original hand-crafted object has been meticulously magnified to reflect the journey of this matriarch’s creation. In contrast to urban statuary that commemorates historic individuals or events, Ancestor enters the public space as an allegorical representation paying homage to both the generations that came before and those to follow. Kher’s temporary monument echoes the spirit of the Statue of Liberty. She is an empowered force fostering a diverse community—a hybrid figure whose symbolic references to multiculturalism and plurality embody the possibility of an interconnected space of belonging and care.
The exhibition is curated by Public Art Fund Adjunct Curator, Daniel S. Palmer, PhD
Ancestor is commissioned by Public Art Fund, New York, and is in the collection of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi.
About the Artist
Born in London in 1969, Bharti Kher has worked across painting, sculpture, and installation for more than two decades, transforming a range of everyday materials from the bindi to furniture, saris and clay figurines, into new states of being and forms that are entirely her own. Led by her personal experience of double displacement, Kher weaves together the daily rituals of everyday life drawn from multiple places with a kind of magical realism and created mythology. Highly attuned to the complexities of class, race, and gender, her artworks are multifaceted and un-fixed. Kher navigates this and her own position as a woman, creator, and artist traversing different geographic, cultural, and social environments. Her work encompasses an expansive range from figuration to abstraction, spanning the detailed cast bodies of sex workers to the adjacency of precariously balanced geometric and organic shapes and forms. Kher’s engagement with Indian visual and material culture informs both the subject and material of many of her works. Kher has exhibited in museums around the world, including solo exhibitions at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland; DHC/Art, Montreal, Canada; Museum Frieder Burda / Salon Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada; Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China; and Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom. Her work is held in the collections of Tate, London, United Kingdom; Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland, Australia; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, India; The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea; Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai, UAE; and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE; among others. The artist presently lives and works between London and New Delhi.
Image Gallery
Location
Public Art Fund Living Land Acknowledgment:
Public Art Fund offers gratitude to the Lenape, original people of the land on which we are now based. We acknowledge the genocide and forced removal of the Lenape nations from Lenapehoking, their homeland. We honor the many First Nations peoples who continue to live and work in this region today.
The Lenape people today are members of the following nations: Delaware Nation, Anadarko, Oklahoma; Delaware Tribe of Indians, Bartlesville, Oklahoma; Mohican Nation Stockbridge–Munsee Band , Bowler, Wisconsin; Munsee-Delaware Nation, Canadian reserve near St. Thomas, Ontario; Moravian of the Thames First Nation, Canadian reserve near Chatham-Kent. We thank The Lenape Center of New York for their guidance in developing this living land acknowledgement.
Public Art Fund ofrece su gratitud a los lenape, pueblo originario de la tierra en la que ahora nos encontramos. Reconocemos el genocidio y la expulsión forzada de las naciones lenape de Lenapehoking, su tierra natal. Honramos a los numerosos pueblos de las Naciones originarias que siguen viviendo y trabajando en esta región en la actualidad.
En el presente, los lenape son miembros de las siguientes naciones: Nación Delaware, Anadarko, Oklahoma; Tribu indígena de Delaware, Bartlesville, Oklahoma; Nación Mohica Banda Stockbridge-Munsee, Bowler, Wisconsin; Nación Munsee-Delaware, reserva canadiense cerca de Thomas, Ontario; Naciones originarias de Moravian of the Thames, reserva canadiense cerca de Chatham-Kent. Agradecemos a The Lenape Center of New York su orientación en la elaboración de este reconocimiento de tierra viva.
Bharti Kher (nacida en 1969, en Londres, Reino Unido) conecta Nueva Delhi y la ciudad de Nueva York con esta figura de bronce de la madre universal de casi dieciocho pies (cinco metros y medio), la obra de arte más ambiciosa que haya creado. Su fuente es una estatua en miniatura de su serie “Intermediarios”, ensamblada mediante la recomposición de figurillas de arcilla rotas. Kher consigue estos pequeños objetos en mercados de segunda mano de la India, adonde se mudó en 1992 después de haber crecido y estudiado en el Reino Unido.
Esta colosal escultura refleja su identidad intercultural y el aprecio por la rica cultura material de la India. A fin de reflejar el viaje de la creación de esta matriarca, Kher ha magnificado meticulosamente cada detalle desbordante de significado y la superficie desgastada del objeto original hecho a mano. En contraste con las estatuas urbanas que conmemoran personas o acontecimientos históricos, Ancestor (Ancestro) presenta el espacio público como una alegoría que hace homenaje tanto a las generaciones pasadas como a las futuras. El monumento de Kher hace eco del espíritu de la Estatua de la Libertad. Es una fuerza empoderada que impulsa a una comunidad diversa: una figura híbrida cuyas referencias simbólicas al multiculturalismo y la pluralidad personifican la posibilidad de un espacio interconectado de pertenencia y protección.
La exposición ha sido dirigida por el curador del Public Art Fund, el Dr. Daniel S. Palmer, PhD.
Acerca de la Artista
Bharti Kher nació en Londres en 1969. Hace más de dos décadas que trabaja en pintura, escultura e instalación. Transforma materiales cotidianos, desde el bindi hasta muebles, saris y figurillas de arcilla, en nuevos estados del ser y en formas que son creaciones completamente suyas. Guiada por su experiencia personal de doble desplazamiento, Kher teje los rituales de la vida cotidiana de diferentes lugares con un toque de realismo mágico y mitología creada. Siempre consciente de las complejidades de la clase, la raza y el género, sus obras de arte son multifacéticas y no fijas. Kher explora estos elementos y su propia posición como mujer, creadora y artista que atraviesa diferentes entornos geográficos, culturales y sociales. Su trabajo abarca una amplia variedad de estilos, que van desde la figuración hasta la abstracción, desde los detallados cuerpos fundidos de trabajadoras sexuales hasta la adyacencia de figuras y formas geométricas y orgánicas precariamente equilibradas. El compromiso de Kher con la cultura visual y material de la India influye tanto en el tema como en el material de muchas de sus obras. Ha expuesto en museos de todo el mundo, incluidas exposiciones individuales en el Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublín, Irlanda; DHC/Art, Montreal, Canadá; Museum Frieder Burda / Salon Berlin, Berlín, Alemania; Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, Massachusetts; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canadá; Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghái, China; y Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, Reino Unido. Sus obras están expuestas en las colecciones de Tate, Londres, Reino Unido; Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland, Australia; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Nueva Delhi, India; The Walker Art Center, Mineápolis, Minnesota; Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, Seúl, Corea; Ishara Art Foundation, Dubái, EAU; y Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Abu Dabi, EAU; entre otros. La artista vive y trabaja actualmente tanto en Londres como en Nueva Delhi.
Location
Public Art Fund Living Land Acknowledgment:
Public Art Fund offers gratitude to the Lenape, original people of the land on which we are now based. We acknowledge the genocide and forced removal of the Lenape nations from Lenapehoking, their homeland. We honor the many First Nations peoples who continue to live and work in this region today.
The Lenape people today are members of the following nations: Delaware Nation, Anadarko, Oklahoma; Delaware Tribe of Indians, Bartlesville, Oklahoma; Mohican Nation Stockbridge–Munsee Band , Bowler, Wisconsin; Munsee-Delaware Nation, Canadian reserve near St. Thomas, Ontario; Moravian of the Thames First Nation, Canadian reserve near Chatham-Kent. We thank The Lenape Center of New York for their guidance in developing this living land acknowledgement.
Public Art Fund ofrece su gratitud a los lenape, pueblo originario de la tierra en la que ahora nos encontramos. Reconocemos el genocidio y la expulsión forzada de las naciones lenape de Lenapehoking, su tierra natal. Honramos a los numerosos pueblos de las Naciones originarias que siguen viviendo y trabajando en esta región en la actualidad.
En el presente, los lenape son miembros de las siguientes naciones: Nación Delaware, Anadarko, Oklahoma; Tribu indígena de Delaware, Bartlesville, Oklahoma; Nación Mohica Banda Stockbridge-Munsee, Bowler, Wisconsin; Nación Munsee-Delaware, reserva canadiense cerca de Thomas, Ontario; Naciones originarias de Moravian of the Thames, reserva canadiense cerca de Chatham-Kent. Agradecemos a The Lenape Center of New York su orientación en la elaboración de este reconocimiento de tierra viva.
Bloomberg Philanthropies is the presenting sponsor of Bharti Kher: Ancestor.
Leadership support for Ancestor is provided by Ellen & Andrew Celli; Jennifer Sykes Harris; Andrea Krantz & Harvey Sawikin; Holly & Jonathan Lipton; Elizabeth Fearon Pepperman & Richard C. Pepperman II; Rasika & Girish Reddy; Allison & Paul Russo; and Charles B. Short & Chet Krayewski; Hauser & Wirth; Nature Morte; and Perrotin.
Special thanks to engineering partner Silman, as well as the Office of the Mayor, Manhattan Borough President, NYC Parks’ Art in the Park program, and Central Park Conservancy.
Public Art Fund is supported by the generosity of individuals, corporations, and private foundations including lead support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, along with major support from Abrams Foundation, the Charina Endowment Fund, the Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, The Fuhrman Family Foundation, The Marc Haas Foundation, Hartfield Foundation, William Talbott Hillman Foundation- Affirmation Arts Fund, the Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, Red Crane Foundation, The Silverweed Foundation, and Wagner Foundation.
Public Art Fund exhibitions and programs are also supported in part with public funds from government agencies, including the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
