Bharti Kher’s New Monumental Exhibition

Elisabetta Marabotto of Saffronart invites you to visit Misdemeanours, Bharti Kher’s largest solo exhibition in Asia

London: Misdemeanours is coming soon at the Rockbound Art Museum in Shanghai. Starting on January 11 the exhibition boasts to be the largest solo exhibition in Asia of the celebrated Indian artist Bharti Kher.

Self Portrait, Bharti Kher

Self Portrait, Bharti Kher. Image Credit: http://www.rockbundartmuseum.org/en/exhibition/overview/457gqs

The show, which occupies all six floors of the museum, features a selection of works created in the last 15 years by the artist as well as some site specific installations.

Kher uses different forms of art to express herself such as painting, photography and sculpture yet most of her works have in common monumental dimensions. The artist in this exhibition discusses the relationship between human beings and animals, hybridity, ethics, gender, politics, globalization and cosmopolitanism. The poetics of the body reveals Kher’s interests in entropy, mutation, and transformation, as witnessed by humans and animals alike.

The Skin Speaks a Language not its Own, Bharti Kher

The Skin Speaks a Language not its Own, Bharti Kher. Image Credit: http://www.rockbundartmuseum.org/en/exhibition/overview/457gqs

“The exhibition also includes two site-specific installations that serve as conceptual and physical “skins” that encase the museum’s monumental façade and conjoin two exhibition spaces on consecutive floors. These architectural interventions serve as mirrors to Kher’s own use of the bindi to serve as a carrier of the other, and an object that revels in both in its ability to decorate and enliven attention, as well as to subsume and obscure the gaze. ”

Kher has stated, “If I could remake my artistic career, I think I would be a minimalist painter. All the art that I love comes from the tradition of reduction—but I can’t because I’m super maximum!”

Misdemeanours, Bharti Kher

Misdemeanours, Bharti Kher. Image Credit: http://www.rockbundartmuseum.org/en/exhibition/overview/457gqs

Misdemeanours has been curated by Sandhini Poddar, Mumbai-based art historian and adjunct curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and the works on display include loans from leading private and public institutions as well as new commissions.

The exhibition will be on until March 20 and it will be accompanied by events and a catalogue. For more information click here.

 

 

Raqs Media Collective debuts “Extra Time” in Shanghai

Elizabeth Prendiville of Saffronart shares a note about New Delhi’s Raqs Media Collective at The Chrouns Art Center. 

Extra Time by Raqs Media Collective

Extra Time by Raqs Media Collective

New York: The Chrouns Art Center in Shanghai will be featuring works by Raqs Media Collective for their inaugural show. “Extra Time” by the New Delhi based artist group will feature their wide ranges of medium and modes of expression. Raqs Media Collective often works in a variety of techniques including performance, large-scale installations, architecture, video and photo. “Extra Time” proves to be a hugely multimedia oriented body of work. They not only engage these different mediums but also transform them to create statements about time and trigger conversations as an audience.

Extra Time by Raqs Media Collective

Extra Time by Raqs Media Collective

In the work time is both the focal point of Raqs Media Collective’s piece and utilized as an active medium. By playing with duration, repetition, intervals and other aspects of time in their performances, the artists are engaging the audience in an active exploration of time. The artists examine how creative production is evolving in our current fast paced world and how time as an entity is changing for artists and audiences alike.

Extra Time by Raqs Media Collective

Extra Time by Raqs Media Collective

Most recently Raqs Media Collective has been in residency in Shanghai as well as engaged in collaboration with Westheavens, a cross-cultural  program between China and India. However, this will be their first solo exhibition. This in-depth and creative exploration of time is sure to be a success for Raqs Media Collective and the The Chrouns Art Center. “Extra Time” will be running August 23rd through November 17th.

To learn more about the Chrouns Art Center please click here.

To learn more about Westheavens in collaboration with Raqs Media Collective please click here. 

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