Bharti Kher

Over the past two years Bharti Kher has approriated the Bindi in all its various shapes and colors to create intricate and complex works.  The bindi is a small symbol traditionally worn on the forehead of married women in India, but recently it has transformed into a fashion accessory and is worn as such in both India and the west.  The morphing of the traditional significance of the bindi from an indicator of a woman's marital staus to a popularized decorative symbol is relevant to Kher's work which appears to be informed by her experiences of having lived in both London and India. The works themselves pay homage to the neo-tantric art of India in the 1970's and 80s and the Abstract Expressionism of the West.