Major Bharti Kher collection to open at Arnolfini

The internationally renowned contemporary artist Bharti Kher is back in the southwest this Autumn with her major solo exhibition The Body is a Place, opening at Arnolfini on October 22 and running until January 29.

Amongst the works on show are sketches, drawings, paintings, sculptures and installations, including a body of previously unseen work created during Kher’s time at the Somerset gallery Hauser & Worth.

Kher was born in London in 1969, and followed her artistic training in Newcastle, before moving to New Dehli in 1993. Today, she works for half of the year from her London studio, and has exhibited all over the world during the past three decades.

Alchemy, spirituality and the fluidity of knowledge and belief are deeply embedded tenets of her practice, as well as notions and preconceptions of gender, femininity, the self and the body. Looking ahead to the Arnolfini launch, we are sharing an abridged version of an interview between Bharti Kher and the exhibition’s curator Gemma Brace, which features as part of Arnolfini’s new publication to accompany the exhibition Bharti Kher: The Body is a Place (available to buy in the Arnolfini bookshop).

Bharti Kher – Blind matter, dark night, 2017, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth – photo: Jeetin Sharma

Bharti Kher, Body Incantatory 15, 2019 – photo: Dominic Brown Photography

GB: “The notion of time (especially the measurable moments between the creation of individual works) feels central to your practice. Thinking about the relationship between the Body Incantatory drawings and the new sculptures emerging in your Delhi studio, do you always understand what came first, or is the
process more cyclical?”

BK: “I don’t honestly know which comes before or after. They [the works] are all moving together and act as foils for one another. I use the drawings for sculpture and the bindis for the drawings and the sculpture for the bindis. Impossible triangles that are dependent on each other and also independent of each other. Everything is connected.”

GB: “Talking about organic forms, circles and ovals are also found frequently throughout the Body Incantatory and Alchemy drawings. These cellular motifs of interlocking or adjoining circles, or circles within circles, feel closely related to the patterns and layers that appear in the larger bindi works. Were you conscious of these repetitions as you were creating the drawings?”

BK: “The bindi works have been a form of collage through which I’ve been drawing with singular cells and circles for many years, representing both the micro and the macro, inside the body and outside. Perhaps one way to talk about what we don’t know (the unconscious or matters of the spirit) is metaphor.”

Bharti Kher – photo: Jeetin Sharma, © Hauser & Wirth

GB: “Did the time and space you gave yourself in Somerset to focus upon drawing begin to inform your wider practice?”

BK: “The studio gives you freedom and it’s a process I’ve learnt to trust. Being an artist isn’t always about knowing what becomes what and when. You just keep going because you like making. It was good to remember that I love making drawings.”

GB: “You’ve previously referred to the alchemy of the studio (your ‘centre’) as a place that is both safe
but also allows for questioning. What questions were you asking yourself during this residency?”

BK: “Many questions are asked when I’m making work, wherever I am. What can this be? How will this stand? What is it really? If I was a visitor from outer space what would I think upon seeing this? Does it look like anything I’ve seen before? What is the distance that separates word from image?

“I’m a believer that any space can be a studio; the table, your bedroom, your mind. But because I’m
a maker and a studio-based artist, I have a need to mark space. Animals do it all the time.”

Bharti Kher – Body Incantatory 22, 2019, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth – photo: Dominic Brown Photography

Bharti Kher, The Chimera 4a – wax, concrete, plaster, hessian fibre, brass, 2016 – photo: courtesy of Bharti Kher

GB: “Thinking further about this relationship between space and time, in The Body is a Place audiences are invited to explore the conversations taking place between two- and three-dimensional works, however, we have placed the works out of chronological order. By disrupting our understanding of sequential time you appear to encourage audiences to make their own links, is this something that you always try and do within an exhibition?”

BK: “The art I make is all one mashup of moving, different parts that connect and function in their own
way yet are still symbiotic, therefore chronology isn’t important to how we exist at this moment. The work has always been cyclical and never linear. The past, the present, and the future all exist at the same time, and that’s why chronology isn’t important to me.”

Bharti Kher, Dark Matter II – Bindis painted on board, 2014 – photo: Claire Dorn

https://www.instagram.com/p/CjfZJ_pOgcW/

Running alongside the Bharti Kher opening, up on the second floor of Arnolfini, there is a mini exhibition from artist duo Juneau Projects, otherwise known as Philip Duckworth and Ben Sadler.

The pair work across a wide range of media, from printmaking, animation and film to sculpture, music and performance, exploring the links that connect society and the natural world.

They have made a name for themselves through collaborative public art that is developed alongside the local communities who will ultimately benefit from them.

Image: Juneau Projects

Juneau Projects have been selected by Arnolfini and UWE Bristol to create a new piece of public art over 2022-2023 that explores bryophytes – the many overlooked plants such as mosses, lichens, liverworts and hornworts that are crucial to ecosystems.

They will be hosting Bryophyte Club, a programme of free creative workshops for UWE Bristol students and staff, local residents and schools.

Bryophyte Club – poster: Juneau Projects

Participants will also be invited to offer their ideas for the design and construction of a sculpture garden on the site of UWE Bristol’s new student accomodation, which is a brand new, low-carbon development being built to the highest Passivhaus sustainability standard.

“This is an exciting public art project which we hope will provide a long-term benefit to the local community,” says William Liew, chief financial officer at UWE Bristol.

Ben Sadler and Philip Duckworth of Juneau Projects – photo: James Benwell

Bharti Kher: The Body is a Place is at Arnolfini from October 22-January 29, 2023, with a preview on October 21 from 7-9pm. The exhibition is open Tuesday-Sunday, 11am-6pm, and is free to attend. Slots are bookable in advance, though some walk-ins are available on the day too. More information is available at www.arnolfini.org.uk.

The mini exhibition Meet Juneau Projects is on the second floor of Arnolfini until October 30. It is free to attend. Visit www.arnolfini.org.uk for more information, or follow @juneau_projects on Insta. Anyone who is interested in taking part in the creation of the new sculpture garden can email publicart@arnolfini.org.uk.

Main photo: Dominic Brown Photography (Bharti Kher – Body Incantatory 22, 2019 – cropped, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth)

Read more: Arnolfini announces major exhibitions from three female artists

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