Uncertain States an interview with Bharti Kher
Rajesh Punj
In Paris at Galerie Perrotin Kher has introduced a new body of works that in part draw attention to the anatomy of potential actions. As though in these configurations of differing materials everything could change in an instance. The potential for action and the actions that have occurred are the opposing energies that exist in this exhibition.
If science is determined by a body of facts then art is closer to the fictitious. Moving between certain and uncertain states in order it creates it own visual parables of our lives as they are now, and are likely to be in the future. English born, New Delhi based artist Bharti Kher sees art as a situation, in a continent carried by a wealth of other interests. As her preoccupation with materials and matter is coupled by her consideration for human behavior, and of the manner by which we interact and exchange our skins with one another. And as positive as it proves problematic Kher sees societal advances coming at the cost of the individual.
“It is strange now in India how it has become the easy option to have your sentiments hurt by art, imagery and other things, than to actually look at the real world and to find that what you are doing is extremely problematic.” Kher sees power, progress and politics as having superseded more ephemeral energies and alliances between people that have shaped India, of the land, the hand and the individual. And of a moment when art and culture were as significant a language as the hundreds of dialects that cover the continent as sound systems.
