Idol Pursuits – Bharti Kher
When given to considering sculpture and public art in the Indian subcontinent,
it is impossible not to become aware of one of the current luminaries
of contemporary Indian art, Bharti Kher has very quickly come to the fore as
one the leading female protagonists of the new generation of contemporary
Indian artists holding her own internationally. Having broken upon the British
art scene with her work The Skin Speaks a Language Not Its Own 2006 that
comprises of a fibreglass elephant recoiling to the floor, covered from head to
toe in silver bindis, the work came about, as many good ideas do, from a found
photograph of a collapsed elephant being manhandled and manoeuvred into an
awaiting truck. This tragic imposition upon this allying mammal was perceived
by Kher to be the origin of an artwork and as a tragic work of immense beauty
it proved to be a sensation among the international art collective and was
acquired impulsively by philanthropist and collector Frank Cohen for his
Wolverhampton collection, which is included in a new show at Manchester
City Art Gallery, aptly entitled Looking East in which Cohen has opened up a
very small part of his sizable collection for the public.