Bharti Kher’s Wraps Hayward Gallery in Supersized Bindis
All hail the ‘Target Queen.’
Brightly-colored circles have consumed the eastern and southern facade of London’s Hayward Gallery, softening the building’s brutalist exterior. For her newest outdoor installation, British-Indian artist Bharti Kher examines the intersection of South Asian femininity, spirituality, and nature in a striking display of hue and form.
Target Queen presents an array of vibrant concentric circles, measuring over three meters in diameter, that represent bindis, a powerful symbol used by South Asian women to denote a third eye. With a chimeric curiosity, Kher explores the spiritual and aesthetic meaning of bindis, a staple motif in her work since 1995. “Target Queen is a bold, vibrant, and powerful artwork that calls for greater representation of femininity and divinity, also as an exciting exploration of how the two intersect,” the artist states. As each figure takes on the form of a target, she centers attention on cultural narrative through color and form.
Ranging painting, sculpture, and installation, Kher’s practice explores the boundaries between humans and nature, incorporating found objects that she transforms into artifacts, subsequently reinventing their histories to make room for misinterpretations. At the intersection of politics, ecology, and myth, Kher finds magic in unexpected places. Her resulting works present life in abstract beauty, alluring and alchemical at once.
Target Queen is now on view at Hayward Gallery in Southbank Centre.
Hayward Gallery
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Rd,
London SE1 8XX
