A brand-new book from Arnolfini, exploring the alchemical practice of internationally renowned artist Bharti Kher, on occasion of her major solo exhibition with the gallery.

The exhibition includes new and previously unseen works created by Kher during residencies in Somerset in 2017 and 2019, as well as her monumental bindi drawings, the playful and political drawing-based installation Links in a Chain, sculptures made from found objects and plaster casts, and a new encounter with her site-specific bindi work Virus; part of a 30-year project began by the artist in 2010.

A collector of materials and meaning, Kher’s work invites us into ‘a world of objects and a world of words’, weaving between magical, mythical, spiritual, and scientific realms.

Drawing upon bodily senses she creates her own ‘hand-brain-body-art-language’ – ‘I hear it, taste it, eat it, write it, draw it’ – explored here in both two and three-dimensional forms.

Bharti Kher is represented internationally by Hauser & Wirth, Perrotin and Nature Morte.

Published on occasion of the exhibition ‘Bharti Kher: The Body is a Place’, 22 Oct 2022 – 29 Jan 2023, Arnolfini, Bristol, UK.

About the Artist:

Bharti Kher was born in 1969 in London, UK. She studied painting, graduating in 1991 from Newcastle Polytechnic with a BA Honours, Fine Art, before moving to New Delhi, India, in 1993.