Lot 60: Bharti Kher (b. 1969)

Bharti Kher (b. 1969)
Misdemeanours
painted fibreglass, wood and fur
58¼ x 73 x 23¾in. (148 x 185.3 x 60.5cm.)
Executed in 2006, this work is number two from an edition of three

New Haven, Yale University School of Art, Shifting Shapes-Unstable Signs, 2009.

K. Kartik Agrawal, Bharti Kher, Andhra Pradesh 2006 (another from the edition illustrated in colour, p. 9).
Indian Art III/III: Here and Now: Young Voices from India, exh. cat., London, Grosvenor Vadehra, 2007, no. 17 (another from the edition illustrated in colour).
Bharti Kher, exh. cat., New York, Jack Shainman Gallery, 2007 (another from the edition illustrated in colour, pp. 70-73).

Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the buyer''s premium.
Perched atop a platform of thick wooden beams on wheels, Bharti Kher's hyena is a hyper-realistic rendition of the animal, naked of its fur but for a small cloak covering its shoulders and back. The hyena snarls viscerally, in a gesture that at once expresses both the animal's aggression and vulnerability. This posture elicits a mixed response from the viewer of both primal fear and then compassion at the sight of the animal in distress, isolated from its pack. With this gesture, Bharti Kher intentionally points to the disrupted harmony between man and nature that exists in contemporary society. Alienated from and yet fascinated by the animal kingdom, society increasingly restricts animals to laboratories, zoos and tourist enclosures, reducing our interaction to a sanitised minimum. In another respect, the hyena appears as an allegory for the sense of dislocation experienced by migrants both internationally, through the process of globalisation and domestically, from the rustic agrarian belt to the Indian metropolis.

Kher's approach is fundamentally influenced and informed by her heritage and dual exposure to both Indian and European culture. Born in London and having studied in Newcastle as a young person, Kher moved back to India in 1990. This trans-cultural history underlies her artistic vision in Misdemeanours that aims to address global society in a universal language that resonates with all viewers. Using animals as the main protagonists of her sculptural pieces, such as the bindi adorned elephant in The Skin Speaks a Language of its Own, Kher appeals to our primal responses, making the viewer conscious of their own inherited symbolism and moral preconceptions. In Indian culture, the hyena has a myriad of folkloric associations. In the north of the country this includes the belief in various parts of the hyena's anatomy holding healing properties and the conviction that witches or magicians ride the animals at night. In Misdemeanours, the artist clearly manifests a desire to resurrect and reconsider these mythological associations but at the same time, confronts our own received ideas and prejudices. Along with its suggestive yet ambiguous title, Misdemeanours offers a surreal assembly of elements, its unique combination of media, metaphors and symbolism creating a disruptive and visually arresting example of her work.