Spectacular Diversions - Chila Kumari Singh Burman: part 2, Neons and Installation

Spectacular Diversions - Neons and Installation, by Chila Kumari Singh Burman

This is the second post on this exhibition. You can see the first post here

As I mentioned in my previous post, Burman is a Punjabi-British artist whose work explores cultural identity and the experiences and aesthetics of Asian femininity. Over the last 40 years her practice has encompassed printmaking, drawing, painting, installation and film to explore the intersection of feminism, race and representation, placing alternative perspectives of Britishness within art history.

In recent years Burman has become known for her colourful neon sculptures which have adorned the facades of historic sites including Tate Britain, Liverpool Town Hall, the Holburne Museum in Bath, Covent Garden's piazza and Brighton Pvilion, as well as being exhibited internationally.

Working with neon has given Burman the opportunity to translate many of the motifs that appear in her prints and drawings into sculptural forms which are infused with energy and retain her bold use of vivid colour. Through careful observation, Burman translates Hindu deities, mythical creatures, animals, ice lollies and ice cream vans into linear constructions that immerse the galleries and public places alike in a kaleidoscopic glow of light, colour, belief and pop culture.

As you can see, Burman has embellished the entrance to Compton Verney with a neon installation of neon sculptures of Hindu gods and goddesses.

We tend to go for a walk around the grounds before going in to see the exhibitions at Compton Verney and during our walk we discovered more neon installations

We then moved in to the galleries and what a delight that was

Snake, 2023, (neon sculpture)

Manga Girl, 2023, (neon sculpture)

Mermaid, 2020, (neon sculpture)

Dancing Girl with Catherine Wheel, 2020, (neon sculpture)

Rainbow Heart, 2021, (neon sculpture)

Hand, 2023

Home Grown Bull, 2022

Playing the Feather Flute, 2020

Dead Souls, 2024

Dragon, 2022

Ice Cream Lips, 2024

Punjabi Rocker, 2022

Tuk Tuk, 2022, (tuk tuk with wallpaper embelished with stickers and faux gems)

Burman's vivid pink tutuk has been decorated with an array of badges, stickers and glittering embellishments and a specially designed collage. The tuk tuk has been adapted to serve as a vehicle for Burman's film works, which immerse the viewer in her Punjabi Liverpudlian world.

Four days after seeing this exhibition we went to Bath for a few days, and what a coincidence it was to find that the Holburne museum also had an exhibition by Burman, albeit a very small one.

The Glowing Canopies (2023) 

This neon installation celebrates the power and beauty of our natural environment. Illuminated neon trees, bees and insects transform the museum's front facade in the artist's largest individual neon sculpture to date. The work highlights the symbol of the tree as a source of life, growth and connectivity, sustained by intricate relationships with other creatures in our ecosystem.

Inside, in one of the galleries, 

My Tiger Janu, (2022)

The sculpture rerferences Burman's ice cream business that was owned by Burman's father in 1960s Liberpool. Her father's ice cream van was crowned with a magnhificent Bengal tiger, an iconic symbol for the family business. Many in the Indian community at that time ran ice cream businesses. For the artist, the tiger symbolises both childhood nostalgia and the resilience and strength of Indian working class communities after migrating from India to Britain.

You can see a similar tiger in my previous post on Burman, but that one is a collage where the tiger is outlined in electric blue.