Sunset

 Looking out of my window at the sunset last night.

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.

Spectacular Diversions - Chila Kumari Singh Burman: part 1, printmaking

 

Spectacular Diversions - Chila Kumari Singh Burman at Compton Verney

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.

The exhibition consists of prints, drawings, paintings, collage, sculpture, film, and installation. Burman explores these media to draw out recurring themes that are ongoing preoccupations in her work including her Hindu Punjabi heritage and upbringing in Liverpool, feminism, activism and the relationship between high art and popular culture.

The first part of the exhibition which will be covered in this post explores printmaking.  Burman often combines multiple processes in single works and brings together a wide range of imagery and textual elements from sources including magazines, family photographs, posters, comic strips, advertisements, protest flyers and badges, She uses this material to create complex and meticulously planned compositions.

As you can see in the picture above, Burman has embellished the entrance of Compton Verney with her art, covering the temple-like neoclassical facade in neon sculptures of Hindu gods and goddesses.

My friend, 2023, (fibreglass, mixed media)

looking closer

Mint, 2024, (inkjet print)

Burman spent countless hours working in her father's ice cream van. She has adopted her father's trademark tiger as a mascot - both the technicolour treats sold in the van and the tiger have become recurring motifs in her work.

Rage and Treats, 2006-8, (mixed media)

Burman's art has been described as 'beguiling surface with a hidden sting', her vivid colours and visually appealing imagery are often used to convey hard-hitting messages. In this work, imagery of Indian warrior queen Jhansi ki Rani going into battle is juxtaposed with an oversized ice lolly, which looms over her. Burman sometimes uses the ice lolly as a metaphor for the objectification of women - their phallic shapes are used to comment on the ways in which women are reduced to objects of desire.

Let's Take You Higher, 2022, (inkjet print, faux gems and rhinestones on paper)

Here, Burman has juxtaposed imagery of a Hindu deity with a detail from the work Shipboard Girl by Roy Lichtenstein, which has been covered with embellishments.

Electric Joy Aka Indian Cinderalla, 2023, (24 thermoplastic monotypes)

Here, images of the artist's drawings and collages were screen printed onto plastic sheets, which were then moulded around three-dimensional objects including toy ice cream vans, sweet packaging and animals in a vacuum to form a plastic shell. An exploration of consumer culture: vacuum formers are used to mass produce a range of products.

The Smile you Send Returns to You, 2024, (steel, LED lights, plastic embellishments, graphic vinyls, fibreglass, carbochon stones and sound system)

This year Burman was one of seven artists shortlisted for the Fourth Plinth commission in Trafalgar Square. This maquette for her proposed sculpture tells of her father's voyage to the UK from India on board MS Batory. It presents a turbo-charged reimagining of his ice cream van complete with her signature motifs including embellished tigers and sweet treats. In the windows, we see Bollywood film stills and the figure of Burman's father. The title could be interpreted as a call for kindness amid a fractious world.

The Other Side of Paradise, 2024, (collage and mixed media on paper)

looking closer

looking closer

Embelished Works, 2022-24, (stickers, bindis, faux gems, glitter, letter transfers and pen on paer)

These works highlight Burman's delight in materials that would usually be considered disposable - in her hands inexpensive adornments are transformed into glittering works of art.

These works are also inspired by her ongoing exploration of the visual culture of Asian femininity. 'The feminism I have long assumed as a matter of course is now rubbing shoulders with the playful feminity associated with trinkets, baubles, tinsel, sequins....henna patterns and bindis'.  Many of these works originagted as line drawings of female figures, which have then been covered in embellishments to create 'ironic ex-votos to woman-as-image revelling in [the]specious glitter of kitsch as a perverse element of female embellishment and empowerment'.

Bindi Girl Doing a Poo, 2022, (stickers, bindis, faux gems, glitter, letter transfers and pen on canvas)

looking closer

Parvati, Hindu Goddess, 2022, (inkjet print embellished with faux gems, bindis and stickers)

Kaleidoscopic Self-Portrait Doing Shotokan, 2023, (embelished collage)

The surface of this work is richly embellished with sequins, faux jewels and bindis. In the centre, Burman has included an image of herself performing a high kick from the Shotokan form of karate. Outlined in electric blue, the figure conveys a sense of energy similar to Burman's neon sculptures (see next post) whilst projecting an image of power.

Tiger, My Jaan, 2021