The Gravy Train
2006-2007
Bindis on painted board, triptych
188.6 x 188.6 cm (74 1/4 x 74 1/4 in.) (each) Overall dimensions: 188.6 x 577.8 cm (74 1/4 x 227 1/2 in.)
Bharti Kher's triptych The Gravy Train is made of bindis, the ornamental "dots" Indian women wear on their foreheads. On three large formats, she painted abstract, almost psychedelic vertical lines that plunge the viewer into a state of meditative contemplation.
Significant both for Indian female identity and as a symbol of the third mystical eye, consciousness and good luck, the bindi, at the heart of Kher's work since the 1990s, attests to her exploration of the spiritual world, beliefs and the status of women. Drawing on ancestral cultures, she creates spectacular works that question stereotypes of beauty and "try to create a state of strangeness".
The Pinault Collection presented The Gravy Train during the exhibition "Qui a peur des artistes?" (“Who’s Afraid of Artists?”) at the Palais des Arts in Dinard in 2009.
Significant both for Indian female identity and as a symbol of the third mystical eye, consciousness and good luck, the bindi, at the heart of Kher's work since the 1990s, attests to her exploration of the spiritual world, beliefs and the status of women. Drawing on ancestral cultures, she creates spectacular works that question stereotypes of beauty and "try to create a state of strangeness".
The Pinault Collection presented The Gravy Train during the exhibition "Qui a peur des artistes?" (“Who’s Afraid of Artists?”) at the Palais des Arts in Dinard in 2009.
Exhibitions
