Homing In

A 17-feet-long staircase occupies the centre of a room at the prestigious Hauser & Wirth gallery in New York. The gallery is hosting an exhibition by Bharti Kher for the first time,with the Delhi-based artist exploring the many definitions of home in her quintessential style. The staircase,for instance,has red splashes,as well as black sperm-shaped bindis. Bindis have featured in Kher’s works since 1995 as a symbol of cultural and gender practices. The staircase touches the ceiling but leads nowhere — in many ways like the position of a woman in an Indian household. She is seen as the lady of the house but her real worth in the domestic space is ambivalent. Titled “The Hot Winds that Blow from the West”,the exhibition comprises a series of sculpture,painting and installations,and will be on till April 14. The work from which the exhibition draws its title,The Hot Winds that Blow from the West,is made up of old radiators that Kher sourced in the US and transported to India. These appliances which spell domestic luxury for the West are presented as a monolith,with pipes and peeling paint resembling an animal carcass.