#Chila Kumari Singh Burman

[abwwia]

Chila Kumari Singh Burman MBE is a British artist, celebrated for her radical feminist practice, which examines representation, gender and cultural identity. She works across a wide range of mediums including printmaking, drawing, painting, installation and film.

Born in Bootle, near Liverpool, England, to Indian Hindu Punjabi parents, Burman attended the Southport College of Art, Leeds Polytechnic and the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL where she graduated in 1982. Via Wikipedia

[labmem002]

Fierceness in Scarcity, 2021, by Chila Kumari Singh Burman

The print are available to buy via Rise Art here.

[nabilla3]

Chila Kumari Burman 

Chila Kumari Burman is a British-Indian artist who creates work based on topics such as femininity, class and culture. She works in a variety of media such as printmaking, film and installation sculptures. Her diasporic identity as a self described punjabi liverpudlian is a major influence in her work as she likes to combine western pop culture with indian heritage’s aesthetics. Burman has an impressive collection of work that played a significant role in the black art movement in the 1980s. The British Black Arts movement began in 1982 with an intention to highlight politics of race in Britain. Due to her impact in the art world, she has received an honorary doctorate as well as an MBE. 

One of the most well known works by Burman is her auto portraits. In each portrait Burman has dressed herself up in different attire ranging from her wearing porkpie hats in a suit to dressing as a nun. She uses herself as a “vehicle to express facets of being a woman” (Tate, 2015). By asserting and denying her identity in these different images, she showcases the complexity of having more than one culture affecting an individual identity; which cannot be contained in a singular image.

Burman presents herself in a costume reminds me of works by Cindy Sherman and also relates to the work of Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical theory in his book The Presentation of self in everyday life (1990). Where he wrote about how each individual is considered an actor performing on stage and how we assume different roles depending on who we are interacting with. For example, for diasporic identities might code switch depending on whether they are at their home, school or with friends by reflecting what is suitable for the environment. 

Nead (1995) recognises a “theme of fragmentation” in Burman’s auto portraits in order to break down stereotypes and reconstituate them. The fragmentation of the images represents the “heterogeneity and intersubjectivity of the strictures placed on South Asian women” (Correlia, 2020). Burman also emphaises this in an interview with Nead (1995) by saying that her work is about the “reclaiming the image of Asian women”. She defines her own gaze, by fragmenting her identity and gazing back at the viewer she the cycle of stereotypes being reiterated in media. 

A few exhibition guides and the artists website mentions Walter Benjamin and The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction (2008), originally written in 1935, when writing about Burmans work. This is because of how liberating her artwork is. It does not reinforce ideas already sey by the bourgeoisie. Rather, Burman is breaking stereotypes in a society where Asian women are seen as exotica, “imprisoned by male patriarchal culture”(Nead 1995) changed the perception of asian women by a western audience.

I really enjoyed looking at Burman’s vast collection of work and I really admire the authenticity of her work. It really encourages me to use patterns and symbols that I can personally resonate with, which I would usually shy away from because of the worry people would not understand the image as Bangladeshi culture is not one that is well known. In addition to this, I generally am not very expressive about my heritage but am looking forward to exploring this in the project. 

 Burman, C, 2004, Tall Fly Girl! Auto Portraits

Correia, A. (2020) ‘Picturing Resistance and Resilience: South Asian Identities in the Work of Chila Kumari Burman’, Visual culture in Britain, 21(2), pp. 199–226. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/14714787.2020.1760128.

Goffman, E. (1990) The presentation of self in everyday life. London: Penguin.

Nead, L. (1995) Chila Kumari Burman : beyond two cultures. London: Kala Press.

Tate (2015), Chila Kumari Singh Burman - Artists Turn Chaos Into Order TateShots Avaialble at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PiAJmH-YRQ&ab_channel=Tate

Benjamin, W. (2008) The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction. London: Penguin.

[aholdingspace]

Chila Kumari Singh Burman, Riot Series.

1. “Militant Woman,”  Photo-etching and aquatint on paper, 1981. 

2. “Cut - Foot - Pupil - Uprisings,” Photo-etching and screenprint on paper, 1981.

[metrocentric]

Light installation by Chila Kumari Singh Burman, Millbank Tate, SW1

[firstactproblems]

Installation view of Chila Kumari Singh Burman: remembering a brave new world, 2020, Tate Britain

Artist Chila Kumari Singh Burman, in front of her Winter Commission, Tate Britain (all images courtesy Tate Britain; photo by Susanne Dietz)

[rosamurphy]

[mehanizem]

TATE BRITAIN WINTER COMMISSION

CHILA KUMARI SINGH BURMAN

[orisa-edwards]

remembering a brave new world by Chila Kumari Singh Burman for Tate Britain

[akiraeffect]

[remash]

remembering a brave new world ~ chila kumari singh burman | photos © joe humphrys

[mooncustafer]

Chila Kumari Singh Burman transforms the front of Tate Britain into a celebration of neon light and swirling colour

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/chila-kumari-singh-burman

[labmem002]

Chila Kumari Singh Burman, Tattooed In Places You'd Love To Lick, 1990s

[rodwey2004]

Remembering a Brave New World: Festival Of Light by Chila Kumari Singh Burman Also see @rodweyportraits . Visit my website rodweyphotography.com #tatebritain #neonlights #diwali #ChilaKumariSinghBurman #eclectictechnicolour #cityscape #lockdown #traverselondon #technicolor #rememberingabravenewworld #streetphotography #londoncityworld #installation #mydarlinglondon #lockdown2 #thisislondon #exploringlondon #installationart #timeoutlondon #hq_uk #londondisclosure #thisislondon #vscolondon #london #toplondonphoto #london_only #canon_photos #2020rankin #londonhotshots #picoftheday #lockdown2020 . 📸: @rodweyportraits @rodwey2004 (at London, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CILoAToAqZ0/?igshid=var904da25ie

[ambientlightning]

Chila Kumari Singh Burman - Remembering a Brave New World, Nov. 2020

[duoscopic]

Remembering a Brave New World, 2020

Chila Kumari Singh Burman’s artworks are being exhibited at the Tate Gallery in London, UK. The hole project is curated by Clarrie Wallis, Senior, and is announced in the exterior of the building by this extraordinary installation, composed by various neon shapes and lights hanging on the main facade of the museum.