Chila Burman Welcomes You: A Vibrant Tapestry of Migration and Memory
Visitors to IWM North in Manchester are invited to step into the luminous world of Chila Kumari Singh Burman with Chila Welcomes You, a major new commission that blends personal and collective histories of Indian migration to Britain after the Second World War. Known for her subversive and playful approach to storytelling through art, Burman presents an immersive experience that brings together neon light sculptures, photography, printmaking, and, for the first time in her career, tapestry.
Chila Burman stands in front of her neon light installation, part of 'Chila Welcomes You' at IWM North.
A key highlight of the exhibition is Cosmological World, Burman’s first-ever tapestry, created in collaboration with the esteemed craftspeople of West Dean. Made from cotton, wool, lurex, gold thread, rayon, and bamboo, the tapestry embodies Burman’s signature fusion of traditional and religious iconography with bold patterns, vibrant colours, and pop culture references. Within its intricate weave, the Hindu god Krishna plays his flute alongside a pair of flamingos, their forms outlined in vivid pink and green.
As a graduate of print, the tactile nature of paper is important to me but regardless of the materiel, I find every surface, whether its concrete walls for mural painting, cast-iron balustrades, neo-classical columns or even our bodies, I can find a canvas for expression.
I collaborate with some of the leading craftspeople and specialists in the world, from Bermondsey-based OMNI print for digital graphics, to Set Works for large-scale neon installations, I always love to watch, learn and get stuck in myself on the technical application of my artworks into whatever format it requires.
My studio is a repository of ideas. I hoard everything, from magazines, leaflets, stickers, statues, ceramics, glassware, cones, mannequins, you name it, I'll keep it!
My portfolios from student days and all of my sketchbooks from across the years are often a place I'll return to, to reflect, to explore how my thinking has changed or how it hasn't. I love cutting and pasting words and imagery from old books, magazine issues, catalogues or prints. And somewhere in amongst all of it, I always like to keep a bottle of fizz to keep me going.
Chila Kumari Burman facts for kids
Chila Kumari Singh BurmanMBE 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.
A significant figure in the Black British Art movement of the s, Burman remains one of the first British Asian female artists to have a monograph written about her work; Lynda Nead's Chila Kumari Burman: Beyond Two Cultures ().
In , she received an honorary doctorate from University of the Arts London for her impact and recognised legacy as an international artist. In she was invited into the Art Workers' Guild as a Brother and in , Burman was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to visual art.
Early life
Born in Bootle near Liverpool to Hindu Punjabi parents, Burman attended the Southport College of Art, Leeds Polytechnic and the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL where she graduated in
Career
For over four decades, Burman's practice has been at the intersection of feminism, race and representation. A key figure
Since the mids I have been exploring the experiences and aesthetics of Asian femininity in paintings and installations, photography and printmaking, video and film. In my more recent works, this theme has taken on a new power and vibrancy. I am currently making a new body of work to draw all of these together and to develop the ideas and images contained in the new cultural contexts of national and international politics in the twenty-first century.
In recent works such as 'Fortune', 'Perfect Fit', and 'A moment to Herself' (cibachrome and painterly laser prints), I explore issues of gender and race through the aesthetics of collecting. Dress accessories, lingerie, bhindhis, bras, flowers, hair- pieces, jewellery and make up allow me to play with the formal properties of these materials, working with repetition and patterns as well as with their allusions to the hyper-feminine, the sexual and the everyday. In this work I take the idea of arte povera and recycled materials one feminist step further, using as my 'worthless' materials the pretty 'girly' detritus that many consider cheap kitsch and unworthy of serious contemplation.
One of my present projects is a recreation
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