Chila Kumari Burman: Punjabi Rockers, Desi Style and ArmourMandeep Wirk

Chila Kumari Burman is a South Asian artist based

in London, England. She first exhibited her visually

astounding collages in the Surrey Art Gallery’s

Spectacular Sangeet exhibition in 2013. Burman’s

artworks can be found in the permanent collections

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PunjABi RoCKERS, DESi StyLE & ARmouRC h i l a K u m a r i B u r m a n

Artist ’s StatementChilA kumAri burmAn

mAndeep Wirk

Chi la kumari burman: punjabi rockers, desi Style and Armour

Chi la Kumari Burman Punjabi Rockers , 2010 (detai l )

mixed media col lage on photographic paper (102.6 x 72.2 cm, image) SAG 2013.08.01

Photograph by Scott massey

Chi la Kumari Burman, Punjabi Rockers , 2010, mixed media on photographic paper (102.6 x 72.2 cm, image)SAG 2013.08.01 Photograph by Scott massey.

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Chila Kumari Burman Punjab i rockers, Desi Sty le & armour

of the Victoria and Albert museum and the tate

modern. She is one of the few British Asian artists to

have exhibited internationally.

Burman’s art is closely connected to her own

personal background. She was born in Liverpool

in 1957 into a Hindu-Punjabi family. Growing up,

Burman experienced the complex layering and mixing

of cultures in terms of languages, social customs and

religions. At school, the Punjabi and Hindu aspects of

her identity were interwoven with that of the English

way of life. For Burman, her cultural identity seemed

always to be in flux between the two worlds of home

and school.

it must have been exciting for Burman to grow up in

Liverpool during the heyday of the Beatles, who also

called it home. However, race relations were difficult

during those times for people of colour. As a visible

minority female, negotiating self-identity between

and within cultures was a challenging experience.

However, she has wonderful childhood memories of

helping her father out in his ice-cream van and falling

in love with all the colours and flavours of the ice-

cream that inspire her creative work today. Burman

went on to study printmaking at the famous Slade

School of Fine Art, and used art-making to explore

her rich background.

“my work is about a continual exploration of my

dual cultural identity through the manipulation of the

photographic image, painting, laser printmaking, and

scratch video installation works,” says Burman.1

Burman’s contemporary artworks explore human

identity in a globalized culture. Her work is particularly

significant for the large indian diaspora around the

world, including here in multicultural Canada.

it comes naturally to Burman to compose colourful

multi-layered collages in the style of pop art blended

with surrealism. Her work looks spontaneous and full

of the vital energy that comes from the hybridization

of cultures.

in Punjabi Rockers (2010), Burman explores the

status of women in indian society through a sensual

layering of iconic symbols of gender identity using

bindhis, glitter, sequins and beads. At first glance,

all looks well, but closer examination reveals another

story altogether. Gorgeous Bollywood film actresses

are juxtaposed with Hindu goddesses from religious

mythology that one can barely make out. Burman

contrasts the current low status of indian women as

sexual objects subordinate to men with their much

higher status during the ancient times of the Rig Veda,

when they were regarded as goddesses and treated

as equals to men.2 A lecherous looking man is shown

at the top with a human skull and cross bones below

his chin symbolizing death, with faceless women on

either side leering at all the women below him. the

adjacent text art says “hurts so” and “love is love”.

the pin next to a beautiful actress who looks out

at the viewer says “i’m a mess.” true love from a

man should empower women and not hurt. in light

of recent news reports on the brutal rapes of women

in india, Burman’s perspective on the position of

women in indian society is accurate. the women

are shown like flowers and a pin reads “jewelry is

(their) lifem,” yet there are images of children’s feet

with shoes and sandals around them. this footwear

references gender discrimination prevalent in indian

society by association with the pervasive (and i must

say here perverse) saying that “women are like a pair

of shoes that can only be worn on one’s feet and

which must be kept apart for reasons of hygiene until

they are needed next time.”3 Sons still continue to

be preferred over daughters in most indian families.

if this is “culture,” Burman doesn’t want it, and has

a tiger leap over a pin that says, “Demolish serious

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chila kumari burman Punjab i rockers, Desi Sty le & armour

Chi la Kumari Burman, Desi Style , 2009, mixed media col lage on paper (118 x 186.6 cm) SAG 2013.08.02 Gift of the Art ist . Photograph by Scott massey.

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Chila Kumari Burman Punjab i rockers, Desi Sty le & armour

culture.” in this playful way, Burman disrupts archaic

gender stereotypes.

“i’m reclaiming images of Asian Women moving

away from the object of the defining gaze towards

a position where we become the subject of display

clearly under our control,” explains Burman.4

in Armour (2009), Burman over-paints the iconic

Bollywood poster for the 1973 film Bobby and wipes

out the male figure, leaving the female figure on

her own. this blockbuster Hindi film introduced the

genre of teenage romance into Bollywood.5 Raj, the

son of a wealthy businessman, meets and falls in

love with Bobby, the daughter of a poor Christian

fisherman from Goa. Burman paints in a clenched

fist over Bobby’s head. on the right, she paints in a

sinister man sitting in judgement over poor Bobby.

Burman adds an ornate border of glitter and bindhis

on two sides as if to comfort Bobby. She expands

the black space and inserts the initials of her own

name in lowercase letters with exclamation marks.

only the letter k in gold glitter standing for “Kumari,”

meaning “princess,” is readily discernible; in indian

culture women are supposed to be regarded as

princesses but their reality is much harsher. in this

work Burman shows young love being crushed by

social disapproval. However, on screen the lovers

manage to win the parents over. Burman provides an

armour of bindhis for Bobby to do battle in life. this

work’s title Armour is a play on the French word for

love, amour.

in Desi Style (2009), Burman mines the 1976 hit film

Nehle de Pehle (tit for tat). this action packed social

comedy centres on revenge. the original film poster

depicts a woman wearing a revealing skirt, revolver

in hand and cards tucked into her garter. Burman

sets off an explosion around her knee in the style

of pop art employed by Roy Lichenstein, reminiscent

of comic book action sequences—but with indian

bling. Here Burman depicts how indian women are

regarded in this oppressive male dominated society

—as femme fatale.

notes:

1. john Holt, “Chila Kumari Burman: A martial Artist Beyond two

Cultures,” p. 97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09528829708576707

(Last accessed September 16, 2015.)

2. Puja mondal, “Women: Essay on the Position of Women in

india.” See under sub-heading Rig Vedic Period. http://www.

yourarticlelibrary.com/essay/women-essay-on-the-position-of-

women-in-india/31314/ (last accessed September 16, 2015).

3. Guy Poitevin & Hema Rairkar, Indian Peasant Women Speak Up,

orient Longman Ltd., Bombay, 1993, p. 88

4. Holt, p.97.

5. Bobby (1973 film) Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia http://

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_(1973_film)

References:

Philips, john: “Candy Pop and juicy Lucy: Voices Beneath the

Surface of a Collage,” 2006. http://chila-kumari-Burman.co.uk See

under tab Gallery. (Last accessed September 14, 2015).

Strom, jordan: Exhibition notes for Punjabi Rockers, Armour and

Desi Style, Spectacular Sangeet exhibition held at the Surrey Art

Gallery, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada in 2013.

Wirk, mandeep: “Spectacular Sangeet Wows Surrey - A must-See

Art Exhibition,” Punjabi Patrika, Friday, june 7, 2013, p. 42.

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chila kumari burman Punjab i rockers, Desi Sty le & armour

Chi la Kumari Burman, Armour , 2005, mixed media col lage on paper (42 x 29.5 cm) SAG 2013.08.03Gift of the Art ist . Photograph by Scott massey.

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Chila Kumari Burman Punjab i rockers, Desi Sty le & armour

Since the mid-1980s 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

makeup 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 of my

dad’s ice-cream van—complete with Bengal tiger on

the roof—as a vehicle for displaying and touring my

own art work. once inside, the visitor will discover

a creative environment of fine art and archived

memories juxtaposed with music, video and graphics.

the project explores serious and contemporary

questions about representation and self-identity in a

humorous and approachable way that aims to attract

new audiences to the visual arts. the project extends

recent work that has used family portraits in order to

construct personal and collective histories concerned

with South Asian People and women in particular. in

these pieces the private and the individual are used

in order to confront wider social issues, proposing

a dual cultural heritage in relation to historical and

political context.

my current art practice is a progressive culmination

of over twenty years of experimental work in a

wide range of media including photography and

photomontage, graphics and plastic arts, video,

sound, installation and performance. much of my

work emerges from a tradition of graphic political

satire, generated from an adversarial position within

the gender and identity politics of a post-colonial, class

oriented, and visually saturated contemporary Britain.

By dwelling on the poetics of visual composition

and arrangement - dealing with the complexities of

framing, layering and assemblage - an alternative and

distinctive formal relationship has emerged in my

work. in a maturing of sensibilities shaped through

an ongoing engagement with art practice, my current

interests invite and engage viewers to experience a

new dynamics and intimacy of looking.

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chila kumari burman Punjab i rockers, Desi Sty le & armour

Artist’s StatementChila Kumari Burman

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Chila Kumari Burman Punjab i rockers, Desi Sty le and armour