Bharti Kher: Alchemies

This summer, Yorkshire Sculpture Park hosts the largest exhibition in the UK to date of work by Bharti Kher, with sculpture made between 2000–24 spread throughout its galleries and the surrounding landscape (until 27 April 2025). Indoors, there are abstract sculptures made from repurposed materials (radiators, mirrors, saris) and figures evoking mythological themes, while outside, large bronzes from Kher’s The Intermediaries series draw from South Indian golu dolls: figurines depicting deities, animals or people that are often displayed in homes during the Hindu festival of Navaratri. In this series, Kher slices and splices these statuettes into new and unexpected configurations – here they are reimagined at a monumental scale. The largest and most abstract of these bronzes, Djinn (2022), towers above the garden at five metres high, while Ancestor (2022) depicts the heads of 23 children emerging from a woman’s body.

Find out more from YSP’s website.

Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary

Installation view of Ancestor (2022) by Bharti Kher at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Photo: © Jonty Wilde; courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth, Nature Morte and Perrotin/Yorkshire Sculpture Park; © the artist

Installation view of The Intermediary Family (2018) by Bharti Kher at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Photo: © Jonty Wilde; courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth, Nature Morte and Perrotin/Yorkshire Sculpture Park; © the artist

Installation view of The fallow (2019) by Bharti Kher at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Photo: © Jonty Wilde; courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth, Nature Morte and Perrotin/Yorkshire Sculpture Park; © the artist