Reena Saini Kallat and Bharti Kher at ‘The Empire Strikes Back’

Reena Saini Kallat’s preoccupation with the plight of the socially marginalized is evident in her ‘Penumbra Passage’ (Canine Cases) at Saatchi Gallery show of contemporary Indian art. Like a dated museum piece, the work seems to carry a provocative, albeit subtle social-political undertone.

The artist works in a number of mediums such as painting, video, installation and photography. Her ‘Penumbra Passage’ uses images sourced from the Internet. They are painted onto canvas. Hung above display vitrines, these are portraits of ordinary people set in ornamental frames. The stained color, which forms by their mouth resembles, the shape of the PoK (Pakistan controlled part of Kashmir), referencing disputed territory and constant conflict.

The velvet dusty cases below the portraits comprise miniature marble carved weapons arranged to resemble an open mouth. Reena Saini Kallat shows how violence has historically been legitimized under aesthetic garb of the means of destruction. It pays an unsettled tribute to the dead.

Relocating to Delhi after studying art in Newcastle, Bharti Kher looks to explore cultural misunderstandings and social codes through her practice. Likening herself to the well-intentioned ethnographer investigating her culture, she delivers a forceful reinterpretation of modern India.

In her ‘Hungry Dogs Eat Dirty Pudding’ (Fiberglass and plastic), a domestic hoover is covered in garish animal skins. These are the kind of inventive hybrid creations that the artist has made unique to her works. Her sculptural works appear incredibly surreal in their construction.

Bharti Kher’s ‘An Absence Of Assignable Cause’ includes bindis employed on fiberglass. It is partly inspired by artists like Francisco Goya, William Blake, and Hieronymus Bosch. Unable to find sufficient scientific documentation about its anatomy, she invented the appearance of the blue sperm whale’s heart for her work. The artist has decorated the enormous heart and protruding veins and arteries with different colored bindis.