Bharti Kher’s noted sculpture will be on offer at Sotheby’s auction

Sotheby’s will offer on sale top contemporary artist Bharti Kher’s noted sculpture ‘The Skin Speaks a Language of Its Own’ in an auction event this June. The artwork - in the form of a huge elephant - has been much talked about. It is an archetype of India, her culture and history. It was sculpted in 2006. This is the first time ever the work will feature at an auction.

The life-size female elephant sculpture will be on offer at the Contemporary Art Evening Auction 2010. It’s estimated at roughly 1 million British pounds, according to a communique from the auction house. The work took her 10 months to complete. Every fold and recess of the sunken form of it has been meticulously contoured with intricately arranged patterns of bindis, which swarm organically across the beast in a second skin, noted the director of the Sotheby’s Contemporary Art section, James Sevier.

He termed it India’s identity in all glorious complexities. The sculpture is a beacon of the country’s avant garde emerging art scene. Zara Porter—Hill, Sotheby’s Indian Art Department head, said: “

Despite our familiarity with elephants, nothing prepares us for the emotional experience of seeing Ms. Kher’s elephant, huge and incongruous in the gallery space. With her head resting on her front foot, she is brought down to our level. Her glassy black eye entreats a communion and proximity rarely encountered in the wild. It is the most important work by this leading artist to appear on the auction market and will appeal not only to collectors of Indian Art, but also to the wider international community of connoisseurs of zeitgeist contemporary art.”

The art expert added:

“Sacred in Hindu mythology, Indian temples are adorned with stone carvings of the powerful, upright beasts that are worshipped in religious ceremonies. Throughout the ages, elephants have also been symbols of state power and royal authority in India... In the West, elephants have become a symbol of Indian culture. "

The artist ably personifies this creature as India’s archetype, culture and civilisation, by marrying it with the bindi. The artist lives and works in Delhi.