Being a mother and being a woman makes me who I am as an artist. Art is a manifestation of being alive and feeling your way through things.

Ancestor is described by Kher as “a mythical and powerful female force that pays homage to the generations before and after her”. She is mother earth and a timeless mother goddess. The form of this work was inspired by sculptures of the ancient Greek goddess Artemis, which often showed her with many breasts to reflect her fertility as she was the goddess associated with childbirth. Kher sees Ancestor as a much-needed figurehead and a unifying monument for our troubled times.

The work belongs to an ongoing series by the artist called the Intermediaries, that all begin life as golu figurines from Southern India. These small clay objects represent a colourful celebration of life, from everyday people and animals to gods and goddesses. Kher collected them for several years, but many became broken and cracked.

Her process of repair and reassembling resulted in unexpected, hybrid combinations. She describes wanting to make “strange, magical spirit people that exist in the imagination”. These fluid beings capture an in-between state that represents the potential of a person, an animal, or an object to become something else, not bound by the rules of reality.

Although now made in bronze so it can withstand the weather, this huge, scaled-up sculpture is patinated (coloured using chemicals on the metal) to look like the original clay figures. It is made to appear worn, as though paint has rubbed off in places through years of use, like an old family heirloom.

Bharti Kher (b.1969) was born in London, UK and has lived in New Delhi, India since 1993. She works across painting, photography, sculpture and installation. In 2024-25, YSP curated Alchemies, a major exhibition of the artist’s work in the Underground Gallery and outdoors.

Courtesy Bharti Kher Studio