Target Queen, Bharti Kher's large-scale outdoor work, transforms the Hayward Gallery's brutalist architecture with supersized bindis, infusing it with powerful feminine energy. This vibrant mural celebrates the goddess, blending humanity, nature, and spirituality, and marks Kher’s first ambitious outdoor piece presented by a London institution.
How does Target Queen reflect your ongoing exploration of femininity and divinity, and what inspired you to incorporate the bindi as a central motif in this work?
I responded to the brutalist structure of the building really. The bindi works have been part of a language I’ve been working with that looks at perception and possibility.
Target Queen became a mural in 2012 at The Rockbund Museum in China; and like that iteration I wanted to introduce a feminine sensibility to the outdoor space. I love the idea that the bindi transformed from a tiny dot to a supersized one and now becomes the third eye of the building and beyond. Many eyes watching also and being seen. Your third eye is the gate to your inner world and your consciousness. So the work is reflective and also joyful.
Your work often blurs the lines between cultural identity and universal themes. How do you see Target Queen resonating with both South Asian and global audiences?
I think people are now a lot more aware of the ideas that have crossed continents. The inner world of your being, Meditation, your spiritual journey and your inner wisdom is not only accessible to sages, monks and nuns in faraway places. This way of seeing the world has always been familiar and part of the Asian way being with the traditions of Buddhism Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism and others.
I’ve learnt so much myself along the way in making the bindi works and this work is simple in its message: “Look within”
How does Target Queen relate to your previous works that use found objects, and what does this piece represent in terms of your overall artistic evolution?
To work in the public space is very different. Art must speak visually and conceptually. I think sometimes my work can be quite complex and layered. With this work, it's paired down to the concentric circle as itself. A universal symbol of unity and infinity, totality and wholeness.
With Target Queen being visible from public spaces like Belvedere Road and Waterloo Bridge, how do you hope this artwork will engage with and impact the daily lives of commuters and tourists?
The bindi is the giant third eye. Many were placed together along the building for a shared consciousness and possibility. The colours are intentionally celebratory. We need happiness too and to be reminded that colour is life and has energy and vibrations that can change us.
