A Vegetarian Lion, a Slippery Fish
Artist
Bharti Kher
(Indian, born 1969)
Date2013
MediumAcacia, plaster and paint
Dimensions118.1 × 172.1 × 112.3 cm (46 1/2 × 67 3/4 × 44 3/16 in.)
ClassificationsSculpture
Credit LineMuseum Purchase through the Eliza S. Paine Fund, Sarah C. Garver Fund, Harriet B. Bancroft Fund and the Alexander H. Bullock Fund
Object number2018.36
Description70 figures, all facing front, adorn this object.Label TextThroughout her career, Kher has explored the malleability and boundaries of social conventions using popular or found objects. This sculptural menagerie is comprised of seventy distinct golu dolls, which are commonly sold in markets in India. The figures range from religious deities—such as Buddha, Krishna, and saints—to contemporary characters such as a snake charmer. Typically, golu dolls are prominently and neatly arranged on multi-tiered displays in south India during the Navaratri festival. Kher’s unorthodox mixing of different social, religious, and temporal categories and hierarchies, all presented on the same level, invites the possibility for new and unexpected relationships to form.
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