Warrior with Cloak and Shield

Bharti Kher’s sculptural practice, which emerged in the mid-2000s, explores themes of transformation, hybridity, and the female form. Her works blur boundaries between human and animal, mythology and reality, and tradition and modernity, with references to classical forms, mannequins, and real bodies—many are in fact cast from the bodies of friends and intimates. Through these hybrid beings, Kher creates figures that are both powerful and vulnerable, real and otherworldly. In　Warrior with Cloak and Shield,　a female figure, cast in resin, stands frontally in a pose reminiscent of Greek or Roman warrior statuary, yet the classical reference is subtly unsettled by quotidian details—underwear, a sensible pair of low-heeled shoes. The warrior’s body—toned, flexible, and timeless—slips between the iconic and the intimate, appearing as deity and familiar figure. Monumental antlers sprout from her head, then branch and curve into weapon-like extensions gripped by the figure. A vertical banana leaf slung across her chest serves as a shield, while a piece of discarded clothing hangs whimsically from an antler, as if the titular warrior has emerged triumphant from some recent combat, nonchalantly carrying a bit of battlefield detritus. Referencing both the French medieval warrior-saint and the Indian bandit-turned-politician, Kher described Warrior as emblematic of how "women warriors do not always need archetypes such as Joan of Arc and Phoolan Devi to claim the warrior in them."[1]

[1] Bharti Kher, "The Body: Casting, Hybrid and Absent." in Bharti Kher: The Trick is Living, vol. 1, ed. Aveek Sen. New Delhi: Nature Morte Arts Limited, 2022, p. 22.