Artist Chila Kumari Burman's neon ode to the labour of South Asian women
An influential figure on the global arts scene, Chila Kumari Burman focuses on inner resilience of women in South Asia
It was while meandering through Jodhpur’s countless bazaar gullies in February that Chila Kumari Burman stumbled upon a local artisan, Abid Shah, working with neon lights and metal grids. It was a serendipitous discovery for the artist, who is based in the UK, since her practice is steeped in neon art and unexpected visual mash-ups. “I instantly knew he was the man to work with," she laughs. For the inaugural edition of the Jodhpur Arts Week by the Public Arts Trust of India (PATI), which concluded recently, Burman worked in collaboration with Shah, and other Jodhpur artisans, who helped bring her vibrant visual language to life.
This partnership echoed this year’s theme, Hath ro hunar, which translates to “skill of the hand" in Marwari—a homage to the craftsmanship of artisans, whose deft handiwork is often overlooked or undervalued. Spread across a mid-18th century stepwell Toorji ka Jhalra, Burman transformed one of Rajasthan’s architectural marvels into her vibrant artistic canvas. Her Well Speaks, supported by the British Council India, was Burman’s first site-specific work in the country.
The installation featured some of the artist’s iconic imagery: from the signature swirl of the icecream cone and the dancing sari-clad woman, to the majestic tiger. At night, the water reservoir’s placid façade shape-shifted into an enchanting tableau, as candy coloured lights reflected across the surface of the dark waters. Lit diyas flickered on the stone steps too. Locals and tourists alike gathered around, phones raised high, capturing the interplay of light and darkness, contemporary art and ancient architecture.
Burman is no stranger to conjuring electrifying, high-voltage spectacles. In 2020, her artwork In Remembering a Brave New World lit up the façade of Tate Britain in London. She has emerged as an influential figure in the global arts landscape for her radical feminist practice, spanning mediums such as printmaking, installation and film “Her Punjabi and Liverpudlian heritage enrich her self-expressive work. Burman mashes up stereotypes to create new identities, beyond the limitations imposed on South Asian women in a British cultural context," states a note by Tate Britain about her work.
The daughter of Indian immigrants in Britain, Burman is known for blending pop culture, Punjabi folk motifs, saturated colours, anti-colonial commentary, and unexpected materials— like glitter and bindis—into glowing manifestos. In fact, she has long been inspired by the resilience of women and the power they inherently carry. In Remembering a Brave New World, one element that was reimagined was Britannia—an enduring symbol of Britain’s colonial legacy—as Kali, the Hindu deity of inner-strength and destruction. The overall collage fused together Bollywood iconography, imperial symbolism and Hindu mythology.
But Burman’s references aren’t solely drawn from mythology or history. Much of her visual language is anchored in personal memory and identity. Most notably, it’s the ice-cream cone motif, which harks back to her father’s dessert van on Freshfield Beach near Liverpool in the 1960s, that once sported a large Bengal tiger cutout.
Her work focuses on layering of histories. In Jodhpur, Burman’s installation functioned as a commentary on gendered histories of the stepwell—a space traditionally associated with female labour and caste-regulated access to water. It was also a historic space where women once gathered and conversed freely, trading stories, away from the watchful eyes of men. The installation is an intervention of sorts, she says. “It’s a way of reclaiming and elevating the forgotten histories of women’s labour," she explains. “And neon is the perfect medium for it."
Women’s inner resilience and undocumented fierceness continues to preoccupy her artistic narratives. “I’m always thinking about the women who came before," she muses. “And the ones still carrying that weight of society today." While Burman’s inaugural solo exhibition will reopen at Tate Liverpool in 2027, she is currently showing her work, White Tiger, at the Lightpool Festival in Blackpool, England till 1 November.
Radhika Iyengar is the author of Fire on the Ganges: Life Among the Dead in Banaras, and an independent arts and culture journalist.
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