Tree of Life
‘Just as Powerhouse Parramatta serves first and foremost as a meeting place — both harkening to the site’s past where the mountain and coastal people communed and also as a modern-day cultural hub for Sydneysiders of all backgrounds — Tree of Life embodies an artistic message of commonality and an ode to nature.’
Powerhouse Parramatta Commission: Sacred Tree Sculpture
Internationally acclaimed British Indian contemporary artist Bharti Kher has been commissioned by Powerhouse to create a large-scale public artwork for Powerhouse Parramatta.
Titled Tree of Life, the 7 m tall bronze sculpture represents Kher’s interpretation of the sacred tree, one of the most ancient images from Indian mythology, which in Hindu religious texts is described as a conscious being providing protection.
Conceived as a spirit work rather than a narrative one, the heads of ancestors are layered within the symbolism of the Tree of Life. Families are connected together to recollect histories and memories as they grow and adapt over time.
The building’s exoskeleton bridging the human scale to one that is larger-than-life through its biomimicry lattice structure supports aspirational spaces that unite the human and the natural worlds through architecture. The totem, in its way, similarly unites collective memory and histories of the human and natural worlds as a beacon of potentiality. In this way art and architecture provide a parallel yet united message.
‘The totem — or rather the spirit it embodies — represents a bond of unity but also an Axis Mundi for Powerhouse Parramatta — a connection between the living and spiritual worlds. An homage to the place that humans inhabit within the natural world and the mythologies born from it.’
A Landmark of its Own
Bharti Kher’s Tree of Life will become a landmark of its own within the broader landmark of Powerhouse Parramatta in the heart of Western Sydney.
In 2023, Powerhouse hosted community consultations with the artist and members of the public alongside representatives from City of Parramatta, Creative Industries, Indian business, Create NSW and the Centre for Australia-India Relations.
Kher presented an overview of her practice and the concept of the artwork, which represents sophisticated elements of Indian traditions. Participants reflected on the important opportunity for art to engage the Indian community in Western Sydney, particularly in the City of Parramatta where residents with Indian ancestry are the fourth largest group overall.
A Third Eye
One of Bharti Kher’s signature materials is the bindi, the iconic forehead decoration worn by Indian women and a loaded symbol. ‘Many people believe it’s a traditional symbol of marriage, while others, in the West particularly, see it as a fashion accessory,’ she explains. ‘But actually the bindi is meant to represent a third eye — one that forges a link between the real and the spiritual-conceptual worlds.’
Used as a material to articulate and animate her themes, bindis are not meant to be the central motif of her work but rather act as a material, much like paint or clay, but with an inherent narrative. The bindis themselves undergo a shift in their initial cultural capital — they are defamiliarised, made to seem both scientific and mystical.
Artist Statement
Bharti Kher’s Tree of Life represents the artist’s newest hybrid large-scale bronze sculpture and her interpretation of the sacred tree, one of the most ancient images from Indian mythology. Conceived as a spirit work rather than a narrative one, the heads of ancestors are layered within the symbolism of the Tree of Life. Families are connected together to recollect histories and memories as they grow and adapt over time.
The totem — or rather the spirit it embodies — represents a bond of unity but also an Axis Mundi for Powerhouse Parramatta – a connection between the living and spiritual worlds. An homage to the place that humans inhabit within the natural world and the mythologies born from it.
Every detail and distressed surface of the original hand-crafted object has been meticulously magnified to reflect the journey of each character within a natural whole. Tree of Life harkens different places, different times, different memories. The final work is an empowered force fostering a diverse community — a hybrid form whose symbolic references to multiculturalism and plurality embody the possibility of an interconnected space of belonging and care.
The source material for this sculpture comes from the artist’s Intermediaries series. Started in 2016, Kher assembles her Intermediaries by recomposing and transforming broken clay figurines which she finds in second hand markets in India.
Tree of Life takes forward the idea of Kher’s previous public artwork Ancestor — the tree, in itself, a primordial ancestor for humanity.
About Bharti Kher
Bharti Kher is a British Indian contemporary artist whose practice explores themes of transformation, spirituality, memory and cultural identity. Her art gives form to everyday life and its daily rituals, reassessing and transforming their meaning to create an air of magical realism by assembling, juxtaposing and transforming found objects for paintings, sculptures and installations.
Born in London in 1969 and now living in New Delhi, India, her use of found objects is informed by her own position as an artist located between geographic and social milieus. She studied painting at Newcastle Polytechnic and has exhibited worldwide, including in New Delhi, Tokyo, New York, Paris, Berlin and Shanghai.
Kher has received several honours in her career spanning 3 decades, including Cultural Icon of the Year at Vogue Women of the Year 2021, India, Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture in 2015 and the ARKEN Art Prize, Denmark, in 2010.
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