Location: Market Place
One of the UK’s leading visual artists, Chila Burman MBE, exhibits a joyful new commission at Lumiere this year.
Hurts So Good will take over Durham Market Place with a selection of new and existing signature neon-light artworks that together celebrate Burman’s rich Hindu-Punjabi heritage, with references to Indian mythology, popular culture, female empowerment, political activism and colonial legacy. These neon-light artworks are synonymous with her hugely popular installation for the Tate Britain Winter Commission in 2020 which took over the façade of that building.
About Chila Burman
Chila Kumari Singh Burman MBE is celebrated for her radical feminist practice which examines representation, gender and cultural identity. She works across a wide range of mediums including printmaking, drawing, painting, installation and film.
Born in Bootle, to Punjabi-Hindu parents, she attended Southport College of Art, Leeds Polytechnic and the Slade School of Fine Art. A key figure in the British Black Arts movement in the 1980s, Burman has since remained rooted in her understanding of the diverse nature of culture. Continually seeking to break stereotypes and emancipate the image of women, she often uses self-portraiture as a tool of empowerment and self-determination.
Burman was selected as the fourth artist to complete the Tate Britain Winter Commission in 2020. The resulting hugely popular installation Remembering A Brave New World, addressed the colonial history of Tate Britain and its Eurocentric position, exposing a need for better informed conversations and more effective strategies for tackling racism in the art world and wider society. More recently she has gone on to complete high profile light installation projects for Covent Garden’s historic market stall building, Liverpool Town Hall and Blackpool’s Grade II listed Grundy Art Gallery. She recently featured in Sky Arts documentary special Statues Redressed and BBC2 documentary Art That Made Us, and has completed a number of notable commission pieces for brands including Netflix’s White Tiger campaign and Byredo’s new fragrance Mumbai Noise.