I've got in here and my energy's like rock
bottom and I'm thinking oh my god put
the kettle on then as time goes by you'll
get a sketchbook out and I'll draw maybe
I prepare something for a print or an etching
and two hours later you're buzzing
I'm Chila Kumari Burman and you are in my
studio in Hackney it's a bit like your
bedroom because it's your own private
space and in a way you're going into
this tiny little world I have to stop
myself buying things I've got a lot of
stuff cuz I save things so what have we
got here these I mean haven't even open
this yeah these are nice too here look at my
swarovski gems absolutely
gorgeous I collect things that are dirty
on the floor that's to be as a found
object but I mean artists are hoarders
and it gives me ideas I'm a painter
printmaker etching silkscreen printer
mixed-media artist moving image artists
high art meets  popular culture I think
that's essentially what I'm interested
in I was born in Bootle Liverpool my
parents came from Punjab you got my
Indian culture the Western culture I
grew up in it beyond two cultures to
become an artist I had to get away from
home it was my way to find some kind of
independence
color has always been there when you've
grown up in an Indian family the colors
were dynamite the ice cream stuff it was a bit
like a family business in a way that's
possibly why it's reoccurred that image
of the van I just thought of putting the
ten pound note over it because that's what they
came here for is to make money it's what
we survived on oh the bindi box the
bindis these things the bindi packets is
what would I do without you bindi packet
I'm reworking girly things I'm taking
the mickey out of the way women are
supposed to be wearing these things so
I'm reappropriating it and mashing it
up and my self-portrait work I'm using
myself as a vehicle to express different
facets of being a woman and with a lot
of new work and I super impose things on
top of each other that one painting of
28 faces now it's got me looking like a
nun or in rasta gear with 60s gear so
it's all these different personas it's
challenging all stereotypes not just
Asian women about all of us when you're
an artist you giving yourself a
challenge or you're undressing yourself
and then you're redressing yourself or
you're turning chaos into some kind of
semblance of order so much stuff going
on my mind so maybe I'm thinking well
I've ordered something  maybe deep down
inside
