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Huma Bhabha, Receiver, 2019. Bronze and acrylic paint, 98 ¾ x 18 x 25 in. Collection of San José Museum of Art. Gift of the Lipman Family Foundation, 2022.06. © Huma Bhabha. Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner. Photo by Glen Cheriton, Impart Photography.
Ongoing Installation
Receiver is a phantasmal giant. The figure’s head suggests a robot or alien from a Hollywood movie, its chiseled smile characteristic of Greek statues of the Archaic period. It is androgynous and two-faced (recalling Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain religious sculpture), with one set of arms clutched to the chest like a Mesopotamian votive figure that pays homage to a deity. Receiver’s toes are painted with pink polish.
By looking back and forward in time and far beyond the western art historical canon in her references, Bhabha creates a unique blend of speculative fiction. Receiver’s rough, seemingly eroded texture and two-tone coloring reflect the original sculptural model’s material juxtaposition of cork and Styrofoam. By being cast in bronze, Receiver is in dialogue with western traditions of figurative monuments that define heroes and shape history. Scarred, cut, and looming, Bhabha’s dignified figure reflects the centuries of violence written on the human body and its resilience despite such trauma. As a monument it questions the notion of the “alien,” standing in testament to the dignity and strength of the discarded, forgotten, and unseen.
Support
Gift of the Lipman Family Foundation.
