Chila Kumari Singh Burman
In 2021, after high profile projects for Tate Britain and Covent Garden in London, internationally recognised artist Chila Kumari Singh Burman turned her sights to Blackpool and the town’s Grade II listed Grundy Art Gallery.
A riotous display of multi-coloured new light works was specially commissioned for the exterior of the Grundy, brought together under the title, “Blackpool Light of My Life”.
Now you can get up close and personal with artist’s love letter to the town which she visited regularly as a child, with Blackpool Illuminations being an abiding memory.
Tony Heaton OBE
These two works demonstrate the importance of language within the work of Tony Heaton. A Bigger Ripple, uses derogatory rhyming slang for a person with a disability while TRAGIC / BRAVE provides an example of the condescending comments sometimes directed at people with a disability.
However, made as they are from neon, a material synonymous with sea-side towns and rendered brightly in colours associated with joy and pleasure Heaton’s choice of materials, scale and colour subvert any assumed power or negative impact of these words.
Describing herself as ‘Punjabi-Liverpudlian’, the artist likes to combine her Indian roots with popular culture and has produced a display that she hopes will help people feel joy at a time when such emotions may be hard to find.
Tony Heaton OBE is an artist and disability rights activist who was appointed an OBE in 2013 for services to the arts and the disability arts movement.
Tragic / Brave, 2019, Image credit: courtesy Grundy Art Gallery, Photographer: Matt Wilkinson
A Bigger Ripple, 2021, Image credit: courtesy Grundy Art Gallery, Photographer: Matt Wilkinson
