Displayed in the Underground Gallery and surrounding gardens, Alchemies was an unmissable, powerful exhibition of sculpture and 2D work by one of the world’s leading contemporary artists. The title of the exhibition refers to Alchemy – an ancient practice that included trying to change ordinary metal into gold, and Bharti Kher’s work has these ideas of magical transformation at its heart. Mythology plays an essential role and is a major source of inspiration. Stories of imagined creatures and spirits who live between worlds, bodies and time align perfectly with Kher’s thinking. She blurs boundaries between animals, humans, nature and objects. The results are often hybrid beings that combine the everyday with the imaginary and the extraordinary. When visiting the light-filled indoor gallery you will find a powerful group of hybrid figures gathered together – part women, part animals, part goddesses.

Many of these sculptures are cast from real bodies of women known to the artist. Kher describes these beings as “mythical urban goddesses” who are, “part truth, and part fiction, part me, and part you”. Warrior with Cloak and Shield conveys the ability to be strong and vulnerable at the same time. Her shield is a huge banana leaf and her cloak is a shirt hanging from her enormous antlers. Neither appear capable of protecting her. Although her antlers are cumbersome and would impede her movement, they give her an air of magic. She is a contradictory, mysterious, and a quietly powerful presence. Cloud Walker is inspired by the Dakinis of Tibetan mythology. Meaning ‘sky dweller’ or ‘sky dancer’, Dakinis inhabit the skies and embody all things feminine. They are manifestations of energy and truth who can be peaceful or wrathful. Cloud Walker is a fierce and compassionate divinity that exists between worlds, between sleeping and waking, and between life and death.

Outside in the adjacent gardens stood four giant bronze works, belonging to a series called the Intermediaries. The series began with small works made from clay figurines called golu dolls from Southern India. Golu dolls are traditionally displayed in people’s homes as part of the Navaratri festival and represent a colourful celebration of life. The Intermediaries pays homage to generational family connections. Although made in bronze so they can withstand the weather, most of these huge, scaled-up sculptures are made to look like the original small clay figures they are based on. They are made to appear worn, as though paint has rubbed off in places through years of use, like an old family heirloom. Ancestor, a mother figure with the heads of 23 children emerging out of her body, is described by Kher as “a mythical and powerful female force that pays homage to the generations before and after her’’. At the top of the garden, the five-metre-high work Djinn stood majestically overlooking the landscape beyond. Kher describes the work as an “energy centre” around which everything revolves. The playful yet powerful figure has an enormous bunch of bananas in place of a head. This sculpture is a new development in the Intermediaries series, made especially for the exhibition at YSP.