Industry Art

Bharat Sikka’s 'The Sapper' is as multi-layered as the relationship that it narrates between a father and an adult son. Through photography, Sikka creates the possibilities for observation, recollection, close comparison, and collaboration, and gives this long-term project a title that both describes and belies its substance. 'The Sapper' is an entitling that offers up a cue for the viewer: an explanation of the circumstances, behaviours, and predilections that we can read into the portrayal of this former “sapper” of the Indian Army Corps of Engineers. It suggests a double-edged understanding of this father—the push and pull of his sense of selfhood—as both held in his public, now-historical role, and despite of it. The title could be read as holding its subject at an observable distance and implies, perhaps, the urge of an adult child to adopt a vantage point of parity from which to see their father as another adult.

Text by Charlotte Cotton. Published by Fw:Books. 

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‘The series of photographs were created for the artist’s 16-year-old daughter, Mannat, drawing inspiration from her Haikus and her profound fascination for Japan. This project commenced in 2023 during their inaugural trip to Japan together. The artist aimed to create an intimate souvenir to bring back to India, capturing the feelings and emotions experienced during their travels in Japan, and reflecting on the mutual influence and interpretation of cultures. Mannat’s discovery of popular Japanese culture began with Studio Ghibli films, which blossomed into a fascination with Japanese writers such as Haruki Murakami and Kazuo Ishiguro. These influences profoundly shaped her perspective. Over two extended trips to Japan between 2023 and 2024, the artist developed a multilayered series of photographs, inspired by conversations with Mannat and her insights. The project evolved into a diverse collection of images, including documentation, collages, sculptures, and paintings on photographs. Various souvenirs collected during these travels were also integrated into the artwork, creating a narrative that bridges fantasy, fiction, and reality.

This endeavour represents the artist’s interpretation of Japan, viewed through the lens of a father-daughter journey. Ultimately, the extensive collection of this project transformed into a book, accompanied by Mannat’s Haiku-inspired poetry, serving as a tangible souvenir. It not only memorialises their experiences but also stands as a testament to the interplay of cultures and the enduring power of artistic expression.’

Taking the name from his daughters poem, Bharat Sikka explores his village in Goa, Salvodor du Mundo, where the mundane and the mysterious collide. The photographs in “Waiting for Midnight“ are a culmination of what has been seen, sensed and experienced over the last 15 years. The Polaroid image creates a nostalgic memory, blurring the line between the past and the present. The work is made around the eve of 2020, waiting for the new year, waiting for midnight.

Published by Fw.Books.

The state of Kashmir holds a mythic place in the mind of India. Long known as one of the world’s most beautiful mountain valleys, since the late 1980s it has become synonymous with a political and sectarian conflict which strikes at the very heart of India’s identity. Bharat Sikka travelled throughout Kashmir in 2014 and 2015, to attempt to make some sense of this troubled region through his own personal experience. Taking inspiration from Mirza Waheed’s novel The Collaborator, which tells the story of a young Kashmiri man’s struggle with his own sense of self buffeted by the exigencies of history and the present, the resulting project is a meditation on the rich, green landscape and those who have lived and struggled within it.

Published by Loose Joints.

Matter is a series of photographs that combine to form a compound portrait of contemporary India - a site of the rapid change brought on by globalisation and breakneck development - in search of a new self-image. Bharat Sikka explores this mercurial identity to reveal the tensions and ambiguities that characterise his rapidly transforming home country.
Eschewing India's clichéd bright hues, Sikka works only in neutral shades of grey to expose the many facets of India's uneven visual topography to a de-sensualised, analytical gaze as all that is solid in an ancient culture now facing contemporary realities melts into air.

Sikka’s photographs linger in the quiet spaces of Cape Town, embracing both beauty and silence. AND THEN is the delicate dance between landscape and memory. In these images, the land itself seems to whisper of untold stories, echoing the resilience of a place that holds both scars and grace. The photographs invite us to see beyond the surface, to feel the pulse of a city caught between the weight of its past and the lightness of the sea breeze.