Artist Chila Kumari Singh Burman MBE has created a new commission for the outside of the Royal Pavilion. Exploring its role as a hospital for wounded Indian soldiers during the First World War, Chila’s colourful neon sculptures also draw on the spectacle of the Pavilion interiors, where Asian symbols and motifs intermingle with signs of British imperialism. Chila’s work often explores the cultural syntheses she experienced growing up in Britain.
The artwork remembers the soldiers cared for in the Royal Pavilion between 1914 and 1916 when it was used as a hospital for Indian soldiers wounded in the First World War. Burman’s colourful neon sculptures draw on the spectacle of the Pavilion interiors, where Asian symbols and motifs intermingle with signs of British imperialism.
“I like to think the light is healing to people. Neons, to me, bring joy to people: they emanate fantastical colours. I started making neons during the pandemic, for the Tate Winter Commission 2020. They’re like a beacon of hope and courage.
There are new neons on the Pavilion balcony: the phoenix and the tools are new, and I've reinvigorated this dragon, who is fierce, a protector. I met the phoenix on the carpet in the palace: I thought it was a peacock, a symbol of India. The Indian Ayurvedic tools are also symbols of healing. These medical instruments are elegant: not grim and hard and harsh, or something painful, but alive, like birds.
I’m moved by the whole fact that the Punjabi soldiers were there. This suite of subversive neons is an homage to them.”