MixTate Tara Lily on Chila Kumari Singh Burman

The countless faces in Chila Kumari Singh Burman’s mixed media work TALL FLY GIRL! Auto-Portrait(Fly Girl series) 1993 are at once fierce and hypnotic. My attention is drawn in particular to those whose eyes seem as ifthey are gazing into my own. I love the psychedelic nature of the image, with its bold, bright, hand-painted photographs arranged in kaleidoscopic patterns that are layered and repeated. The effect is like an optical illusion, taking us on a winding journey through a lucid dream.

In this ‘auto-portrait’, Chila asks us to explore different parts of the self. All the faces here belong to the artist, but they are disguised through costumes and paint. Among the guises, we see Western and Eastern spiritual archetypes, like the face of Kali Ma, the goddess of creation and destruction, mother of shakti energy – raw, untamed sexual lifeforce. There are also images of a nun and a Rastafarian woman. Each represents a unique path to spiritual liberation.

The mix I have made features a selection of records from the 1990s, as I wanted to tune into the period when the artist was creating this work. There is a range of genres and subgenres, including Indian classical, trip hop, Indo dub, punk, Pakistani disco, UK Asian underground and spiritual jazz. I have also included one of my own songs, ‘Flying to Kolkata’, which uses a sample from 1990s legends State of Bengal. All of the tracks have a nod to the East-West bridge and encompass a feeling of spiritual awakening.

South Asian women are often seen through the lens of colonial stereotypes, as fragile, submissive and compliant, when in reality we are much more than that. We can be strong, resilient and strategic – as leaders, workers, mothers, artists, activists. Drawing from inspirational deities such as Kali, Durga and Tara, and historical leaders such as Khadija and Aisha, we can, as Chila says, become the makers and definers of our own image.

ARUSHI JAIN – My People Have Deep Roots

THIEVERY CORPORATION – Facing East

TRILOK GURTU – Shobharock

SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES – Spellbound

COCTEAU TWINS – I Wear Your Ring

THE DHOL FOUNDATION – Healing with Turmeric

OSCAT! FEAT. SUKANYA – Jhoom

NAZIA HASSAN – Disco Deewane

STATE OF BENGAL – Chittagong Chill

AUNTIE FLO – Ceibo

ENIGMA – Sadeness (Part I / Meditation Mix)

PORT ISHEAD – Sour Times

TARA LILY – Flying to Kolkata

SHAKTI – Peace of Mind

^{TATE BRITAIN}

^{TALL FLY GIRL! Auto-Portrait (Fly Girl series) was presented by Tate Members in 2019. The first major retrospective of Chila Kumari Singh Burman’s work will reopen Tate Liverpool in 2027.}

^{Tara Lily is a British-Bengali musician based in London.}

^{This mixtape is no.26 in the MixTate series.}