Bharat Sikka is an Indian artist
Episode 354: Bharat Sikka is an Indian artist whose new book, The Sapper, has been published by FW: Books, Netherlands.
I became aware of Bharat’s work through his publications. Though I had not received a copy of one of his books until Bharat and I began our discussion, his name has been widely circulating for the past decade. The Sapper, his newest book, is an opus. It is loosely based on the idea of his father, the book’s main protagonist, but extends past superficial family relationships and becomes an abstraction. Though close, Bharat and his father push the idea of play and collaboration into incredibly fascinating territories, with the role of author and subject sometimes switched.
As a photobook, I find it flawless. Part of this is due to the exceptional design skills of Hans Gremmen, but also Bharat’s freedom of exploration in making images with collages and repetition of specific images appearing in the sequence of the book. It is a fantastic piece of photobook excellence. The whole of it makes the book unique and transcends the simple notions of a “family” photobook. Please tune into this.
