Chila Kumari Burman’s work in History Revision highlights the many layers, colours, approaches and hypocrisies towards issues of immigration - not just of people (from East to West) but also of ideologies (‘traditional’ third world countries of India and Pakistan having nuclear capability) - from an Anglo-Indian perspective.

Caught up in the dichotomy of history and mythology, taking on the role of rebel-fighter, Burman uses techniques of layering and fragmentation as her weapons to conjure with the oppression of repetition and visually weighting an image or theme into submission or celebration.

The liquefying sequence of disintegrating policemen in Triptych No Nukes dating from 1982’s era of nuclear threat:- through the relentless protests by the women of Greenham Common (a contrast of gender-empowerment contrasted gruesomely by the dominating ‘nanny-state’created by Margaret Thatcher), and culturally through films When The Wind Blows, Threads etc has become a chilling parallel to current world events and awakened the very real threat of nuclear conflict.

Convenience Not Love contrasts British law and the Asian experience in split-screen, with a pompous Thatcher-headed John Bull character presiding over the barbed-wire divide of red tape and immigration hurdles. Echoing the graphic style (but not the content) of Jamie Reid’s Sex Pistols imagery, Burman brings her personal incisiveness into play with the Arabic script looking small, meek and beautiful (concerning virginity tests used to determine the entry of Asian women into Britain) under the monolithic heavy-handed officialdom of the British passport.
A rich, kaleidoscopic visual style dominates Burman’s work that never preaches but lures and entices with rich colour and informs by stealth of the global concerns at its heart. As a political rising star amongst black British artists, Burman’s work revises the historically weak stereotypes of Asian women into strong, relevant, beautiful shimmering creatures with a voice to be heard.