Neon Dreams precedes the opening of a new solo exhibition of new and recent neon and sculptural works by Burman at Compton Verney, from 26 October 2024 – Sunday 26 January 2025.
The presented installation at the Holburne will include The Glowing Canopies (2023), Burman’s largest individual neon work to date, installed on the building’s facade, offering a new perspective down Bath’s magnificent Great Pulteney Street. Seeking to illustrate the close relationship between trees and bees, and its growing precarity as a result of climate change, Burman’s vibrant work assembles delicate neon replicas of both species into an spectacular explosion of colour.
Taking centre stage in the museum’s Ballroom will be a life-size, three-dimensional neon Tiger sculpture. Measuring three metres in length, My Tiger Janu (2022) references childhood memories of the artist’s father’s 1960s ice cream van, which was crowned with an elaborate Bengal tiger figurine. A common motif in Burman’s work, the tiger is as much playful as it is a link to her cultural roots, and a symbol for survival and strength in the context of the broader economic, political, and social history of migration from India to Britain.