Chila Kumari Singh Burman said she hopes to “inspires a whole new generation”
Bootle artist Chila Burman will reopen Tate Liverpool in 2027(Image: Chila Burman/Imperial War Museum North)
A Liverpool woman is returning to the city to complete a very “honourable” job. In 2027 the Tate will reopen with the first retrospective to be hosted in the newly refurbished gallery.
At a reception earlier this month, the secretary of state for culture, Lisa Nandy, announced that Bootle’s Chila Kumari Singh Burman will reopen the art gallery in two years’ time following its transformation.
The refurbished space will welcome visitors into a “21st-century museum” with spaces designed to showcase the diversity of Tate’s collection and host world-class exhibitions, as well as establishing a new art hall on the ground floor.
The modern art museum at the Royal Albert Dock closed its doors on October 16, 2023, for a £29.7m refurbishment, which a spokesperson at the time said would take until 2025.
However, the gallery’s director, Helen Legg, told the media this would no longer be the case, with a spokesperson confirming to the ECHO that construction will be completed in 2026, with the plan to reopen the gallery in 2027, with an exact date provided nearer the time.
This will be a first for artist Chila Burman(Image: Tate (Joe Humphrys))
Until then, this is everything you need to know about Chila Kumari Singh Burman. The artist has a widely recognised, unique visual identity shaped by her working-class childhood in Liverpool.
A self-described ‘Punjabi Scouser,’ Chila will be celebrated at the venue with the first retrospective of her career, spanning five decades of her work.
Chila said: “I’m made up to be coming back home to Liverpool with an exhibition that spans my whole career, from the River Mersey to the Land of the Five Rivers in Punjab. It is a real honour to be reopening the gallery and I hope the exhibition inspires a whole new generation of visitors”.
The gallery closed for renovation in 2023(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)
Chila explores her female and British-Indian identity through her work, which spans drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, photography, video, and, more recently, neon installations.
Back in the 1950s, Chila Burman’s dad, Bachan Singh Burman, arrived in Liverpool from Calcutta, now Kolkata, in India and was later followed by her mum, Kamala Devi and her two elder siblings.
Growing up in Bootle, Chila previously shared memories of her childhood with the ECHO, especially those of her dad’s popular ice cream van on Freshfield Beach and the clothes shop owned by her mother, both of which the community came to know and love.
Chila said: “My dad was working at Dunlop in Calcutta, and then he said to the boss, “Can you send me somewhere else? “I’m fed up with it all.
Artist Chila Burman grew up in Bootle(Image: Chila Burman)
“The bosses said, because you’re a magician and entertaining us, we’re going to put you on a ship called MS Batory to Dunlop Liverpool. That was in the 1950s.
“I imagine he would have had to have spoken basic English because they wouldn’t have sent him if he couldn’t speak much English.”
Chila’s dad arrived in Britain and first lived in Toxteth. He was joined shortly after in the UK by his wife Kamala and their daughter and son, Ashra and Achar. Now living in Britain, their family expanded, welcoming children Chila, Ashok and Ashan.
After working in Dunlop in Speke, Bachan got into the ice cream van trade, something Chila said her dad encouraged others from India to come to the UK and do.
Chila’s dad Bachan Singh Burman, with his ice cream van which had a tiger on top(Image: Chila Burman)
Chila said: “My dad made a friend in the pub, Uncle Kelly, and he said to my dad, ‘Why don’t you get an ice cream van and start selling ice cream and leave Dunlop?’
“My dad then told the families, others in India, to come over and sell ice cream because the vans were made in Crewe, so they could have their own ice cream vans. That’s what the Indian community is like, it was that community spirit.
“A few families came over, and my dad rented a house opposite our house, so when they all landed, they all stayed in the house, like a big extended family. I remember a lot of them couldn’t speak much English, so I would help and babysit.
Chila’s mum’s shop which sold ladies and childrenswear(Image: Chila Burman)
“There was also an ice cream factory in Toxteth opposite Liverpool Biennial, and there were three uncles who used to run the factory. Then lots and lots more families came over and came to work in this factory, and people got stock from there. It must have been great for my dad and all the families.”
It is these memories that inspire Chila’s present-day work. Weaving together traditional and popular Indian culture, family experiences, self-portraiture and music influences ranging from punk and reggae to Bhangra and Bollywood music, Chila’s politically-charged work has been formed in direct response to her environment.
Tate director, Helen Legg, said: “Chila Kumari Singh Burman was always the artist we wanted to show on reopening, as part of a celebration of the rich culture of the North.
“She is renowned for creating irreverent pop and punk-inspired works in kaleidoscopic colour, infused with glitter and neon, that draw on aspects of Indian and British cultural heritage. Her works are just as striking for their subversive treatment of gender, class and identity.”