Huma Bhabha
What is Love, 2013
Cork, styrofoam, acrylic paint, oil stick, lipstick
203 x 30.5 x 36 cm
At a towering 2 meters high and 30 centimeters deep this is a totemic representation of a body. It is carved from cork from the torso down and the head and shoulders are made from small squares of Styrofoam that have a greenish hue. Whilst this could be an artefact from pre-modern times, the big circular shapes that mark the ears make the figure look futuristic. Barbara Casavecchia, in her 2017 Collection Study of this work, made a comparison to Star Wars’ Princess Leia, who she notes was in turn ‘inspired by 2500-year-old limestone image’ of an Iberian priestess.
The title is a reference to the 1993 Haddaway dance classic of the same name, posed as a question without a question mark that Bhabha leaves purposely open-ended. ‘I let the materials dictate… till I am satisfied. I spend a lot of time looking,’ Bhabha has said about her process, which involves using discarded items she finds in Poughkeepsie, in upstate New York, where she has her studio.