Chila Burman’s Ice Cream Van
Date Published : 31 July 2008
Pay a visit to Gallery Square this August to see Chila Burman’s Ice Cream Van. People will have the opportunity to speak to the artist, explore and experience one of the few original ice cream vans left in the country. People will also get a free ice cream.
Saturday 02, Sunday 03, Saturday 09, Sunday 10, Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 August 2008
11am – 4pm
Chila Kumari Burman is a graduate of the Slade and was born in Liverpool in the 1960's, the daughter of a vibrant Punjabi couple Bachan Singh and Kamla Vati both entertainers.
Chila grew up with noise and colourful inspiration.
Bachan Singh, a bespoke tailor after arriving in Liverpool to work for Dunlop could not find enough work so met up with Anglo Indian uncle Kelly, who introduced him to the hard ice-cream trade and for the next 30 years from 1960's to 1990' he sold ice-cream on fresh field beach and the surrounding areas of Liverpool.
Chila's father also helped many other Indian families set up business selling ice-cream and most of her uncles and cousins became ice-cream traders and the ice -cream factory is owned by Punjabi brothers, the Khanijau's.
This is quite unique as a lot of people are unaware that the ice -cream trade in Liverpool was predominately run by the Indian Punjabi community.
Chila was the envy of her school mates helping herself to soft scoop and flakes every day of the week and her father Bachan Singh sold ice-cream outside her Girls Grammar school in Waterloo, Merseyside.
This was a family and community business and her mother kept it all together whilst her brothers served in the van and Chila cleaned and prepared the van every day.
As much of Chila's work includes nostalgic references , family history plays a large part in her work so much so , in fact , one of her best known pieces is this exact replica of her dad's old ice-cream van, which she has revamped and painted , printed and toured around various galleries....'There aren't too many working class Asian women in the art world . When I say to people that it's my dad's ice-cream van they don't believe me”
Her seductive, fiery energetic paintings, collages and sculptures which viewers can step inside the van and see are made from an array of lolly ices and cornets and they celebrate personal and collective histories whilst challenging social and political stereotypes in particular of Asian women. ‘I focus on confectionary and sex. Ice-cream advertisements are predominantly sexualised. I'm just giving my own take on them .
These adverts are very stereotypical. I'm challenging those images, subverting them and making them funny.
Contact us
For more information please do not hesitate to contact Ioannis Ioannou, Audience Development Curator.
Telephone 01922 65 4404
Email ioannoui@walsall.gov.uk