Kher tells that “an Atlas lets you hold the world in your hands.” Not All Who Wander Are Lost is based, in part, on a ready-made, historic map from The Larousse International Political and Economical Atlas by Jean Chardonnet, which Kher has appropriated, enlarged, and transformed, filling the image with multi-colored bindi dots. Bindis are a forehead decoration worn by women in India. They represent the third eye, a state of consciousness, and are a central element in the artist’s work.

The Hindi word Bindi is derived from the Sanskrit Bindu, meaning a drop or a small particle.

In Not All Who Wander Are Lost, the acid orange colored bindis impart a sense of emergency as they collide with the black.

These dots mark places for urgent attention and earnest conversation in our daily lives. They serve as a metaphor for the eye urging us to be aware of the shifting borders of migrant populations, marking the map as a constantly changing flux of truths and leaving a residue of time like a palimpsest.