SYDNEY: Rainy days often bring love messages inscribed on foggy windows. But in artist Shilpa Gupta’s work, a little girl’s hand moves over a fogged glass speaking a language of terrorism — “A for Army, B for Bomb, C for Curfew …”
On another screen, in this untitled interactive installation, as viewers piece together a jigsaw of a wonderful view from a window, it cracks all over again. On the third screen, the beautiful landscape of Kashmir passes by, punctuated by the ever-present soldiers in uniform. “Kashmir presents overwhelming beauty on one side and daily fear and terror on the other,” says Gupta.
Her work is part of Zones of Contact 2006, Biennale of Sydney (www.bos2006.com) running until August 27. The 15th biennale, Australia’s leading festival of international contemporary art brings together 85 artists from 44 countries — including Gupta, The Raqs Media Collective, Navjot Altaf, Amar Kanwar and Ranjani Shettar from India. Gupta’s work will move to the APJ Gallery in Delhi after the Sydney biennale.
This 30-year-old has already participated in the Media City Seoul Biennale, the 9th Havana Biennial and Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial and will show at the Shanghai Biennale and Liverpool Biennale later this year.
This sculpture student of the JJ School of Arts, has been experimenting with video and performance, installation and netart since the past ten years.
“I am drawn to everyday objects and media culture, including video and the web,” she says. “Video and web art challenge the dominant art market which values art as an investment rather than an experience. The only time art hits the front page, is when a painting is sold for so and so.”
Gupta’s artworks raise issues of religious conflict, consumerism, and communalism — but with subtle humour and interactivity. In an online artwork, blessed-bandwidth.net
(www.blessed-bandwidth.net), commissioned by the prestigious Tate Gallery, London in 2003, visitors can get the blessings of their favourite God, by following simple instructions (‘1. Sit down. Don’t lean. 2. Bend slowly forward. Concentrate. 3. Now touch your forehead to the computer screen on the spot x.’) and even print out a certificate to prove it.
