ART-PRESENTATION: Shilpa Gupta

Shilpa Gupta’s media ranges across manipulated found objects, photography, video, interactive computer-based installation, and performance. The removal of individual identity and the obscuring of violence inherent in the notion of borders and boundaries figure heavily in her work, which is informed by events she observes in her native India. She examines the influences of politics and culture on the construction of identity, and questions perception through her work.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: YARAT Contemporary Art Space Archive

Shilpa Gupta’s solo exhibition “For, In Your Tounge, I Can Not Fit” takes its departure point from the central piece: a new, large-scale multi-channel sound installation which gives voice to 100 poets who have been jailed over the centuries for their writing or political alignments. Exhibited alongside other new drawings and sculptures, the works highlight the fragility and vulnerability of our right to freedom of expression today. As Gupta says “The exhibition brings attention to the fragility and vulnerability of our right to freedom of expression today. Throughout history, poets from across geographies have been incarcerated for their work, and there are still many unsettling instances of this taking place today”. Running across the entire first floor gallery space, 100 microphones are suspended above 100 metal rods, each piercing a page inscribed with a verse of poetry. In turn, a single microphone plays these verses, echoed by a chorus of the other 99. Lasting over an hour, the sound piece alternates between English, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Azeri and Hindi, amongst other languages. A chorus of voices shift across the space, forming an ongoing sequence of haunting recitals. The title of the installation, “For, in your tongue I cannot fit – 100 Jailed Poets”, is based on a poem by 14th century Azerbaijani poet Nesimi. As the artist says “When the project was nearly finished, I had a long list of possible titles from different poems. It was getting very difficult to select one. In fact, at first, Nesimi’s poem was not even on my radar as I was looking at material in English and his poetry is mostly available in Azerbaijani. Then one day, I remembered him, his story and his way of living and thinking. That made me look at the English translation of this very powerful poem and the work instantly found a title!”. Alongside this major new work are a series of drawings and objects which reflect upon the lives of the poets, including a mouth cast in metal, a drawing made with thorns and tracings on paper around the body of the missing person. Telling stories of deep conflict and endearment, the works explore the political and societal restrictions which seek to control and clamp both the imagination and the physical mobility of the poets. A motion flapboard, typically found in transit zones and transport hubs to communicate timings and schedules, hangs from the ceiling. Subverting its intended function, Gupta replaces informational text with poetry which describes processes of arrival and departure, and the movement of people and ideas. As the split-flap display rotates, new words and prose appear, offering poignant and timely reflections which in turn lead us to question how we define identity through place and time. For this exhibition, the artist revisits her photographic series, “Don’t See Don’t Hear Don’t Speak” (2006) to create a sculpture in which three identical people encircle one another, each concealing the other’s eyes, ears or mouth. Based on a Japanese proverb made popular by Mahatma Gandhi, the work sits within the context of our current changing political landscape and recent wave of separatism, a present force in the artists own home country, where agencies are often suppressed for their views. Creating a potent dialogue with the other pieces in the exhibition, Gupta’s sculpture offers a powerful reflection on freedom of expression.

Info: Curator: Björn Geldhof, YARAT Contemporary Art Space, E119, Baku, Duration: 7/7-30/9/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 11:00-20:00, www.yarat.az