Brilliant Ideas Episode #12:
Subodh Gupta

Gupta was born in Khagaul, an impoverished city in Bihar, India. The city, once an important site of Buddhist pilgrimage, is now one of the most disreputable areas in the country, notorious for extreme political empowerment of the caste system, prevalence of social irrationalities, corruption, abduction, larceny and violence. Gupta, growing up in an environment of destitution, found happiness in the kitchen where he spent meals with his mother. “I am an idol thief. I steal images from the life of Hinduism and the kitchen, which is as important as a prayer room in Hinduism,” he states, emphasizing his belief of the kitchen as a sacred place.

He has concentrated on the kitchen as a place where utensils are used regardless of class hierarchy; but among them, by employing stainless steel and brass dishes usually used by the lower class, he depicts the hidden side of India. One of his most representative pieces is a large-scale skull sculpture, composed of tableware he personally purchased at conventional markets. The work captures individual experiences of ambivalence: the skull as a representation of the disparate coexistence of life and death, and dishware as the final vestiges of human life. Simultaneously, Gupta criticizes an endemic social problem in India, the caste system, with the imagery that implies everyone is equal in the presence of death. India as a country has been building momentum, but this reverse reality of the caste system brings poignancy through mundane materials.

Gupta never truly left India. He began studying art in India, and he continues to work from New Delhi. What is interesting is his rejection of expressing the spectacle and development of India—instead, he critically addresses the unfamiliar and overlooked scenes concealed behind its growth.

One of the first things that come to mind in regards to India is the caste system, which was abolished but is still an inveterate social convention. Influenced by it, Indians habitually attempt to identify others’ social position by inquiring about their occupation. The lowest class, the Untouchables, is not only unable to attend school, but the water wells they use were considered poisoned. Gupta highlights the irrationality of the caste system, which prohibits fundamental opportunities at birth. He metaphorically criticizes the system by using different heights in his sculptures of dishes and other materials, using tableware and surging taps to express sympathy for those discriminated against even in water distribution.

IN 1964, Subodh Gupta was born in one of India’s poorest regions, Khagual, Bihar. He studied painting at the College of Art, Patna and moved to New Delhi when he was 24 years old. Since then, he has been representing works worldwide and has gained attention at various biennales.
As one of the representative Indian contemporary artists, Gupta is often described as “Marcel Duchamp and Damien Hirstmfrom India” because of his Ready-Mades and skull installations. Using wide range of media including performance, sculpture, installation, and painting, he does not limit the work in one genre to express the life and culture of India. He uses ready-made objects such as kitchen utensils that express visual paradox. As it has a shiny attractive appearance on the surface but is empty inside, it is a reference to the current polarized situation in India of plenty and absolute poverty.