They say our eating habits are heavily influenced by our socioeconomic status. And food and food inequalities open a window into how different communities live their lives; kitchen utensils are a marker of that. Subodh Gupta, one of India’s most famous contemporary artists, uses globes of stainless steel, brass, clay and ceramics to make sculptures that reflect the socio-political economies of his homeland in Bihar.
On making regular kitchen utensils into art, Gupta delves deeper into his vision and tells TMS: “Do you remember the last meal you ate? How is it part of different contexts throughout your life, your community, the society you grew up in? In what way is the way you eat a meal and the community-based act of sharing it, or not, reflect a story that is bigger than you?”
The artist has taken his work to Frieze, London, one of the world’s most influential contemporary art fairs, from October 11 to 15.
He is represented by the Delhi-based art gallery Nature Morte. The gallery has brought together works by six artists working in a variety of mediums including paintings, drawings, mixed media, textiles and installations. Gupta is one of them.
Childhood fascinations Gupta is from Khagaul, a municipality in Patna district. He was fascinated by the shine on cooking pots and lunchboxes as a child. “I have been fascinated by kitchen utensils since I was a kid. I loved their shine. I have continually built a work that extends over several levels of narration by alluding to the cosmos through assembling well-worn utensils,” he explains.
Two of his works at Frieze - Stitching the Code (II), a mixed media installation, and the watercolour, Other Moon – reflect the complex textures of life. The former is an extension of the first version of Stitching the Code, which was previously put on display at the luxury store Le Bon Marche in Paris. Gupta built three-storey installations of shining pots and pans there--the expression of his childhood memories for a simple Indian life had stood as a stark contrast to the opulence of his environs.
The Stitching the Code (II) series is composed of furniture and other household objects. An Indian sewing machine with a piece of multicoloured cloth flowing from it; an empty ceramic plate with a fork, and a utensil with a food item being cooked are part of the series.
Gupta explains: “Utensils are simple objects, yet when combined together in my mind, they speak of the complicated textures of life. Eating in Proust is a work influenced by Marcel Proust’s famous book, In Search of Lost Time, known for the trope of ‘involuntary memory’. It is a mental recall experience that happens without any effort. Furthermore, smell and taste are understood to be common sources of involuntary memory. Based on this process, I use the kitchen objects to trigger spectators about their food cultures.”
Rooted in India Founder and co-director of Nature Morte, Peter Nagy, says that Gupta’s work in the gallery booth at the fair stands as a homage to the craftsmen of India. “I have always thought of all of his art as monuments to the common man.
Here, he refers to the huge textile and garment industries of India, how they create magic (in this work, by weaving together the shards of ceramic plates into a fluid cloak, which resembles something historical),” he says. Gupta’s work often uses objects that are very intrinsically and contextually Indian in nature, which are familiar to the average Indian diaspora.
However, even with his work exhibited on the international stage, it manages to find a common ground and transcend boundaries. “Every object everywhere communicates something about the context that created it and its provenance. Most of the objects Gupta uses are chosen because they symbolise how the vast diversities in Indian society can be reconciled by the commonalities found in all communities,” Nagy explains.
