Subodh Gupta

Press Release ARARIO GALLERY Shanghai Opening Exhibition SUBODH GUPTA No Title (Golden Potatoes), 2013 Glass vitrine, wood, bronze potatoes 24k gold plated, 33.5(h)x36x22.5cm ARARIO GALLERY Shanghai ARARIO GALLERY Seoul Period | 2014. 8. 29 (Fri) – 10. 26 (Sun) Period | 2014. 9. 1 (Mon) – 10. 5 (Sun) Venue | 1-2, 320 Tianping Road, Xuhui District Venue | 76 Sogyeok-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul Works | Approx. 5 works including large installations, Works | 5 sculptures and approx. 30 paintings sculptures and paintings Press Conference | 3 pm, 8. 27 (Wed) ■ Exhibition Overview ARARIO Gallery is pleased present a solo exhibition by internationally renowned Indian artist Subodh Gupta (b. 1964) in Shanghai and in Seoul simultaneously. Having opened a new exhibition space in Shanghai on August 29th 2014, ARARIO GALLERY Shanghai celebrates its opening and presents its first exhibition of master works by Subodh Gupta including his large-scale installations, sculptures and paintings. The gallery seeks to demonstrate its status as a leading gallery in Asia which supports its represented artist to unfold their art practices on a global stage. In conjunction with the exhibition at ARARIO GALLERY Shanghai, ARARIO GALLERY Seoul opened an exhibition on September 1st, shedding light on the exquisite process through which Subodh Gupta’s reflections on Indian history and religion — ingrained in Indian people’s culture and everyday life of joys and sorrows — are visualized through the sophisticated contemporary art language. ■ Opening of ARARIO GALLRY Shanghai As ARARIO GALLERY Beijing was preparing for relocation at the end of 2012 and beginning of 2013, the gallery took some time to reflect upon the reopening of their Chinese branch. Now after almost a year and a half since closing ARARIO GALLEY Beijing, the gallery opened its new exhibition space in Xujiahui on August 29th, 2014. Shanghai is one of the four direct-controlled municipalities in China and is a great metropolitan with a population of more than 23 million. The last couple of years Shanghai has worked vigorously at transforming itself into a vital center for culture and art, establishing an Art Free Trade Zone and planning a development blueprint for the Westbund of Huangpu River. The increase in government-regulated, privately-run art museums and art fairs are evidence of the dynamic changes taking place. The Xuhui district and more specifically Xujiahui, often called “Little Europe in Shanghai”, is located at the center of all these changes. Xuijahui is an old French Concession influenced by Western culture, where luxurious mansions of writers, architects, and thespians are clustered. ARARIO Gallery is located within the culture and art complex called ‘Hengshanfang Unit’, a 1930-40s building remodeled under the local government, which today functions as the new incubator for art and culture. In line with the progressive growth in the art market and young collectors, Shanghai has become an area of interest and demand for Asian contemporary art. ARARIO GALLERY Shanghai employs a local management model and seeks to communicate and grow with contemporary art by introducing foreign artists in China as well as internationally promoting promising Chinese artists. A solo exhibition by Subodh Gupta signals ARARIO GALLERY Shanghai’s first step to achieving its vision. ARARIO GALLERY is located in Xujiahui, the hub of art and culture in Shanghai ■ Exhibition Overview Receiving international attention for his large symbolic monuments exploring subjects of Indian life and culture, Subodh Gupta’s art and his visual language, which transcends borders, proclaims his firm philosophy that ‘The most banal is the most sacred’. Essential in Gupta’s work are stainless steel kitchen utensils seen in virtually all Indian homes, junk brassware, and sacred matters related to cow, such as cow feces or milk, which all reflect the Hindu culture. While the completely banal, religious and peripheral symbols offer a cross-section of India today shaped through rapid economic growth and westernization, they form the sophisticated, globally-celebrated sculptural language style unique to Gupta. ARARIO GALLERY Shanghai presents This is Not a Fountain, a dynamic new form of installation work never seen in his art before. The exhibition also features Gupta’s most important recent works including Love, a large sculpture of a brilliantly-glittering golden heart, and large paintings measuring over 3 meters wide. In addition to over 30 paintings of food, ARARIO GALLERY Seoul presents works that focus on the political, religious and social ideologies imbued in the human food culture, including Two Bullets which is made of motorcycles that deliver water and milk in India, as well as works like oil drums in marble and symbolic objects in small glass boxes. ■ Key words in Gupta’s Work 1. Hindu Culture – Ideology of Purity and Impurity Installed on the 2nd floor of ARARIO GALLERY Shanghai, Round the Corner is made entirely of thousands of utensils commonly used in Indian household. Water spurts out from twenty faucets erecting out of the pile of old discarded dishes and utensils. The endlessly gushing water over the old dishes that were once used to hold warm food for someone is both a symbol of hope and a mournful analogy to the class society that’s taken away even water, a source of life. Round the Corner (detail), 2011-2013 Found aluminum utensils, water pipe, tap, cement, wire, pump, water Variable dimensions (approx. 4 x 4m) (Detail) Round the Corner is deeply related to the Hindu culture. Over 90% of the population in India, where Subodh Gupta grew up, believes in over three hundred million gods. Considering the fact that Hinduism comprises 80% of religions in India, most Indian people live and follow a culture and customs that reflect Hindu doctrine. The unique cultural values of India have been formed throughout the history of Hinduism, through the fusion of the fundamental doctrine of Hinduism which divides all things in the world as either pure or impure, and India’s caste system. The proposition of Hinduism which claims that ‘uncleanliness is contagious’ classified people according to their ‘level of cleanliness’ and was applied by the upper class as a mechanism to protect their power and block ascension of classes. The interesting reason why stainless steel utensils, which Gupta employs in his work often, have become the most popular kitchenware in India, is that earthenware traditionally used in India is believed to be filthy and contaminated with other people (especially those of lower caste)’s saliva due to its nature to absorb moisture. There is strict class discrimination even in milk and water, the most conventional food and beverage in India. Even the public well is prohibited to the lowest class of the untouchables who cannot even enter the caste system, and the well of Pariah with animal bones surrounding it is a representative example. Living in a society where even water is available according to one’s class, Gupta often references water in his work. 2. Leftovers: Memories of Childhood Untitled, 2013, oil on canvas, 20x25x0.5cm Untitled, 2013, oil on canvas, 15cm in diameter “If day-to day objects can be my art, day-to-day cooking can be my art too.” - Subodh Gupta As extravagantly dazzling as the silver utensils and pure and noble as the smooth white marble surface, Gupta’s work is acclaimed to portray the most contemporary rendering of Indian popular culture. Gupta’s narratives related to ‘eating’ goes back to the memories of his childhood. Gupta was born in Bihar in East India, known for high crime rate and poverty, between a railroad worker father and devout Buddhist mother. As can be seen in the French art critic and curator Nicolas Bourriaud’s statement that “Gupta’s work begins in the kitchen” in his Letter to Subodh Gupta, the kitchen in Gupta’s memory was the most warm and sacred space. Like most Indian mothers, His mother had leftovers in the kitchen after her husband and son had finished eating. He remembers how much he enjoyed eating with his mom, who would create a completely new meal out of leftovers by adding different kinds of spices. ‘Leftovers’ is actually deemed upon negatively in India, because in Hinduism, it’s believed that things contained in life are sacred and things that do not (corpse, leather, and secretions) are not. Female is considered less holy than male, so most Indian women didn’t eat with men and ate their leftovers in the past. Having spent his childhood in such culture, Gupta frankly portrays his memories and culture as the subject in his art. On the 2nd floor in Arario Gallery in Seoul are exhibited paintings that portray dishes with leftovers and forks with dried up food on them. The painting takes the stance of someone with power, satiated after having stuffed himself, looking down on the leftovers that has nothing to do with him anymore. These paintings enclosed in gold antique frames evoke a sense of sacredness. The table — which suggests the British culinary culture, who dominated India for 100 years from late 19th century — reflects complex layers of history, culture and religion, combining Gupta’s experiences of growing up in India, with issues of tradition and culture, dominator and subordinated, clean and unclean, and sacredness and violation. This is precisely where Subodh Gupta’s work is situated: the crossing point between sacred and secular. 3. Mobile Food and Subverted Culture Left) Two Bullets, 2014, Cast brass, chrome plated brass milk pails, life-size Right) Milk, 2010, Marble and stone 140(h)x89.2x72cm Gupta has shown persistent interest in the way ‘food’ is transported, and also the way culture has unfolded accordingly. His father used to carry his lunch to work on his bike, and his mother used to carry water from the Ganges River in a pail, and Rickshaw drivers would roam the streets with full bottles of milk.

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