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Lot 20

 

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Hema Upadhyay's body of work addresses the exigencies of modern life, particularly those that inhabit the realms of gender, urbanization, dislocation, violence and loss. "Hema's work convincingly addresses issues that straddle the politics not only of gender and sexuality, of communalism and consumerism but also of self-formation in an overwhelmingly dystopic and continuously predatory urban environment" (Shilpa Phadke, Underneath, Gallery... Hema Upadhyay's body of work addresses the exigencies of modern life, particularly those that inhabit the realms of gender, urbanization, dislocation, violence and loss. "Hema's work convincingly addresses issues that straddle the politics not only of gender and sexuality, of communalism and consumerism but also of self-formation in an overwhelmingly dystopic and continuously predatory urban environment" (Shilpa Phadke, Underneath, Gallery Chemould exhibition catalogue, 2004, not paginated). Having lived in Baroda, a city that was shattered by communal violence in 2002, and currently residing in Mumbai, the most populous metropolis in South Asia, all the issues that the artist raises through her works are ones that she personally experienced.

In the present lot, Upadhyay extends the autobiographic element of her work, juxtaposing miniature photographs of herself with the painted image. This contrast not only represents a play on scale, but also offers a powerful vehicle for the artist's expression of the violence and dislocation implicit in conurbations like Bombay. For Upadhyay, Bombay is "A mayapuri, where space is legitimised only as real estate, and any other definition of space is bulldozed out of existence. Where the landscape proliferates with duplex slums and sky-scraping monstrosities. Where the pavement is home to most people and the bulldozer their ultimate annihilation. Where citizens' rights are sold in black, and basic entitlements are curtailed in the name of globalisation. Here, real space is built of fake concrete and fictive spaces concretise into the real" (Nancy Adajania, "When the Body Meets the City", The Hindu, 23 December, 2001).

Here, Upadhyay transforms the surface into a window-frame, complete with thick black bars that seem to almost physically separate viewers from the scene beyond. However, the landscape outside the grille is not a very pleasant one. Populated almost entirely by large black crows, shadowy half-recognisable forms, and plumes of thick, acrid smoke that seem to emerge from the arms of the artist's photographic images, this landscape provoke viewers to question whether the bars actually serve a protective function, and contemplate which side they are better off on.

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