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Lot 12

 

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Subodh Gupta is among India’s most celebrated contemporary artists today, having built a distinctive body of work by using commonplace objects of mass utility and elevating them into spectacular, larger-than-life sculptures that simultaneously celebrate and critique Indian culture. The artist’s name has become synonymous with the stainless-steel utensils that are ubiquitous across Indian households, which he uses as his signature medium for... Subodh Gupta is among India’s most celebrated contemporary artists today, having built a distinctive body of work by using commonplace objects of mass utility and elevating them into spectacular, larger-than-life sculptures that simultaneously celebrate and critique Indian culture. The artist’s name has become synonymous with the stainless-steel utensils that are ubiquitous across Indian households, which he uses as his signature medium for their deep social and economic ties to the Subcontinent. Gupta turned to stainless steel in 1996 after a moment of epiphany in his kitchen. “I was looking for what material to use, something that is close to me. The kitchen is very important to me, since I love food and cook a lot myself. One day, while I was standing in the kitchen, I was looking at this rack, with stainless steel utensils-plates and cups. I kept looking at it and I was thinking, what am I going to do with this material. I looked at it... and looked at it and suddenly, I saw it in front of me, and that was it,” he says. (Artist quoted in Sania Galundia, “Steel Utensils: The Signature Medium of Subodh Gupta”, National Museum Institute Journal (ICON), 2015, accessed via Critical Collective, online)

Scholar and critic S Kalidas highlights the symbolic significance of these vessels in Indian households writing, “What is often overlooked is that in the Indian space these utensils have a secret, sacred life of their own. These objects-the baalti (bucket), the lotaa (squat pitcher), the kumbhaa, the kalasham or the gharaa (large pot-bellied pitcher), the pateela (pan), the thaali (plate) and the chimtaa (tongs)-are also signifiers of widespread cultural, mystical and religious practices in rural and urban middle class India even today.” (S Kalidas, “Of Capacities and Containment: Poetry and Politics in the Art of Subodh Gupta”, Subodh Gupta: Gandhi’s Three Monkeys, New York: Jack Shainman Gallery, 2008, p. 84)

As curator Sania Galundia notes, when steel utensils first appeared in Indian kitchens post-Independence in the late 1950s, they became signifiers of prestige and economic privilege that were proudly put on display. Following the liberalisation of the Indian economy and the ease of access to foreign goods, they ceased being a social marker for the middle classes to become a universal presence. (Galundia, 2015) Steel utensils take various forms in Gupta’s works-as utilitarian objects, vessels scaled up to monumental proportions, as part of huge composite sculptures, and as simulations of ordinary kitchen arrangements. Adopting the manner of Marcel Duchamp’s notion of the ‘readymade’, he strips these vessels of their functionality and transforms them into compelling works of art to create a dialogue around commoditisaton and value. He explains, “...being readymade, functional forms, utensils are already infused with meaning, and I am very aware of the human stories behind each of these reclaimed utensils. I think it’s incredible that each of them have burns, marks and signs of wear and tear that essentially tell intimate stories of the lives of their previous owners. Yet, when you bring many of them together, they start looking indistinguishable from one another and inform a new collective narrative.” (Artist quoted in Nidhi Gupta, “India’s Foremost Contemporary Artist on Why He Continues to Create”, GQ India, 19 April 2018, online)

In the present lot, the artist arranges the humble chimta or pair of steel tongs, commonly used to flip chappatis, into a striking metallic sculpture. He transcends the banal nature of this ordinary tool by amassing it and arranging it into a glittering object of luxury and awe, thereby prompting a discussion on mass industrialisation and the inherent socio- economic disparity prevalent in urban India. By placing such prosaic objects in a museum or gallery setting, the artist creates a paradox where they are simultaneously revered and critiqued and challenges the ideas and beliefs they represent. Remarks critic Gayatri Sinha, “Whereas Indian modernity has followed the paradigm of flattening social differences and gaining the broad features of internationalism, Subodh’s strong formal language and the dramatic staging of the isolated object brings the question back to region and class aesthetics. Even as the world identifies India with software and hi-tech, Gupta draws us into low-tech objects; symbols of the heroism of the domestic and the everyday.” (Gayatri Sinha ed., “Subodh Gupta: Object World”, Voices of Change: 20 Indian Artists, Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2010, p. 174)

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