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"The objects I pick already have their own significance. I put them together to create new meanings." - SUBODH GUPTA

Much of Subodh Gupta's oeuvre is defined by the transformation of familiar objects of daily use into metaphorical symbols that allude to journeys and migration. In the present lot, a cast bronze Bajaj Priya scooter with chrome-plated milk cans hanging off it, offers multiple statements about almost all aspects of... "The objects I pick already have their own significance. I put them together to create new meanings." - SUBODH GUPTA

Much of Subodh Gupta's oeuvre is defined by the transformation of familiar objects of daily use into metaphorical symbols that allude to journeys and migration. In the present lot, a cast bronze Bajaj Priya scooter with chrome-plated milk cans hanging off it, offers multiple statements about almost all aspects of modern life. "In the urban landscape, the doodh-wallah or milkman, replaces his bicycle with a scooter, that poor relation of the motorcycle, and slings it with the same cans of hot broth fresh from the cows' udders. A more rapid distribution is facilitated but the elegance of the delivery (not to mention the honor of the deliverer) is greatly compromised... These cliched emblems of India portray objects and images of indecisive moments and cultural fluctuations." (Peter Nagy, "Transitory Indecisions and Fluctuating Monuments," Subodh Gupta, New Delhi: Nature Morte and Mumbai: Sakshi Gallery, 2005, pp. 6, 8)

In some ways, Gupta's sculptures pick up from where Dadaist Marcel Duchamp's "readymades" left off. Gupta has acknowledged his admiration for Duchamp's free thinking about the role of the everyday object as it gets transformed into high art. But he points out, "My objects have a different character... My themes are universal, although my references could be named the Indian village traditions." (Artist quoted in Marta Gnyp, "Interview with Subodh Gupta," Alejandra de Argos, 28 January 2015, online) By casting the scooter in bronze, Gupta usurps an ubiquitous mode of transportation and livelihood in India, turning it into a universal, multi-layered symbol of commerce and materialism. At the same time, he references the deeply rooted Indian tradition of religious worship. "The casting of the modest mode of transport in bronze not only reveres it, in the tradition of historical sculpture, but also transforms it into a material synonymous with idols worshipped in temples across India. (Simon Maidment, "Subodh Gupta: Everyday Divine," National Gallery of Victoria, 11 May 2016, online) Gupta's deep engagement with the cultural context of quotidian life in India, merged with his ability to transcend it, gives his work global resonance.

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