Sakshi Gupta recycles scrap-materials to produce powerful yet intricate structures that define a new level of creative expression.
Sakshi Gupta recycles scrap-materials, often with industrial origins, to produce sculptures that transform the meaning of the materials to provoke spiritual contemplation. This emphasis on material context results in an evocative and ephemeral lightness and fragility. Through this engagement with material weight,Gupta’s works can be understood as a commentary on the contemporary world – highlighting the shift from the economics of heavy industry to the weightless age of information and technology.
Title: Freedom is Everything Medium: Metal scrap, plywood Dimensions: 360 x 210 cm Year: 2007
"For this work, I have borrowed the form of a carpet that looks sumptuous and sensual from afar, like an object of luxury; it is only up close that the surface reveals itself to be made up of nuts, bolts, cogs and bearings arranged in a symmetrical pattern, suggesting a traditional carpet. When displayed, the viewer is invited to walk on it, to experience the contradiction of the unrelenting discomfort of walking on a simulation of a lush carpet.", Sakshi explains.
No Title (from the series, 'Become the Wind')
Medium: Scrap metal
Dimensions: 328 x 262 x 133 cm
Year: 2013
The form of this work was instigated first by the idea of plant becoming animal. The rods behind the elephant heads are suggestive of creeper-like plants, the vines of a strangler fig as much as armature or scaffolding, that comes together to compose the form of the two-headed animal form. One head appears to be older – the other smaller, younger, it’s skin more tender.
No Title (from the series, 'Become the Wind') Medium: Metal scrap, motor Dimensions: 364 x 126 cm Year: 2013 Column-Tree Fan Work This work composes a structure that is column-like, but not as defined in form – it grows and spreads like a tree. The blades of the two fans at the heart of this form move in opposite directions, suggesting the play of opposing forces (generating life force) I am drawn to the form of the column for instance because I am drawn to the idea of stability. In its evolving state, the column/fan represents that dynamic, self-fueled process of evolution fueled by an innate desire for definition.
No Title (from the series, 'I Marvel at Your Forgetfulness)
Medium: metal scrap, concrete
Dimensions: 205 x 120 x 25 cm
Year: 2017
A hyper realistic miniature elephant in front of an ornamental leafy foliage form which in turn is in front of a large elongated bird form. The work looks like as though disconnected visuals/ information have been juxtaposed in a random way. Like flashes of memory, thoughts/ visuals that don’t necessarily relate to each other, but keep appearing in our lives, in our surroundings.
More About the Artist:
Sakshi Gupta's recent solo exhibitions include ‘I Marvel at Your Forgetfulness’, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna (2017); 'At the Still Point of the Turning World,' GALLERYSKE, New Delhi (2015), Recent Works, Tilton Gallery, New York (2013), 'Become the Wind' at GALLERYSKE, Bangalore (2013). Recent group shows include ‘Visions from India’, Columbus (2017), ‘In the Depths of Our Crater Lake, All is Silent’, Beirut (2015), 'Passage to India,' Staatliches Museum Schwerin, Schwerin (2015), 'Nothing, No Thing,' curated by Bose Krishnamachari, Art Stage, Singapore (2014) , 'Shadow Lines,' Biennale Jogja XI, Jogja, (2011), 'Homespun,' Devi Art Foundation, Delhi (2011) and 'Paris-Delhi-Bombay,' Centre Pompidou, Paris (2011).Guptawas the recipient of the Illy Sustain Award (2011), the Civitella Ranieri Fellowship (2011/2012) and the Inlaks International Scholarship (2007).
All pictures are copyright of Sakshi Gupta Studio.
Comments