Shilpa Gupta is going places. After the solo BlindStars, StarsBlind at Bodhi Art, Mumbai, from the 13th of October to the 5th of November 2008, Gupta rubs shoulders with Michelangelo Pistoletto and Sol Lewitt at an exhibition hosted by Galleria Continua in San Gimignano, Italy, from the 14th of February to the 2nd of May 2009. She works alongside psychologist Mahzarin Banaji on While I Sleep at Le Laboratoire, Paris, from the 13th of February to the 4th of May 2009. Abhay Sardesai meets her to know more about the ideas she is travelling with.

ABHAY SARDESAI: HOW DIFFICULT IS IT FOR AN ARTIST WHO TAKES A consciously political stance in her art to maintain the integrity of her position, considering she has to constantly negotiate with profit-making institutions? Political art can be conveniently political at times, as you know. How do you speak on behalf of the poor and the persecuted, strike a pose vis-à-vis social, political and economic injustices and maintain it? When you deal with the market, is there a fear that you are sleeping with the enemy?

 

SHILPA GUPTA: There has always been a contested relationship between the artist and systems of art patronage - the issues are freedom and change. Not only for visual artists but also for writers and film-makers. Art has increasingly been taking a critical view of society. In countries like ours where the state does not support the production of art, artists are left to fend for themselves in the market economy system. Over the years, I have worked as part of independent artist-run initiatives within the city or across the borders and organized public art projects in order to address the structures of viewing. I have also shown in mainstream galleries. From experience, one can say that a stand-off between the two, the centre and the periphery, between power and desire, does not work. For a true long-term change, fear has to give way to dialogue - this leads to the altering of structures, perceptions and hierarchies. This happens, not in one year or two but over several years.

In fact, a lot of my work uses digital media. It can be mass-produced and is non-unique. There is no original and it can always be shared and copy-pasted!

A. S.: So, do you support piracy as one way of subverting the logic of institutionalized practices?

S. G.: Yes, I support it as far as my work is concerned. Honestly, it is a form of flattery. I don't know about other artists.

A. S.: BlindStars, StarsBlind had quite a few works that examined the return to a state of innocence - children and their ambitions, childhood and its fantasies, the nation and its versions. Was there a conscious attempt at re-visting the idea of Utopia?

S.G.: This is an interesting point that you are making. I was not at all conscious about this! Perhaps, it is this state of innocence that allows me to continue to address dreams and hopes - which I am beginning to feel are Utopian. In Tryst with Destiny (2007-08), it is Nehru's speech during the birth of our nation, which I sing. It hopes for equality for all and freedom of religion for all. Several decades have passed since independence but we still have a very long way to go.

 

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