Exploring cultural translation and dislocation through common objects

Hauser & Wirth New York presents ‘A glass of water,’ its first exhibition devoted to internationally admired artist Subodh Gupta. Buttons and cans, steel cups of water, simple bread dough, and the forks and smears of sauce left upon plates after a meal has been consumed, all serve as elements in the artist’s complex choreography of meaning and oppositional values.

In the world of Subodh Gupta, the most quotidian objects and experiences lie in perfect equipoise between artistic, cultural, and spiritual abundance and emptiness, the twin companions of all who reside in the era of globalization and diaspora.

Born in 1964 in Khagaul, the Indian countryside in Bihar state, the artist is now based in New Delhi. Before his education as a visual artist, Gupta, who is passionate about film, was a street theatre actor. The artist’s change of residence from his native village to a major urban center is in a way an allegory of today’s India.

The growing middle class that migrated from villages to large cities is eagerly clearing the path for change and the dominance of global capitalist culture. Gupta is interested in what inevitably disappears in the process of such change.

Subodh Gupta has long explored the effects of cultural translation and dislocation through his work, most famously using Indian kitchen utensils – particularly his nation’s ubiquitous metal tiffins and thali pans – to demonstrate art’s ability to transcend cultural and economic boundaries.

The mass-produced objects that have played such a prominent role in his art offer an ambiguous symbolism: While they are seen by those in the West as exotic and representative of Indian culture, to those in India they are common items that are used daily in almost every household, from the poorest to the wealthiest. The artist harnesses these varying associations and, in the process, makes his materials subjects in their own right.