‘Someone Else’ by Shilpa Gupta at Chemould Prescott Road

Masquerading as different avatars deftly decked out in camouflage, or identifying with women in Kashmir who have lost their husbands, a consistent stratagem in her practice has been that of performing of other selves. However, talented artist Shilpa Gupta now expands her purview with ‘Someone Else’ as part of her solo show at Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai.

A curatorial note mentions: "Here, she is not assuming some other identity, but tries to lay bare in some part a real history of those who have had to consciously stage another self by cloaking themselves under the cover of a pseudonym, as a curatorial note to the show elaborates. The work, built up of nearly 100 books – all fabricated out of steel - some exact scaled replicas of first editions – engage the viewers.

Hollowed out of their content, the original covers meticulously reproduced, only with a slight intervention. Each stamped, in generic font with the reason given in retrospect by the author why he or she chose to take the refuge of a false identity. What are amassed are a hundred confessions, everyone guided by a certain fear – of judgment, of persecution, of marginalization, of failure, of greater success.

Admissions come from across centuries, geographies and genders, causing the production of an extemporized community of individuals. All have had to transact with the world through subterfuge, their selves moving in and through differing circumstances, independently and alone. Now, assembled together, this chorus of voices lays bare the overwhelming force exerted by established codes of convention and intention, and the inherent struggle in endeavoring to resist these dictums.

How attentive are we to such or any refrain? Are we observing the exasperating singular rallies that are being had against suppressive prescriptive measures, such as those witnessed in the diasec photographic prints Untitled, that appear to be exhausting and never –ending? Are we walking along the straight and narrow and listening to the ‘Speaking Wall’?

‘Singing Cloud’s’ 4000 microphones are whispering, singing, speaking “I want to fly away high above in the sky”. Reversed they are carrying voices to us, and are we listening to them? Is anyone attending to them? Are these expressions lost to us amidst the cacophony of a ruling regime?"