A versatile multi-media practitioner

In her new solo showcase comprising an installation work, video and sculpture on view at MAAP Space in Brisbane, Australia, artist Shilpa Gupta acquaints the viewers with some unique aspects of her work. Underlining the uniqueness of her presentation, a press release makes the following observations:  

• Launching her career in 1997, with a strong focus on media and interactive art, Shilpa Gupta’s work has come to be internationally regarded for its commentary on the intertwining of the political and the personal across a vast range of contemporary issues.
  
• Shilpa Gupta trained in sculpture, started her practice with Installation, moved to interactive installation, and then video and digital image, however, her work also typically integrates low-tech materials found in everyday life, for example soap, string, bricks.
  
• She is interested in human perception and how information, visible or invisible, is transmitted and internalized in everyday life. Constantly drawn to how objects are defined and how places, people, experiences are identified, she explores zones where these definitions are played out, be it borderlines, labels or ideas of censorship and security.
  
• Though overtly political, Gupta avoids sensationalism by parsing her subject matter through personal and private experience.  Indeed, her work engages the viewer with intimacy, dialogue and emotional intensity; direct but never didactic.
  
• Shilpa Gupta employs digital media in the form of online art projects and video environments fused with sculptural and photographic elements. Her projects over the years have touched upon the theme of border crisis between India and Pakistan, and the resulting tension. For instance, her video installation ‘Hardly bear to Speak’ (at Yvon Lambert, Paris; 2009) comprised four monitors with vibrating portraits of the four judges appointed to decide the division of India and Pakistan.
  
• The talented artist’s recent work encompasses a wide range of materials including photographs, video, interactive media, sculptural objects, websites and audio. Contemporary technologies play an important role in Gupta’s practice, and her work demonstrates a willful command over both media and message.