Subodh Gupta
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Contents |
2020
Gupta, Instagram accuser settle dispute
Abhinav Garg, February 11, 2020: The Times of India
The anonymous person behind an Instagram account that had levelled sexual harassment charges against artist Subodh Gupta told the Delhi high court that s/he was unconditionally withdrawing the defamatory content posted on the handle. The anonymous person also expressed regret.
Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw noted that the Instagram account holder, who has preferred to remain anonymous, removed the posts and told the court that the dispute with Gupta has been settled .
The HC then decreed the defamation suit in favour of the artist and against the holder of the Instagram account“@herdsceneand”, and ended the matter after Gupta’s counsel said he was agreeable to the suit decree and would not press for further removal or blocking of URLs relating to defamatory posts/ articles/ content, apart from those already under court orders.
The HC had earlier asked the account holder whether s/he wanted to represent the anonymous victim in the defamation suit filed by Gupta through advocate Neoma Vasdev.
The court also shot down attempts by the Indian Journalists Union (IJU) to oppose the settlement and questioned its locus. When IJU claimed a decree in favour of Gupta would affect the rights of journalists to write or report the matter, the HC demanded the names of the journalists who want to write or whose rights are affected, but the IJU didn’t give any.
“Once the defendant from whose handle the story emanated has made the statement and expressed regret for the same. IJU can’t claim any right to interfere in the compromise arrived at between the two parties,” Justice Endlaw observed.
For its part, Google, which was also dragged to court by Gupta, said the HC’s earlier directions have been adhered to and it had removed the URLs carrying the defamatory content, but the articles were still available on the host websites of certain media houses and other search engines.
His art
Kitchen utensils
Vandana Kalra, July 14, 2025: The Indian Express
Subodh Gupta, the first contemporary Indian artist to cross the one-million-dollar mark in an auction in 2008, is renowned for his ability to transform quotidian objects such as tiffin boxes, milk cans and bicycles into monumental and thought-provoking art installations. Kitchen utensils, both old and new, have been a recurring motif in Gupta’s art, used to comment on a range of subjects, from the political and socio-economic to the familial.
Kitchen shelves to art
Growing up in a railway colony in Khagaul, Bihar, some of Gupta’s fondest childhood memories are from being in the kitchen with his mother.
The artist vividly recalls the moment in 1998 when he first discovered the artistic potential of everyday utensils. “As light suddenly entered the kitchen through the window, the shining utensils caught my eye. I brought all of them into my living room and began putting them together to create different forms. From then on, they became part of my art,” Gupta recalled.
Sourced from shops, craft clusters, factories, as well as junkyards, each utensil tells a different story, Gupta said. “Every single one of them is unique. They carry so many memories, including of those who once owned them. As an artist, if I delve into each individual story, I am bound to get lost. When I bring them together, I give them another life, another meaning altogether,” he added.
Finding new meanings
A graduate from the College of Art, Patna, Gupta has shaped kitchen utensils in diverse forms over the years, beginning with his first solo held at Chemould Prescott in Mumbai in 1999.
One of his early works incorporating utensils was The Way Home (II) (2001), featuring a life-size white cow encircled with stainless steel utensils and bronze and chrome-plated country-made pistols. The work symbolised the changing political and economic landscape of India, and the political violence Bihar was witnessing in the 1990s.
His installation UFO (2007) comprised brass utensils soldered together to resemble a flying saucer, which commented on “notions of otherness”. Shaped like a mushroom cloud, his installation Line of Control (2008) served as a metaphor for conflicts and political tensions in Kashmir.
Among his most recognised works made with reflective stainless steel kitchen utensils, Very Hungry God (2006) featured a life-sized human skull to symbolise the human condition and themes of consumerism and globalisation.
Outside the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi, meanwhile, is his banyan tree Dada (2007). Borrowing its title from the Hindi word for grandfather, the installation reflects on the theme of rootedness and growth, as well as Dadaism, the avant-garde art movement of the early 20th century.
For My Family Portrait (2013), Gupta took utensils from his brothers and sister to design hanging kitchen racks.
Different forms
Gupta has also explored utensils as conceptual tools, painting them on canvases and also centring performances around installations. “I’m also exploring abstract ideas and thoughts… It’s like samudra manthan, something new emerges every time,” Gupta said.
French curator and art critic Nicolas Bourriaud wrote: “The material used in most of your work is a veritable conceptual trap that reveals a cultural gap. What appears luxurious in the West is part of the lexicon of insecurity over there: your work can be compared to a trader who transports material that is plentiful in one place and rare in another.” (‘On Cultural Precarity: A letter to Subodh Gupta’, 2008).
Gupta, at present, is preparing for another performance art piece. To take place at the Bukhara Biennial in Uzbekistan in September, this piece will utilise traditional ceramic utensils to construct a large dome structure to explore the culinary and architectural links between Uzbekistan and India. It will also see Gupta, in collaboration with Uzbek chef Pavel Georganov, preparing a menu that will bring together Indian and Uzbek cuisine.
He said: “Art has a universal language, so do utensils and food… Here, I will be interacting with my audience as they become part of my work…”.
