Shilpa Gupta works with the every day – be it found objects, sound, interactive installation or performance, using diverse media and methods to unravel our assumptions. Her work reveals how human actions are subject to a range of external and internal biddings, from socio-political constructs to technology, or the play of the human mind.
WeAreCloserThanYouEverImagined (2020), the central work in the exhibition, takes the form of a motion flapboard. Recalling devices that normally show arrival and departure schedules at transitory spaces such as airports or railway stations, the work replaces precise information such as times or locations with poetic phrases that evoke ideas around loss, power and truth. As the split-flap display changes and rotates, new words and fragments of prose appear, offering poignant and timely reflections that invite the viewer to question both the instability and the political weight of language and how we often use disconnected words and phrases to define our identity and states of being.
With her ongoing interest in the dynamics of spatial and conceptual boundaries, in this body of work created during the unexpected lockdowns due to the global pandemic, Gupta evokes the tension we experience in our relationships with the outside world. A rotating knife on a pedestal, Untitled (From 6,10.3, 2 series) (2021) is a sensory object that explores the frenzy of immobility – where ‘6’ refers to the minimum social distance to be maintained in feet, ‘10.3’ refers to the same distance as measured by Gupta’s palm and ‘2’ is its conversion into metres. This work converses with Untitled (2020–21), another kinetic installation that explores time, slowness and landscape through a borderland river stone and a bulb. Also on view will be a set of photographs taken of urban areas, the prints altered by the artist to create a gaping absence at the heart of the image.
| Duration | 26 November 2021 - 05 February 2022 |
| Times | Tuesday–Friday: 11–6 Saturday: 11–5 |
| Cost | Free |
| Venue | Frith Street Gallery |
| Address | 17-18 Golden Square, London, W1F 9JJ |
| Contact | 020 7494 1550 / info@frithstreetgallery.com / www.frithstreetgallery.com |