One look at artist Shilpa Gupta’s calendar and you know that she has got a lot of travelling to do in the coming months.
This year is packed with many international shows for her and most of them are by invitation.
At present, nine of her works are being shown at Castle Blandy in France. Shilpa says, “Castle Blandy is a medieval castle on the outskirts of Paris.
It has been inviting international artists since the last three years to showcase their works. Mine is a solo show.”
One of the highlights of the show is a large beehive of about 14 feet in height, hanging from the ceiling made of 4000 singing microphones.
Another art work displays an intricate mirror work. A third art work depicts a projection of a girl on the floor. “The projection of this girl is based on the half-widows of Kashmir.
These are women whose husbands have gone missing due to the ongoing violence in the area. So nobody has any clue if they are dead or alive.
But the women still wait for their husbands with a hope that they will return. It is a very sad condition that they live in,” she says.
The exhibition is on till the month of October this year. Shilpa is already quite satisfied with the kind of response she has received.
She says, “Buses filled with people come to the castle to watch the exhibition. Thanks to all the publicity poster put up in the city. But oddly the posters made even the small art works seem very large in the prints.
Many people have walked up to me and verbalised their surprise on seeing the small work.”
Interestingly, a leading publishing house called Yvon Lambere from Paris has published a book on Shilpa’s art works.
The book is a monograph on her works from her 15 years of practice. It makes her the first-ever Indian artist to have gotten a book published with the publishing house.
Shilp says, “The book is curated by reputed art writer Nancy Adajania. Another renowned art writer Peter Weibel has interviewed me about my exhibition.”
The icing on the cake is that Hans Zurich, a leading curator from Paris, named Shilpa among the 29 artist of the next decade from across the word.
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