Shilpa Gupta b. 1976
1:2138, 2017
Wood, glass, brass, smuggled Dhakai Jamdani sari cloth
62 x 22 x 20 in
157.5 x 56 x 51 cm
157.5 x 56 x 51 cm
Edition of 3
Copyright The Artist
A ball of fabric is made from thin, rolled-up strips finely shredded from a single Dhakai Jamdani sari. Presented like an object in a museum, it is accompanied by a...
A ball of fabric is made from thin, rolled-up strips finely shredded from a single Dhakai Jamdani sari. Presented like an object in a museum, it is accompanied by a label bearing the title of the work: 1:2138. It is yet another border rescaling work from the artists ongoing series since 2011. The total length of the strips of fabric used to make this ball is equivalent to 1/2138 the length of the barbed border under construction between India and Bangladesh. Upon completion, this fence become the world’s longest separation barrier across a region of shared history, language, food, and culture. The artist poetically transforms the geo-political division into a poignant orb that appears as abstract as the data it represents. The transposition from one scale to another enables a small object (the sari) to symbolically contain a much bigger one (the border). But this rolled-up sari has its own history and memory: it crossed the border unnoticed. In Bangladesh, the precious Sari Jamdani, made of cotton, takes a lot of time to make and is highly prized in India, so it gets smuggled. By destroying the much-coveted sari and radically transforming its shape, the artist paradoxically gives it another value, that of invisibility, which enables it to cross the border and elude the trade system.
Exhibitions
2019 | ‘Altered Inheritances: Home is a Foreign Place’, Two person solo with Zarina, Ishara Art Foundation, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai. Curated by Nada Raza2018 | ‘While I Begin’, Solo Show, Voorlinden Museum and Gardens, Wassenaar
2017 | ‘Drawing in the Dark’, Solo Show, Kiosk, Ghent
2017 | ‘Drawing in the Dark’, Solo Show, Bielefelder Kunstverein, Bielefeld
2017 | ‘Drawing in the Dark’, Solo Show, La synagogue de Delme contemporary art center, Delme