Lot 51: HEMA UPADHYAY

HEMA UPADHYAY B. 1972 KILLING SITE Acrylic, gouache, dry pastel, photograph on paper, aluminium sheets, resin Executed in 2008 183 by 122 by 61 cm. (72 by 48 by 24 in.)

The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today, Saatchi Gallery, London, January - May, 2010

The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today, exhibition catalogue, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2010, p. 74, illustrated p.21

Studio La Citta, Verona, Italy

Upadhyay's works often utilise a variety of media. Re-location and migrations were abundant in her life and have become the basis of her artistic journey from small town civility to urban chaos. She deftly balances personal spaces with the shared experience of living in a city.

'Upadhyay also drags the less-salubrious aspects of the metropolis- its slums - into confrontation with facets of the city that Mumbaikars are proudest of. (Zehra Jumabhoy, 'Introduction', Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today, exhibition catalogue, Saatchi Gallery, London, p. 18)

This installation contains small models of skyscrapers and slum dwellings that are suspended upside down over a floral-patterned backdrop. The blue and white pattern overpowers the tiny objects and invite a closer inspection.

'Upadhyay has spent a lot of time doing field-work in Dharavi, which has the dubious honour of being 'Asia's biggest slum.' The curling fronds and flowers are also allusions to the lowly paid slum-dwellers who form part of the textile-related cottage industry in Dharavi. By juxtaposing them with miniature skyscrapers, the artist is also addressing the government's less-than-altruistic plans to 'relocate' Dharavi's squatters, selling their now-valuable land to real-estate developers.' (ibid.)