Lot 57: HIC!

Hema Upadhyay (b. 1969)
HIC!
signed, dated, titled and numbered '1 Hema 2007 HIC!'; '2 Hema 2007 HIC!'; '3 hema 2007 HIC!'; '4 Hema 2007 HIC!'; '6 Hema 2007 HIC!' (on the reverse of each consecutive panel)
acrylic, gouache, dry pastel and photographs on paper
24 x 22¼ in. (61 x 56.5 cm.); 25 7/8 x 22¼ in. (60.5 x 56.5 cm.); 25 x 22¼ in. (63.5 x 56.3 cm.); 23¾ x 22 1/8 in. (60.2 x 56.3 cm.); 25 1/8 x 22¼ in. (63.7 x 56.5 cm.)
Executed in 2007
Set of 5

Cochin, Kashi Art Gallery, Panchatantra, February - March 2007

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 17.5% on the buyer's premium.
Hema Upadhyay reflects upon issues of gender, caste and dislocation in her art. Combining dissonant elements, her works evoke a sense of transient nostalgia belonging to no specific place or time but suggesting many. Joining the ranks of artists Cindy Sherman, Matthew Barney, Lucas Samaras and Chuck Close, Upadhyay personalises the majority of her work through self-portraiture, in this case a collaged photograph fragment. She chooses the photograph for its ability to record, avoiding the more subjective qualities of painting and drawing in depicting herself. Quoting an Indian art historical tradition steeped in the study of craft and textile design, her works have patterned and often decorative surfaces.

Upadhyay is often the only human figure on her canvases and seem to depict a landscape of the imagination in which the artist is able to interact with the world's more fantastical elements. Referring to the ancient Sanskrit manuscripts the Panchatantra, this work has been created in five parts depicting the 'Five Principles' taught through these texts in the form of animal fables and magic tales.