25th September to 13th November
Hauser & Wirth Zürich

Subodh Gupta's ideas take shape in a variety of different media, such as steel, bronze, marble and paint. Materials are encountered for their aesthetic properties and as conceptual signifiers carrying a wealth of connotations. The mass-produced utensils that have played such a prominent role in Gupta's art offer an ambiguous symbolism: whilst they are seen by those in the West as exotic and representative of Indian culture, to those in India they are ubiquitous items, used daily in almost every household. Gupta harnesses these hybrid associations, allowing them to resonate in the viewer's mind and has made steel a subject in its own right. The final paintings in Gupta's oeuvre to feature utensils as the central motif, the works relate not only to the earlier 'Still Steal Steel' series (2007  2008), but also to the sculptures that Gupta constructs using innumerable thalis and tiffins. These paintings are poetic and meditative depictions of metal and light. They show stainless steel kitchenware in a state of suspended flight, their photorealism rendered abstract by the blur of their motion.