Friday, May 6, 2011

Subodh Gupta’s 'A glass of water'

Don’t let your mischievous friend tell you to take the last glass of water from a wooden table at Hauser & Wirth. It is in fact a part and the namesake of Subodh Gupta’s show that opened last night to a lively crowd.

Gupta elevates homely objects by sculpting and painting them to deceptive hyperreality and larger than life scale. His subjects are kitchen and pantry items—a tailor’s measuring tape, a button, a vegetable sieve, bread dough, dirty forks on a plate. Without even investigating a deeper meaning, respectively through the form and content of the works, Gupta creates sensitivity through his tenderness in detail and conveys elegance in domesticity. He manages to produce a tension by making untouchable what we handle everyday in our homes. The steel cup, precariously filled just over the brim with water that vibrates with every patron’s step, is the essence of this tension within the familiar. Gupta’s sharp ability to change the connotation of everyday objects makes the show worth a look.

'A glass of water' is on view at Hauser & Wirth through June 18, 2011

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