Untitled 2007

Hema Upadhyay
India: New Installations, Part II, September 7, 2007 – January 20, 2008
Materials
matchboxes, video projection

A video of Tom and Jerry cartoons projects onto a pile of leftover matchboxes in a small dark room to the right of the elevator.

Description

A video of Tom and Jerry cartoons projects onto a pile of leftover matchboxes in a small dark room to the right of the elevator.

Artist Statement

I started working with the matchboxes, extending the idea of violence. Universal violence, and I’m not zooming in on certain cultures, I’m interested in understanding it on the greatest levels, because the material I’m using is very potently violent, and the matchboxes will become the containers of these materials. I choose to project “Tom & Jerry” cartoons onto them because I think that they are the most violent cartoon.

About the Artist

Hema Upadhyay received her BFA in Painting and her MFA in Printmaking both from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda. Her work in mixed media and installation addresses issues of migration and displacement in India from her personal point of view while at the same time using Indian religious symbols such as the lotus or images from temple carvings. She won the Tenth Indian Triennial in 2001. She received the National Scholarship and the Gujarat State Award in 1996. She participated in a residency at Art Space in Sydney in 2001 and Vasl Residency in Karachi in 2003. She was included in Indian Summer at the École des Beaux Arts, Paris.

More from this Artist