Censorship, confinement and resistance: Shilpa Gupta’s Sun at Night at the Curve, Barbican

editor

3 years ago

Censorship, confinement and resistance: Shilpa Gupta's Sun at Night at the Curve, Barbican

This small, but thought provoking exhibition at the Curve ‘highlights the fragility of one’s right to expression whilst raising urgent questions of censorship, confinement and resistance. ‘

Created by Mumbai-based artist Shilpa Gupta, the work incorporates words, drawing and spoken text.

Finding your way through the Barbican Centre is never a pleasing prospect. The trick to find the exhibition is to aim for the Ground Floor!

The official website explains the artist’s process:

Gupta will present and build on her acclaimed project For, In Your Tongue, I Cannot Fit (2017–18) – an immersive installation and soundscape which comprises 100 microphones suspended above 100 metal spikes, each piercing a page inscribed with a fragmented verse of poetry by a poet incarcerated for their work, writings, or beliefs.

Alternating between languages, the work includes poetry from the 8th to the 21st centuries. Through each poem, Gupta draws attention to the wider stories and experiences of global histories and gives a voice to those who had been silenced.

Extending on the research and themes present in the installation, Gupta will present new work, including the artist’s first pair of motion flapboards which further expand on her use of sound, language and the power of speech.