shilpa gupta: singing cloud

'singing cloud', 2008 - 2009, by shilpa gupta
all images courtesy of arnolfini and shilpa gupta


shilpa gupta: someone else
arnolfini, bristol, UK
from march 3 until april 22, 2012


mumbai-based artist shilpa gupta has compiled several of her notable works in an installation entitled 'someone else' displayed
at arnolfini. the collection of surrealist, mixed-media pieces explore the development of modern politics by examining
notions of technology, human rights, militarism, and security and the development of these fields upon contemporary artistic reality.
gupta's exhibition launches the series 'a parallel universe-alternative realities and co-existing worlds', a year long series of installations
within arnolfini's gallery space.

one of the artist's central pieces to the exhibition is the 'singing cloud', 2008-2009. the 180 x 24 x 60in amoebic shape is a suspended
sculpture built from 4,000 reverse-wired black microphones. the static mass emits from the microphones a jumbled sound created by
the reconfiguration of responses given by several individuals as they process images aloud. a nine minute and thirty second audio channel
produced by the piece is played on repeat as the sound rhythmically flutters across the surface of the piece, moving from one side of the
cloud to the other. the abstracted quality of the psychological testing sound-bites echo the strangeness of the hovering dark creature-cloud.
the cluster seems to be an ominous floating object representative of modern notions of anxiety, surveillance and security, softly singing to
itself in the echoing gallery space.

'i want to fly,
high above in the sky

don’t push me away

we shall all fly
high above in the sky

i want to fly high above
in your sky

can you let it be
only your power
and not your greed

a part of me will die
by your side
taking you with me

high high above
in the sky

while you sleep i shall wake up and fly'
- an excerpt from the audio produced by the singing cloud



detailed views of 'singing cloud'



'untitled (there is no border here)', 2005-2006
wall drawing with self adhesive tapes


the wall drawing made from self adhesive tape in which 'there is no border here' has been written on the yellow
strips, spelling out a sentiment written by the artist in block lettering which reads:

'I tried very hard to cut the sky in half, one for my lover and one for me, but the sky kept moving and the clouds from
his territory came into mine. I tried pushing it away, with both my hands, harder and harder but the sky kept moving
and clouds from my territory went into his. I brought a sofa and placed it in the middle, but the clouds kept floating
over it. i built a wall in the middle, but the sky started to flow through it. I dug a trench, and then it rained and
the sky made clouds over the trench. I tried very hard to cut...'

detailed view of 'untitled (there is no border here)'

'untitled', 2006
from the 'don’t see don't hear don't speak' series
digital photograph on archival paper printed on flex
120x72 in



installation view of 'untitled (flapboard)', 2008 - 2009
motion flapboard
70.77 x 8.29 x 9.98 in



detailed view of 'untitled (flapboard)'