shilpa gupta's metal gate continuously swings back and forth breaking the wall behind it

at the main exhibition of the 2019 venice art biennale, mumbai-based shilpa gupta presents untitled, a mechanical residential gate, the type installed in front of private driveways for seclusion and safety. this one, however, with its exaggerated spikes and protruding metal frame, swings back and forth of its own accord, hitting the gallery wall aggressively – and eventually cracking and breaking it.image © designboom 

shilpa gupta’s art often looks at the physical and ideological existence pf boundaries, revealing their simultaneously arbitrary and repressive functions. her works explore the interstitial zones between nation states, ethno-religious divides and structures of surveillance – between definitions of legal and illegal, belonging and isolation. gupta relates the strange central shape in the metalwork both to the outline of a territory and ‘a hole in a brain’, giving the gate a hauntingly anthropomorphic quality.

image © designboom

image © designboom 

image © designboom

image © designboom

project info:

name: untitled

artist: shilpa gupta

exhibiton: la biennale di venezia – 58th international exhibition ‘may you live in interesting times’

duration: 11 may – 24 november 2019

location: venice, italy