Sakshi Gupta

Sakshi Gupta (b. 1979) lives and works in Mumbai, India. She received her Master’s in Fine Arts (Sculpture) from College of Art, New Delhi in 2004.

Select solo and group exhibitions include If The Seas Catch Fire, Experimenter – Colaba, Mumbai (2023); I Marvel at Your Forgetfulness, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna (2017); Visions from India, Columbus (2017); At the Still Point of the Turning World, GALLERYSKE, New Delhi (2015); In the Depths of Our Crater Lake, All is Silent, Beirut (2015); Passage to India, Staatliches Museum Schwerin, Schwerin (2015); Nothing, No Thing, curated by Bose Krishnamachari, Art Stage, Singapore (2014); Recent Works, Tilton Gallery, New York (2013); Shadow Lines, Biennale Jogja XI, Jogja, (2011); Homespun, Devi Art Foundation, Delhi (2011) and Paris-Delhi-Bombay, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2011).

About The Work

Courtesy of Experimenter, Kolkata

Sakshi Gupta’s work For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, that we are still able to bear is a body of sculptures where she directs her gaze at gunny sacks that have a pervasive presence in the cityscape, lying abandoned at construction sites, and seem to embody the sentiments and tribulations of the city and its inhabitants. Observing how these banal objects mutate and take on a form of their own, Gupta reimagines them as a metaphor of our state of entrapment and submission to the mechanisms of life.

Made from reclaimed industrial metal, Gupta’s work resembles the moulted skin of an elephant, bundled on the ground, and sculpted to simulate the creature’s elongated evening shadow. The work underscores the ordeal of seeking release from mental conflicts while being continually haunted by their presence. Through its enigmatic composition, the work raises questions about human consciousness and cognitive capacity. Gupta reflects on the lingering impact of the unresolved turmoil and contradictions involved in the self’s journey to shed its discarded layers in pursuit of a new beginning.