SERIOUSLY PLAYFUL

HEMA UPADHYAY REFLECTS UPON ISSUES OF GENDER, CASTE AND DISLOCATION IN HER ART. COMBINING DISSONANT ELEMENTS, HER WORKS EVOKE A SENSE OF TRANSIENT NOSTALGIA BELONGING TO NO SPECIFIC PLACE OR TIME BUT SUGGESTING MANY. JOINING THE RANKS OF ARTISTS CINDY SHERMAN, MATTHEW BARNEY, LUCAS SAMARAS AND CHUCK CLOSE, UPADHYAY PERSONALIZES THE MAJORITY OF HER WORK THROUGH SELF-PORTRAITURE, IN THIS CASE A COLLAGED PHOTOGRAPH FRAGMENT. SHE CHOOSES THE PHOTOGRAPH FOR ITS ABILITY TO RECORD, AVOIDING THE MORE SUBJECTIVE QUALITIES OF PAINTING AND DRAWING IN DEPICTING HERSELF. QUOTING AN INDIAN ART HISTORICAL TRADITION STEEPED IN THE STUDY OF CRAFT AND TEXTILE DESIGN, HER WORKS HAVE PATTERNED AND OFTEN DECORATIVE SURFACES, SEEN IN THE REPEATED COLORED BARS OF THIS WORK, WHICH SHE PURPOSELY 'INTERRUPTS' WITH A COLLAGED PHOTO OF HERSELF. UPADHYAY IS OFTEN THE ONLY HUMAN FIGURE ON HER CANVASES AND SEEM TO DEPICT A LANDSCAPE OF THE IMAGINATION IN WHICH THE ARTIST IS ABLE TO INTERACT WITH THE WORLD'S MORE FANTASTICAL ELEMENTS.