Hema Upadhyay (b. 1972)

Acrobats and their Scenes, Bodhi Art, Singapore, March - April 2008

Acrobats and their Scenes, Bodhi Art, Singapore, 2008, illustrated

Pinholes to paper at each corner and along both edges. Otherwise work appears to be in good overall condition. Colors of original richer than catalogue illustration.
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'Upadhyay's works use two media, photography and painting. She begins by questioning the idea of self-representation as a glorificatory act. She de-magnifies the body and amplifies the urban landscape. Migrations and movement have been manifold in her life and have formed the backdrop of her artistic journey from small town civility to urban chaos. Her reflections on the break from ones own personal spaces to the shared experiences of the city are a brooding, enigmatic and emphatic theme of her works. Images layered and juxtaposed to create the wall of urban confusion and decay.' (Johnny M. L., Acrobats and their Scenes, Bodhi Art Gallery exhibition catalogue, 2008).

'Acrobats and Their Scenes is a peak in Hema's politico-aesthetical articulations on/of the dispossessed women. She invests the fractured, fragmented and traumatized selfhood of women with the power of labor. The protagonist in Hema's oeuvre is a woman who has found kinship amongst similar women. She hides while reveals and narrates a story of survival through the production of truths and secretes. In Hema's works the traumatized bodies and souls find a home and dreams" (ibid).