Shilpa Gupta's Art of Resistance: Borders, Language, and Belief

Mumbai-based artist Shilpa Gupta explores the fragility of borders and the suppression of dissent through works like 'For, in Your Tongue, I Cannot Fit – 100 Jailed Poets' (2017–18), a multilingual sound installation featuring recordings of poets sanctioned for their writing or politics. The work, shown at the Edinburgh Art Festival, Ninth Asia-Pacific Art Triennial (2018), Venice Biennale, and Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2019), includes poets from eighth-century Arabic poet Abu Nuwas to Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo. Gupta's solo exhibition 'Lines of Flight' at Ishara Art Foundation in Dubai featured works like '1:7690' (2023), a ball of contraband garment strips from the India–Bangladesh border, and 'A0 – A5' (2014), handwoven cloth marked with proportional border lines. Her work 'Listening Air' (2019–23) is another multilingual sound installation with protest songs. Gupta's art reduces systems of control to fragile artistic forms, weaponizing the mundane. Upcoming exhibitions: 'You Are the Place' at Manchester International Festival (4–20 July), solo show at Galleria Continua, San Gimignano (through 9 September), and solo exhibition at Kunsthalle St. Annen, Lübeck (from 27 September), coinciding with the Possehl Prize for International Art.