Barbican : Shilpa Gupta, Sun at Night

Thu 7 Oct 2021—Sun 6 Feb 2022, The Curve

The first major London exhibition by Mumbai-based artist Shilpa Gupta highlights the fragility of one’s right to expression whilst raising urgent questions of censorship, confinement and resistance. 

Gupta will present and build on her acclaimed project For, In Your Tongue, I Cannot Fit (2017–18) – an immersive installation and soundscape which comprises 100 microphones suspended above 100 metal spikes, each piercing a page inscribed with a fragmented verse of poetry by a poet incarcerated for their work, writings, or beliefs. Alternating between languages, the work includes poetry from the 8th to the 21st centuries. Through each poem, Gupta draws attention to the wider stories and experiences of global histories and gives a voice to those who had been silenced.

Extending on the research and themes present in the installation, Gupta will present new work, including the artist’s first pair of motion flapboards which further expand on her use of sound, language and the power of speech.

Shilpa Gupta (b.1976, Mumbai) lives and works in Mumbai, India. Her multidisciplinary practice encompasses a wide range of media and processes, from text, sculpture, video, photography and sound which poetically explores physical and ideological boundaries and how, as individuals, we come to feel a sense of isolation or belonging. Gupta has exhibited work internationally, with solo and group exhibitions at galleries and biennales including M HKA, Antwerp, Arnolfini, Bristol and the Venice Biennale (2019) among others.

The exhibition has been commissioned by the Barbican, London. Supported by the Henry Moore Foundation and using public funding from Arts Council England.

Opening Hours

Daily 11am-7pm

Bank Holidays 12-7pm

Closed 24-26 Dec

For more information refer to www.barbican.org.uk.