Phase-I
“To Navigate: setting in motion some responses to this pandemic and change”
“To Navigate: setting in motion some responses to this pandemic and change”
To Navigate’ is about the idea of ‘home’ as ‘site’, and site in-flux – constantly evolving and morphing into artwork. The idea of exploring the middle-ground between ‘the public and the private’, ‘the individual and the collective’ and ‘the indoors and the outdoors’ by inhabiting the structural feature of a balcony or a terrace, as a final frontier of one’s own space to the new unknown is explored.
The project seeks to communicate work about transient spaces, and engage with the ‘passer-by’ as an audience – extended beyond cultural and institutional spaces and networks, to a space created by morphing the lines on either side of the boundary. Attempted to be both literal and metaphorical - this work is defined by its space and surroundings, yet dissimilarly, it does not intervene in a public space. More personally for the artist, this project is an inquiry into the space between the private and public, collective memory, and the artist’s perception of time.
Press:
‘Independently Delhi Part II’, MASH, 27th March 2021
‘Himani Gupta’s To Navigate explores temporal dislocations of the pandemic, STIRworld, 13th June, 2021
"Over the last 10 months I have been working around themes of moving, packing and unpacking, and occupying temporary and permanent homes between 3 continents—informed mainly by my personal story but also by the globally chaotic situation at large, which for me, has spun questions concerning the space between the private and the public, perception of time and understanding collective memory. It is an extraordinary time to be alive, and observe how our micro and macro worlds are morphing into the unfamiliar and uncertain."
Himani Gupta
Himani Gupta (b. 1985) is a visual artist based in London and Delhi. She works in painting, drawing and mixed media. Her practice is informed by cities, land, nature and their components. Through walking, she unveils the complexities and layers of the physical realm, and mines her own emotional responses - making the process deeply personal. By recording psychological experiences of spaces, land and the urban environment through visual notes and sound recordings, she manifests her experience through drawing and painting. Notable exhibitions and engagements include a solo show of her paintings in UNESCO New Delhi, solo show at the Kuona Trust, Nairobi, solo show and panel at Durham University,UK, and collaborations in the research areas of image making and chronic pain with the Slade School of Art, London.
She trained in fine arts and spatial design at Central Saint Martins, London (2005-07). She also holds a M.Sc. in real estate and urban planning from University College London (2011-12). Himani is on the Board of Advisors at iProbono India, a pro bono Human Rights legal firm based in South Asia and the United Kingdom.