Hema Upadhyay facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Hema Upadhyay
|
|
|---|---|
Upadhyay with Dream a wish-wish a dream, 2006
|
|
| Born |
Hema Hirani
1972 |
| Died | 11 December 2015 (aged 42–43) |
| Education | BFA in painting and MFA in print making from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, 1997 |
Hema Upadhyay (born Hema Hirani; 1972 – 11 December 2015) was an Indian artist based in Mumbai. She was known for photography and sculptural installations. She was active from 1998 until her death in 2015.
Contents
Personal life
Born Hema Hirani in Baroda, she met her future husband and fellow artist Chintan Upadhyay in 1992. The couple married in 1998, and settled in Mumbai. They worked together in many exhibitions, before filing for a divorce in 2010. They were officially divorced in 2014. Chintan then moved to Delhi; she lived in their flat on the Juhu-Tara road.
Early works
Hema had her first solo exhibition, titled Sweet Sweat Memories, at Gallery Chemould, now Chemould Prescott road (Mumbai), in 2001. The exhibition consisted of mixed media on paper works. In these works she has incorporated her own photographs to communicate her ideas of migration having moved to Bombay in 1998. Hema's paintings were usually characterised by the inclusion of small-collaged photographic self-portraits.
-
The Nymph and the Adult, Installation, 2001, Artspace, Sydney, Australia
-
Made in China, Collaborative installation, 2003, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai, India
In 2001 Hema had her first international solo at Artspace, Sydney, and Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia, where she exhibited an installation titled The Nymph and the Adult (also exhibited at the 10th International Triennial – India held in New Delhi) she hand sculpted 2000 lifelike cockroaches, infesting the gallery with them. The work was intended to make viewers think about the consequences of military actions.
In collaboration with Chintan Upadhyay, she did a work titled Made in China, which spoke about mass consumerism, globalisation and a loss of identity through this. Her next collaboration was in 2006 when she collaborated with her mother, Bina Hirani, the work was titled Mum-my and was shown at the Chicago Cultural Centre.
Museum exhibitions
From 2004 onwards, Hema Upadhyay came up with installations that were part of various group shows at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art Beijing, China; National Portrait Gallery Canberra, Australia; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem, Israel; MACRO museum, Rome, Italy; IVAM, Valencia, Spain; Mart Museum, Italy; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Hanger Bicocca, Milan, Italy; Chicago Cultural Centre, Chicago, USA; Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts, Paris, France; Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan; Japan Foundation, Tokyo and the Henie Onstad Kunssenter, Oslo, Norway. A few months after Hema died, in 2016, her work was exhibited under the theme "Megacities Asia" at the Museum of fine arts, Boston.
-
8' x 12', 2009, installation, Indian Highway
-
Where the bees suck, there suck I, 2009, MACRO Museum, Rome, Italy
-
Think left, think right, think low, think tight, 2010, Aichi Triennial, Nagoya, Japan & Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, 2011
She was the only Indian artist to be part of the inaugural exhibition for the Reopening of the MACRO museum, Rome.
Residencies and workshops
In 2010, Hema was invited to a residency at Atelier Calder, Sache, France. While there, she completed the work Only Memory has Preservatives, this work was inspired by the natural surroundings in Sache, but also reflected ideas that have been part of her practice. Hema tried to replicate the forest in her studio, though not in the literal sense. Using copyright free images of certain trees found in the area, she created a landscape work without using materials from nature.
In 2003 she was part of the Vasl residency in Karachi where she made a work titled Loco foco motto (which she later in 2007 exhibited in a group show at the Hanger Bicocca, Milan, Italy) that spoke about the India-Pakistan divide keeping in mind her own family history related to the partition of India. The works were also a break from her trademark symbolism, they were more craft oriented as she used matchsticks and glue to make chandeliers. Constructed of thousands of un-ignited matchsticks assembled into elaborate chandeliers, these pieces embody an important element of Hindu ritual, symbolising creation and destruction.
Her later works featured patterned surfaces, which quote from Indian spiritual iconography and traditional textile design, titled Killing Site. Dream a wish-wish a dream (2006) was the first large-scale installation that Hema did. At first glance her installation seems to be only a landscape of Bombay; however, it is actually a statement on the changing landscape by migrants who make Bombay.
-
Only Memory has Preservatives, 2010, Atelier Calder, Sache, France
-
Moderniznation, 2011, Espace Topographie de l'Art, Festival D' Automne a Paris, Paris, France
-
The Princesses' Rusted Belt, 250 handmade clay birds, iron wire, acrylic, watercolours, cotton thread and text on printing paper, dimensions variable, 2011, Studio La Citta, Verona, Italy
-
The Princesses' Rusted Belt, Mixed media on arches paper, 72 x 48 in, 2011, Studio La Citta, Verona, Italy
-
Loco foco motto, 2007, Hanger Bicocca, Milan, Italy
-
Killing Site, 2008, Studio La Citta, Verona, Italy
-
Dream a wish-wish a dream, 2006
.jpeg)
Selected solo presentations
- 2012 Extra Ordinary, Faculty of Fine Arts Baroda, and Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi
- 2012 Mute Migration, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
- 2011–12 Princesses Rusted Belt, Studio La Citta, Verona Italy (Ex Cat)
- 2011 Moderniznation, Espace Topographie de l'Art, Festival D' Automne a Paris, Paris
- 2009 Where the bees suck, there suck I, Reopening of MACRO museum, Rome Italy
- 2008–09 Yours Sincerely, Gallery Nature Morte, New Delhi
- 2008 Universe revolves on, Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore (Ex. Cat)
- 2004 Underneath, Gallery Chemould, Bombay (Ex. Cat)
- 2001–02 The Nymph and the Adult, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (Ex. Cat)
- 2001 Sweet Sweat Memories, Gallery Chemould, Bombay (Ex. Cat)
- 2001 The Nymph and the Adult, Art Space, Sydney
Select Group Shows
- 4th International Print Biennale, Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal, 1997
- Prithvi Art Gallery, Mumbai, 1998
- Secret Life of Objects, Lakeeran Gallery, Mumbai, 2000
- Exchanging Territories, Shridharani Gallery, New Delhi, 2001
- X International Triennale, Lalit Kala Academi, New Delhi, 2001
- Transfiguration, Art Inc, India Habitat Center, New Delhi, 2002
- crossing generations: diVERGE, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai, 2003
- Loco-Foco-Motto, a sculpture made with match sticks, International Artists' Residency, Karachi, Pakistan, 2003
- Parthenogenesis, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney, Australia, 2003
- The Tree from the Seed, Hennie Onstad Kunssenter, Oslo, Norway, 2003
- Have We Met, Japan Foundation Forum, Tokyo, Japan, 2004
- Indian Summer: Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts, Paris, 2005
- Indian Contemporary Art, Chelsea college of Art, London, 2005
- Present Future, NGMA, Mumbai, 2005
- Parallel Realities-Asian Art Now, The 3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Blackburn Museum, Blackburn, UK, 2006
- Long Happy Hours and Thereby Happiness and Other stories, the Museum Gallery, Mumbai, 2006
Invited as artist in residence
- 2010 Atelier Calder, Sache, France
- 2008 Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore
- 2007 Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, USA
- 2003 Vasl International Artists Residency, Karachi
- 2001 Art Space, Sydney
Death
Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Haresh Bhambani were killed on Friday, 11 December 2015, reportedly over a financial dispute.
A Museum of Arts, Boston official, mourned the death of Hema. Her work was scheduled to be exhibited at the museum a few months after she died.
