Hema Upadhyay is an Indian artist who has lived and worked in Mumbai

Mumbai

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 since 1998. She uses photography and sculptural

Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

 installations

Installation art

Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...

 to explore notions of dislocation and nostalgia.

Sweet Sweat Memories

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

Human migration

Human migration is physical movement by humans from one area to another, sometimes over long distances or in large groups. Historically this movement was nomadic, often causing significant conflict with the indigenous population and their displacement or cultural assimilation. Only a few nomadic...

 having moved to Bombay in 1998. Hema’s paintings are usually characterized by the inclusion of small-collaged photographic self-portraits. Miniaturizing images of herself in various positions, she inserts them into her allegorical landscapes

Landscape

Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...

 allowing them to interact with the decorative and fictive environments she creates.

Sweet Sweat Memories speak of a sense of alienation and loss and at the same time a feeling of awe and excitement one usually feels when in a new place. The large mixed media on paper works on display were inspired by the suicide of one of her neighbours as well as the confusion that arose in her as a result of living in an urban

Urban sprawl

Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a multifaceted concept, which includes the spreading outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to low-density and auto-dependent development on rural land, high segregation of uses Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a...

 sprawl where dream and aspirations are both excited and forcefully repressed. The title work in this show encapsulates these feelings perfectly. It is a close up of a mouth, wide and smiling, only to reveal the decay and decadence

Decadence

Decadence can refer to a personal trait, or to the state of a society . Used to describe a person's lifestyle. Concise Oxford Dictionary: "a luxurious self-indulgence"...

 that lurks everywhere.

Other works

In the 2001 Hema had her first international solo at Artspace

Artspace Sydney

The Artspace Sydney Visual Arts Centre is a leading international residency-based contemporary art centre, housed in the historic Gunnery Building in Woolloomooloo, fronting Sydney Harbour in Sydney, Australia...

, Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, 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

Cockroaches

A cockroach is an insect of the order Blattaria. "Cockroach" may also refer to:*Cockroach , a 2001 album by Danger Danger*Cockroach , a 2008 novel by Rawi Hage...

, infesting the gallery with them, to draw repulsion as well as fascination from her viewers. The work was intended to make viewers think about the consequences of military actions

War

War is a state of organized, armed, and often prolonged conflict carried on between states, nations, or other parties typified by extreme aggression, social disruption, and usually high mortality. War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political...

.
In 2003, she did a collaborative work titled Made in China

Made in China

Made in China or Made in PRC is a country of origin label affixed to products manufactured in the mainland China, the People's Republic of China , excluding Hong Kong and Macau where all products made in those regions are labeled as "Made in Hong Kong" and "Made in Macau", respectively...

, which spoke about mass consumerism

Consumerism

Consumerism is a social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods and services in ever greater amounts. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen...

, globalization

Globalization

Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...

 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

Hema expanded her language to include installations; from 2004 onwards her installations have been part of various group shows at the 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

École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts

The École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts is the distinguished National School of Fine Arts in Paris, France.The École des Beaux-arts is made up of a vast complex of buildings located at 14 rue Bonaparte, between the quai Malaquais and the rue Bonaparte, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Près,...

, Paris, France, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan, Japan Foundation, Tokyo and the Henie Onstad Kunssenter

Henie-Onstad Art Centre

The Henie-Onstad Art Centre is an art museum located at Høvikodden in Bærum municipality, Norway.The Henie-Onstad Art Centre is situated on a headland jutting into the Oslofjord, approximately 10 km south of Oslo...

, Oslo, Norway.

She was the only Indian artist to be part of the inaugural exhibition for the Reopening of the MACRO museum, Rome. The exhibition was curated by Luca Massimi Barbero, Hema exhibited her installation titled Where the bees suck, there suck I.

Residencies and workshops

Hema has also been part of residencies where she has explored displacement related issues with an autobiographical approach. 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

Partition of India

The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...

. 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

Agni

Agni is a Hindu deity, one of the most important of the Vedic gods. He is the god of fire and the acceptor of sacrifices. The sacrifices made to Agni go to the deities because Agni is a messenger from and to the other gods...

, symbolizing creation and destruction, a trend in her work, which explores violence co-existing with beauty.

In her recent works, Hema introduces an additional layer to the works as a sculptural element. The artist repeatedly utilizes patterned surfaces, which quote from Indian spiritual iconography and traditional textile design. Hema’s marriage of these surfaces with her own image is meant to touch on themes of migration and displacement in South Asia

South Asia

South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...

 and also reflect upon the existential plight

Existential crisis

An existential crisis is a stage of development at which an individual questions the very foundations of his or her life: whether his or her life has any meaning, purpose or value...

 of the artist as solo creator. Her use of shading and her depiction of smoke-like elements give the impression of claws of destruction; the theme is elucidated by the titles, 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.

Selected solo presentations

• 2009 "Yours Sincerely" December 10, 2008 - January 3, 2009, Gallery Nature Morte
  Gallery Nature Morte
  Gallery Nature Morte is an art gallery that deals predominantly in Indian contemporary art. It currenty has three locations, galleries in New Delhi, Gurgaon , and Berlin . Gallery Nature Morte is partners with Bose Pacia Gallery in New York.- History :The gallery's founder, Peter Nagy originally...
  
  , New Delhi
• 2009 Where the bees suck, there suck I, Reopening of MACRO museum, Rome Italy
• 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

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

2010

• SAMTIDIGT,"at the same time", Kulturhuset, Stockholm
• Midnight’s children, Studio Lacitta, Verona, Italy
• Arts and Cities, Aichi Triennial 2010, Nagoya, Japan
• Indian Highway Herning Museum Of Contemporary Art, Denmark
• The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today, The Saatchi Gallery, London, England
• Home less Home, Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem, Israel

2009

• India 2: Mumbai - Under the surface, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria
• Indian Highway, Astrup Fernley Museum, Oslo, Norway
• The Power of Ornamentation, Orangery Lower Belvedere, Vienna, Austria

2008

• India Moderna, IVAM, Valencia, Spain
• Chalo! India – The New Era of Indian Art, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (Ex. Cat)
• Eurasia – Geographic Cross-overs in Art, Mart Museum, Italy. Espace Claude Berri, ‘Artistes Indien, Collection Claude Berri’, Paris, France
• India Crossing, Studio la Citta, Verona, Italy

2007

• Urban Manners, Hanger Bicocca, Milan, Italy. India
• New Narratives, Chicago Cultural Centre, Chicago, USA

2006

• Lille 3000, Bombay: Maximum City, Tri postal, Bombay: Maximum City, Tri postal, Lille, France
• Parallel Realities – Asian Art Now, 3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial, Blackburn Museum, UK

2005

• Indian Summer, Ecole nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts, Paris, France
• Parallel Realities – Asian Art Now, 3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial, Fukuoka, Japan
• Present-Future, National Gallery of Modern Art, Bombay

2003

• Crossing Generations: Diverge, 40 years of Gallery Chemould, NGMA, Bombay
• Portraits of a Decade, Cima Gallery, Kolkatta & Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai
• Loco-foco-motto, produced during the Vasl Residency, V.M. Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
• Parthenogenesis, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney, Australia
• The Tree from the Seed, Henie Onstad Kunssenter, Oslo, Norway

2001

• 10th International Triennial – India, Rabindra Bhavan, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi

Hema Upadhyay is represented by

• Gallery Nature Morte in New Delhi and Berlin
• Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai
• Studio La Citta, Verona, Italy