Shilpa Gupta: Untitled: National Gallery Singapore, Ng Teng Fong Roof Garden Gallery

Shilpa Gupta’s latest sculpture is now on view at the National Gallery of Singapore for the 6th Ng Teng Roof Garden Commission.

In Untitled, two bodies are seen interlocked in a combative position. However, upon going around the work, one realizes that they are in fact perched on a single head. The two bodies can be read from the perspective of geopolitical conflicts and social struggles or the dualities that we experience within our own selves in everyday life. Constructed as a large-scale inflatable on an elevated site, Untitled responds to a space surrounded by the visual and historical density of a large metropolis, echoing the manufactured and dissonant realities of global cities. The multiplicity of meanings, the inversion of the figures, and the malleability of the material used for the inflatable all subvert the conventions associated with the grandeur of traditional monumental figurative sculpture.

By using an inflatable medium, the work invites visitors to approach it in a more playful and exploratory manner. This non-traditional approach to art-making opens up new possibilities for engagement and interaction with diverse communities, creating opportunities for unexpected and meaningful encounters.

Above images: Shilpa Gupta, Untitled, 2023. Commissioned by National Gallery Singapore for the 6th Ng Teng Fong Roof Garden Commission. © Shilpa Gupta. Photo by Joseph Nair, Memphis West Pictures.