It is your first exhibition in Turkey. How did you approach this exhibition?
Turkey has been in my mind for many years. There is a strange relationship between Turkey and India, in art, and as an artist. Have you read recent Pamuk's novel, My Name Is Red ? It is about how artists from Turkey began migrating to India increasingly during Akbar's times… I have made the opposite journey, and when I arrive in Istanbul, I come with not only my own works, but also with this history.
In his introduction to the exhibition, Sanjeev Khandekar says you interrogate a new order for the world? According to you, are your 'babies' a manifestation of this?
Well, as an artist my job is to push the limits as much as I can. Babies, as much as my other works, do investigate and contest these kinds of subjects. They improvise a new language, which is something which interestes me as an artistic medium. The Babies were my first attempt to approach this issue. Their form, their skin, their posture, their expressions and finally their nonbabiness; this is what Sanjeev has rightly pointed out, I use my art to express my thought patterns.
The proliferation of the baby heads and arms: is this a warning about excesses of our society and danger of biotechnology ?
It is an attempt to discover the nature of a baby, an innocent face. In a world where everything is a product, everything is for sale, can we still find genuine babies? Love? Warmth?
Chintan Upadhyay, photo: Wafim Kargim
These babies, that you have named Smart Alecs, are recurrent in your work, why is this? And what about the name ?
Smart Alec name first came from the exhibition "Maya" which took place in Mumbai 2006. In this exhibition these babies were a gesture of disrespect, obnoxious, cocky, offensive and provocative by having images of kamasutra and nude people alongside the other images. The gestures were sexual but their bodies were pious. The babies then became humorous, witty, violent and cute and even innocent. Now I call them CHINTU which is my nickname too. In the future these Chintu might meet Manga from Japan, who knows?
exhibition view, photo: Wafim Kargim
Chintan Upadhyay, « Between Time & Culture »
Zorlu Center, Istanbul, from March 5th to April 3rd 2015.
