GATESHEAD, UK.- BALTIC is pleased to announce Indian artist Subodh Gupta’s new solo show Silk Route. Silk Route presents a number of works including a new installation, The Silk Route from which the title of the show is taken. Made specifically for the show at BALTIC, its title refers to a journey or a route that carries many different cultures and peoples and builds upon an existing conceptual framework which can be traced back though previous works.

Gupta’s work is influenced by his experience of displacement, migration and travel and gives an entertaining and ironic commentary on India’s rapidly changing society. He has emerged as India’s key pop art figure and creates his works using everyday objects which have significant resonance in Indian culture.

The artist works in a wide range of media including sculpture, photography, video and performance. He is renowned for his large-scale sculptural installations which often incorporate domestic stainless steels and machinery. His carefully selected materials often work on a number of levels to create layers of meaning and interpretation.

The Silk Route (2007) for example, is an impressive gleaming display of hundreds of traditional Indian stainless steel kitchen utensils, piled upon a giant industrial-scale sushi conveyer belt. Though the materials are taken from an everyday environment, the scale suggests a state of abundance and represents material desire while the cross-cultural references point to the spread of popular culture across geographical borders.

Gupta’s work explores his own personal politics of being an individual with provincial roots who has resettled in a major city like New Delhi. He references both his local community but also the country as a whole and so effectively communicates to his audience on both a local, national and international level.

A theme of transience and change is present throughout Gupta’s work, in particular the changes to the traditional way of Indian life and the multiple threats to its existence. These include the growth of the middle class in Indian cities, the cross-border spread of pop culture and youth fashion and the threat of globalisation to local communities.