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How Subodh Gupta uses kitchen utensils to make art

Gupta has explored utensils as conceptual tools, painting them on canvases and also centring performances around installations.

5 min readNew DelhiJul 13, 2025 12:54 PM IST

Artist Subodh Gupta at his Studio in Gurgaon, Haryana. (Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

(This is part of a series on Indian masters and the motifs that appear repeatedly in their works. Next: MF Husain’s Horses)

Subodh Gupta, the first contemporary Indian artist to cross the one-million-dollar mark in an auction in 2008, is renowned for his ability to transform quotidian objects such as tiffin boxes, milk cans and bicycles into monumental and thought-provoking art installations. Kitchen utensils, both old and new, have been a recurring motif in Gupta’s art, used to comment on a range of subjects, from the political and socio-economic to the familial.

Kitchen shelves to art

Growing up in a railway colony in Khagaul, Bihar, some of Gupta’s fondest childhood memories are from being in the kitchen with his mother.

The artist vividly recalls the moment in 1998 when he first discovered the artistic potential of everyday utensils. “As light suddenly entered the kitchen through the window, the shining utensils caught my eye. I brought all of them into my living room and began putting them together to create different forms. From then on, they became part of my art,” Gupta recalled.

Sourced from shops, craft clusters, factories, as well as junkyards, each utensil tells a different story, Gupta said. “Every single one of them is unique. They carry so many memories, including of those who once owned them. As an artist, if I delve into each individual story, I am bound to get lost. When I bring them together, I give them another life, another meaning altogether,” he added.

Subodh Gupta’s tree of utensils. (Courtesy Subodh Gupta Studio)

Finding new meanings

A graduate from the College of Art, Patna, Gupta has shaped kitchen utensils in diverse forms over the years, beginning with his first solo held at Chemould Prescott in Mumbai in 1999.

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One of his early works incorporating utensils was The Way Home (II) (2001), featuring a life-size white cow encircled with stainless steel utensils and bronze and chrome-plated country-made pistols. The work symbolised the changing political and economic landscape of India, and the political violence Bihar was witnessing in the 1990s.

His installation UFO (2007) comprised brass utensils soldered together to resemble a flying saucer, which commented on “notions of otherness”. Shaped like a mushroom cloud, his installation Line of Control (2008) served as a metaphor for conflicts and political tensions in Kashmir.

Among his most recognised works made with reflective stainless steel kitchen utensils, Very Hungry God (2006) featured a life-sized human skull to symbolise the human condition and themes of consumerism and globalisation.

Subodh Gupta's installation at Monnaie de Paris.

Subodh Gupta’s ‘Very Hungry God’ at Monnaie de Paris. (Courtesy Subodh Gupta Studio)

Outside the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi, meanwhile, is his banyan tree Dada (2007). Borrowing its title from the Hindi word for grandfather, the installation reflects on the theme of rootedness and growth, as well as Dadaism, the avant-garde art movement of the early 20th century.

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For My Family Portrait (2013), Gupta took utensils from his brothers and sister to design hanging kitchen racks.

Different forms

Gupta has also explored utensils as conceptual tools, painting them on canvases and also centring performances around installations. “I’m also exploring abstract ideas and thoughts… It’s like samudra manthan, something new emerges every time,” Gupta said.

French curator and art critic Nicolas Bourriaud wrote: “The material used in most of your work is a veritable conceptual trap that reveals a cultural gap. What appears luxurious in the West is part of the lexicon of insecurity over there: your work can be compared to a trader who transports material that is plentiful in one place and rare in another.” (‘On Cultural Precarity: A letter to Subodh Gupta’, 2008).

Gupta, at present, is preparing for another performance art piece. To take place at the Bukhara Biennial in Uzbekistan in September, this piece will utilise traditional ceramic utensils to construct a large dome structure to explore the culinary and architectural links between Uzbekistan and India. It will also see Gupta, in collaboration with Uzbek chef Pavel Georganov, preparing a menu that will bring together Indian and Uzbek cuisine.

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He said: “Art has a universal language, so do utensils and food… Here, I will be interacting with my audience as they become part of my work…”.

Vandana Kalra

Vandana Kalra is an art critic and Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. She has spent more than two decades chronicling arts, culture and everyday life, with modern and contemporary art at the heart of her practice. With a sustained engagement in the arts and a deep understanding of India’s cultural ecosystem, she is regarded as a distinctive and authoritative voice in contemporary art journalism in India. Vandana Kalra's career has unfolded in step with the shifting contours of India’s cultural landscape, from the rise of the Indian art market to the growing prominence of global biennales and fairs. Closely tracking its ebbs and surges, she reports from studios, galleries, museums and exhibition spaces and has covered major Indian and international art fairs, museum exhibitions and biennales, including the Venice Biennale, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Documenta, Islamic Arts Biennale. She has also been invited to cover landmark moments in modern Indian art, including SH Raza’s exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the opening of the MF Husain Museum in Doha, reflecting her long engagement with the legacies of India’s modern masters. Alongside her writing, she applies a keen editorial sensibility, shaping and editing art and cultural coverage into informed, cohesive narratives. Through incisive features, interviews and critical reviews, she brings clarity to complex artistic conversations, foregrounding questions of process, patronage, craft, identity and cultural memory. The Global Art Circuit: She provides extensive coverage of major events like the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Serendipity Arts Festival, and high-profile international auctions. Artist Spotlights: She writes in-depth features on modern masters (like M.F. Husain) and contemporary performance artists (like Marina Abramović). Art and Labor: A recurring theme in her writing is how art reflects the lives of the marginalized, including migrants, farmers, and labourers. Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025) Her recent portfolio is dominated by the coverage of the 2025 art season in India: 1. Kochi-Muziris Biennale & Serendipity Arts Festival "At Serendipity Arts Festival, a 'Shark Tank' of sorts for art and crafts startups" (Dec 20, 2025): On how a new incubator is helping artisans pitch products to investors. "Artist Birender Yadav's work gives voice to the migrant self" (Dec 17, 2025): A profile of an artist whose decade-long practice focuses on brick kiln workers. "At Kochi-Muziris Biennale, a farmer’s son from Patiala uses his art to draw attention to Delhi’s polluted air" (Dec 16, 2025). "Kochi Biennale showstopper Marina Abramović, a pioneer in performance art" (Dec 7, 2025): An interview with the world-renowned artist on the power of reinvention. 2. M.F. Husain & Modernism "Inside the new MF Husain Museum in Qatar" (Nov 29, 2025): A three-part series on the opening of Lawh Wa Qalam in Doha, exploring how a 2008 sketch became the architectural core of the museum. "Doha opens Lawh Wa Qalam: Celebrating the modernist's global legacy" (Nov 29, 2025). 3. Art Market & Records "Frida Kahlo sets record for the most expensive work by a female artist" (Nov 21, 2025): On Kahlo's canvas The Dream (The Bed) selling for $54.7 million. "All you need to know about Klimt’s canvas that is now the most expensive modern artwork" (Nov 19, 2025). "What’s special about a $12.1 million gold toilet?" (Nov 19, 2025): A quirky look at a flushable 18-karat gold artwork. 4. Art Education & History "Art as play: How process-driven activities are changing the way children learn art in India" (Nov 23, 2025). "A glimpse of Goa's layered history at Serendipity Arts Festival" (Dec 9, 2025): Exploring historical landmarks as venues for contemporary art. Signature Beats Vandana is known for her investigative approach to the art economy, having recently written about "Who funds the Kochi-Muziris Biennale?" (Dec 11, 2025), detailing the role of "Platinum Benefactors." She also explores the spiritual and geometric aspects of art, as seen in her retrospective on artist Akkitham Narayanan and the history of the Cholamandal Artists' Village (Nov 22, 2025). ... Read More

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