Look What146;s Cooking

A STRAND of hair in your food is annoying but not life threatening. A bucket of cow8217;s milk is a daily staple for most middle-class fami...

A STRAND of hair in your food is annoying but not life threatening. A bucket of cow8217;s milk is a daily staple for most middle-class families. But in Subodh Gupta8217;s larger-than-life world, you can8217;t take anything for granted. 8216;8216;Jootha takes off from the kitchen, a sacred space that has many taboos built into it,8217;8217; says the Delhi-based Gupta about his Mumbai solo.

The Bihar-born 40-year-old8217;s grassroots metaphors are usually grounded in objects that are endemic to his birthplace. Like his installation The Way Home, where rudimentary pistols were placed next to a thali meal, as a symbol of feudal rule in the state. 8216;8216;But now I8217;ve moved from the regional to a national level,8217;8217; he says. And while he8217;s glad that Laloo Prasad Yadav didn8217;t win the elections, this flamboyant Bihari wants to widen his vision.

His taste for the dramatic was first seen in Pure, a 1999 three-hour performance in the sun, where he covered himself in cow dung it fetched him international recognition. It surfaces again in his 12-foot high steel bucket and an assortment of other in-your-face works.

However, Gupta states, 8216;8216;Drama is not just a Bihari thing. It8217;s intrinsic to our culture, be it the stunts in our films or the mythology built around our everyday lives. We8217;re always in search of that little bit of magic. For me stainless steel utensils are a symbol of the middle-class8217;s upward climb.

Today even the elite have it in their kitchens.8217;8217;

Another work8212;a projection of a shaadi ka video8212;catches a wedding party gorging on a buffet. Of course, it8217;s shot in Patna. 8216;8216;Weddings where women are married off with a pile of steel utensils as dahej dowry for the new home is an essentially Indian custom,8217;8217; says Gupta.

For the finale, he throws a plate half covered with hair into a pile of sparkling utensils. 8216;8216;I want to irk the viewer into thinking beyond that one strand they may encounter while eating and consider the persistence of taboos that are built around them,8217;8217; he says. 8216;8216;If a lower caste touches your plate or food, it becomes achoot untouchable or if a woman is in her monthly cycle then she8217;s not allowed into the kitchen8212;which is otherwise considered her domain,8217;8217; elaborates the gender-sensitive Gupta.

But there are works in the show that Gupta isn8217;t very proud of. Like the cracked mirror with an assortment of steel-cast toiletries that begs the vanity clicheacute; and goes off on a tangent, or the crowded sinks with a soundtrack of washing, which is far too literal. Despite those, he8217;s still digging to get to the core of things. 8220;After all it8217;s my first show where I8217;m not talking only about Bihari practices,8217;8217; he says.

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Subodh Gupta8217;s Jootha is at Mumbai8217;s Sakshi Art Gallery till March 16