Dia Mehhta Bhupal
Bathroom Set
2016
Paper and glue
Dia Mehta Bhupal was born in Mumbai and now lives and works in Hyderabad, India. A photographer, Bhupal meticulously collects images from magazines and pop culture ephemera as the building blocks for her life-size installations or sets of spaces such as bookstores, supermarkets or airport bathrooms, which she then photographs. The created sets take on an otherworldly painterly effect, giving an aura to their otherwise mundane subjects.
Bhopal ’ s debut solo exhibition was MIND THE GAP in early 2016 at GALLERYSKE, New Delhi. She has exhibited in exhibitions including the Yinchuan Biennale , Chin a, 2016; Guangzhou International Art Fair, Gallery BMB, Mumbai, 2010; Her Work is Never Done , curated by Bose Krishnamachari, Galley BMB, Mumbai, 2010; SPANDAN 4 , Articullate Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2009; Dubai Art Fair, Project 88, 2009; SPANDAN 3 , Articulate Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2008; The Miniature Format Show , Sanstache Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2008; and, Spy , The Museum Gallery, Mumbai, 2007. She received her education at Parsons School of Design, New York from 2003 until 2006, and Central and Saint Martins College of Art an d Design, London between 2002 and 2003.
ARTIST STATEMENT
It is the mundane experiences, day after day , that build our character and develop our personality. My body of work is a reflective process, capturing energy in transition from one experience to another. It is my personal belief that these veiled experiences are most profound.
My practice of constructing images examines the contemporary status of photographic images, the liminal possibility of introspection, and hidden structures in the meaning of the mundane.
At first sight, the architectural subjects represented by my photographs seem devoid of human presence but they relate to social sites where public and private moments often uncannily coexist. They become dynamic transformations in the viewers familiarities with limitless possibilities.
Over the years I have been greatly influenced by experiences of diversity and duality in concord of having to exist between them. Through geographic relocation, cultural disparities, religious incongruities, ethnic and gender divergence, philosophical extremes along with intellectual and spiritual aspiration, I’ve grappled paradoxes and learnt to celebrate the moments in between. My series of intimate public spaces with no physical human contact cornering you to a contemplative experience limiting us to observe, reflect and experience the basic realities.
My experiences have cultivated a need to search for the gap between reality and perception, A Constructed image created from recycled trash and found magazines.
Although people are figuratively absent, what remains are images which become models of the memory, experience, and contemplation of these moments. In a world saturated with manipulated or mediated images, my work re-evaluates the potential of the photographic medium. The images do not simply depict the world around her but actively participates in its construction.
Courtesy of diamehtabhupal.com, kochimuzirisbiennale.org