Vadehra Art Gallery presents a special project by Indian–Canadian, London- based photographer Sunil Gupta titled Come Out – featuring a never-before-exhibited series of black-and-white photographs shot in London from 1985 to 1995.
Sunil Gupta uses photography to engage with post-modernist, post-colonial activations of identity politics and public life particularly in regards to queer experiences. His oeuvre expresses an impulse to re-center marginalized accounts that tend to exist on the periphery of the socio-cultural fabric of historical and contemporary cities and narratives. Born and raised in Delhi, growing up in Montreal, and then working in New York City, Gupta’s eventual move to London in the 1980s establishes an ever-more expansive cultural field of insight vis-à-vis queer studies, migration, racism, sexuality and the politics of person, supported by the autobiographical weight of his own experiences, which are passionate concerns the artist has remained committed to over his decades-long career.
In England in the 1980s and 1990s, under Margaret Thatcher’s reigning government, queer communities and other sub-cultures were practically denied or rendered invisible from mainstream society. If laws recognized homosexuality at all, they were denigrated as “pretended family relationships” and cruising, which is a colloquial term taken from urban queer experiences, was charged as prostitution or solicitation. Particular laws such as Clause 28 made it illegal for town halls to fund any cultural activities that may be promoting these “pretended family relationships”. During this time, the queer community in London took to peaceful protesting often joining other causes enveloping the city such as women’s rights marches or the miners’ protests, etc. In Come Out, Gupta returns to the public sphere as a site of performance and power, and celebrates the rise in the visibility of gay life in the eighties and nineties in England.
As part of this special presentation, we are pleased to be able to include authentic audio testimonies documenting the journey of various cultural figures and individuals from the Indian queer community on the subject of “coming out”, a seminal experience for many especially while living under repressive laws and cultures where homosexuality is often still treated as a taboo subject. These voices are adapted from “Dissent and Desire” [Ó Sunil Gupta and Charan Singh (2018)], which was presented previously as a photographic installation at the Kochi–Muziris Biennale in 2018. Additionally, our programming will include a series of film screenings proposed by the artist Sunil Gupta and his partner, Charan Singh, exploring queer experiences from various aesthetic, regional and philosophical lenses.
Come Out is on view at The Viewing Room, D-53 Defence Colony, New Delhi from January 30 until March 1, 2024.
Words Platform Desk
Date 23.02.2024