The Indian artist Subodh Gupta made 'Soma' specifically for Donum: it is a giant, slightly tilted—perhaps even tipsy looking— Pinot Noir wine bottle constructed from the artist's trademark kitchen utensils, with a bunch of stainless steel grapes resting at its base. The title 'Soma' refers to the Vedic ambrosia, a drink favored by the gods that bestowed vigor and immortality. So intoxicating was this drink that it is often personified as a deity itself.
Gupta's utensils—stainless-steel dishes, milking buckets, cooking pots and metal tiffins—are the kinds of objects found in any Indian middle-class kitchen. He buys them in bulk during regular shopping trips to the market; they are central to Gupta's art. The artist, it turns out, has a deep love for food and cooking.
"One afternoon, when I went to the kitchen, instead of cooking I started looking at the utensils," he recalls. "Basically, I felt that they started talking to me. Every day, in every home, these are such common objects. I thought: 'It's perfect—I can draw something with it; these become like my tools.' I thought, 'Here is something happening,' and I went for it. Here I am with the utensil now, and it's like my signature item in sculpture."
The same signature material takes on a new form nearby, high on a hill overlooking the pond, where Gupta’s expansive 'People Tree' stands. A giant banyan tree with prominent aerial prop roots, it's an expression of both traditional and contemporary life in India— one of the most populous nations on Earth. Thousands of ordinary stainless-steel dishes and pots are carefully melded to form the crown of this iconic subcontinental tree, while its lavish trunk and branches are also crafted from gleaming metal. Gupta’s conceptual relationship with the material is particular: “When I was in school, stainless steel was so desirable; to eat on it at an uncle’s house was the height of luxury.” That is no longer the case—a reflection of India’s economic
growth over recent decades—but here, the metal is transformed into something extraordinary.
The banyan tree, Indian's national tree, is considered sacred, symbolizing eternal life and knowledge. By placing such a bold sculpture on this golden hillside near the eucalyptus grove, the landscape is both extended and defined, inviting exploration to the farthest edge of its bounds.
Continuing this exploration of shared experience and cultural memory, Gupta's 'Adda' draws inspiration from a concept deeply rooted in Indian social life. 'Adda', although difficult to define, can be roughly translated as a place where people gather for conversation and casual intellectual exchange—a kind of cultured hangout. Similar to images of the regular debates in Ancient Greece during the time of Socrates and Plato, addas typically occur in open, communal settings.
To give form to this idea, Gupta constructed three pillars from an amalgamation of materials: stainless-steel utensils, old brassware, concrete, fabric and resin. Their shape recalls traditional Indian temple architecture while also evoking the style of ancient Greek and Roman columns. In his attempt to replicate a site for public dialogue, Gupta selected a form common to both Indian and European classical “public” architecture. Furthermore, the fusion of physical materials, combined with the montage of sounds emanating from the piece, echoes the spirit of conversation and exchange of ideas that defined these communal spaces.
Biography
Now an international art star, Gupta grew up in the state of Bihar in eastern India. His father was a railway man who hoped his son would follow in his footsteps. But art was Gupta's calling, as he discovered early on. He enrolled at the College of Arts and Crafts in Bihar's state capital, Patna. Having spent his childhood being taken to the theater by his mother, he subsequently became a set designer for a traveling theater troupe.
Today, Gupta’s work is in museum collections all over the world. He recently installed a giant bucket of steel outside the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. He lives in Delhi with his wife, the artist Bharti Kher, and their two children, where he works out of a three-story studio to accommodate the scale of his work. There, he collaborates with a welder, a clay modeler, a plaster cast painter, and a graphic painter on his monumental sculptures.
