Borrowing from her career graph, artist Shilpa Gupta has collaborated with Sara Vetteth to create an interactive children’s book, Everyday Art, about the infinite possibilities of exploring art, especially among young people
This section looks at her student life at Sir JJ School of Art, Mumbai in 1995
Everyday Art (Tulika Books) is a refreshing approach to introduce young readers to art, and to discover its enormous possibilities…
I met Sara (Vetteth) at the opening of the Kochi Biennale in 2018, where I was showing a sound installation based on the 100 imprisoned poets. The research for this work had stretched over two years and had filled me with so many stories that simply making an installation didn’t feel like a complete culmination of the process. As an extension of the project, I developed two workshops that were conducted in Kochi — one art-based, designed for children, and another literature-focused, for young adults — centred on the stories of these poets.
When I learned that Sara was an art educator, I shared with her the children’s art workshop I was developing. Based on the research material I sent her, she went on to conduct a set of remarkable workshops for older children in Chennai. That experience sparked a deep connection between us. I was deeply touched by her belief in my work and her beautiful embrace of it.
Later, she invited me to present at the annual art conference that she organises for art teachers. At another conference, she even printed and distributed copies of the Artivities art worksheets I had created to all the attending teachers. Her continued support and encouragement laid the foundation for an ongoing and meaningful conversation between us.
Shilpa Gupta took the public experiment Blame on Mumbai’s local trains, and spent months chasing permissions to install I Live Under Your Sky Too at Bandra’s Carter Road Promenade. These public art experiments have been deeply influential in shaping her practice. She was always keen to explore possibilities of extending art beyond gallery walls — to reach audiences who might not ordinarily engage with contemporary art. IMAGES COURTESY/SHILPA GUPTA, TULIKA Books
Artivities are interactive worksheets I’ve been developing since 2006, often as part of workshops. Last year, Sara suggested creating a book on my work — like the series she had done 15 years ago on artists such as Ramachandran, Ram Kumar, and KG Subramanyan. But this time, the format would be expanded to include new material, including new worksheets like Artivities. It’s about making space for the reader — not just to observe, but to respond, reflect, interpret, and make something of their own, which may sit on their book shelves, or in the drawer.
I Want To Live With No Fear was an interactive project in 2010 to blur the gap between the artist and art object
What are hoping that young, art-inclined readers will gain from this book?
The book hopes to expand a young reader’s understanding of what art can be, how it can be made, and who it can be for. There are two layers to it. One, it introduces young readers to my practice, which uses lesser-known mediums such as installation, media-based works, interactive works that involve everyday materials. It also invites them into a way of thinking about art where concept is as important as form.
Shilpa Gupta
Secondly, which feels truly special — are the blank pages. These are spaces for the reader to respond to the work — allowing them to process, reflect, and participate. It encourages a more involved and personal engagement with the art, and hopefully, with themselves. It encourages them to consider their relationship to the spaces and structures around them, and to question the assumptions that often shape our world.
In today’s AI/ChatGPT-leaning world, what would you tell aspiring artists about expressing themselves on canvas?
Feel free to express yourself in whatever medium speaks to you, whether that’s a canvas, a screen, or something entirely unexpected. What makes any work meaningful is sharing your own story, in your own way. Hold on to that sense of curiosity and discovery because the process of making is just as important as the outcome. Let your work grow from what moves you, not from what someone else is doing.
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