Sunil Gupta's "Identity of an artist" (seminar at Courtauld Institute of Art, 24 June 2020)
Sunil Gupta is a Canadian born (1953) Indian-background photographer working in New Delhi, India, who currently works and lives in London UK. I participated in his seminar, a part of the "Artist Talk" series by the Courtauld Institute of Art on 24 June 2020. One of the topics explored in his talk was the question of the identity of an artist. Two quotes stroke me deeply and namely:
- "We always make some intrusion with the camera" and he referred to his subjects as "protagonists", "informants" and "actors". What he tried to highlight was the distinction between the artistic statement and journalism. As an artist, you are free to pursue your agenda, as long as you do not make a false narrative. You are the storyteller and the chain, through which your story is filtered is STORY => YOUR ID => ARTISTIC STATEMENT. If others decide to augment, contradict or correct your voice in the discourse it is their right to do so - in their own respective work. An artist is not obliged for any concessions or censorship of his statements, the world is sufficiently limiting reality to all of us. We need to aim high,
- He also said explicitly that "the [only] obligation of an artist is to contextualise the scene and join the discourse with a statement"
The discussion was moderated by Dr Fiona Anderson
https://www.ncl.ac.uk/creativearts/people/profile/fionaanderson.html#background
More about Sunil Gupta's work here:
https://unquietmoments.courtauld.ac.uk/gupta
