Subodh Gupta’s (b. 1964) works combine a theatrical sense of scale along with a performative aspect. Much as Gandhi was able to galvanize precise historical moments and socio-political struggles around the simplest of symbols (as in his use of salt and hand-loomed cloth), Gupta has repeatedly used steel kitchen utensils, cows and cow-dung, and religious iconographies in a number of ways and in a variety of settings. His use of cow-dung, for instance, in paintings, sculptures, installations and performance works, speaks of the anxious terrains inhabited by Indians within their own country and their nation’s place within a globalising culture. Gupta has devised a strategic language through his art which can accommodate both international dialogues of forms and materials while addressing subjects of importance to his home, family and immediate community. He has found a way to speak of the local to the global and to teach the disenfranchised the language of the empowered. (Peter Nagy, an excerpt)