Sudipta Modi

Sudipta Modi is a photographer and installation artist who has exhibited in London, Italy, and India. Recent exhibitions include Open Arts Project in London, Chitrakoot Gallery in Kolkata, India, University of the Arts London, Free Space Project, Camberwell Arts Festival, Hopkinsons21 in Nottingham, Spazio-Tempo Arte, Trento, Italy, St. Peters Heritage Centre, London, Art Chennai Festival, Aaya Art gallery in Chennai, India, Artists Circle, Grand Oberoy, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, and Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata India.

Ranging from depictions of the aftermaths of war to ghostly interiors to practices in playfulness, Sudipta uses a variety of practices within her photography and installation portfolio to express absurdity and despair. Her multi-colored photomontages are crafted in the lab from found imagery with analogue processes which convey haunting scenes such as nuclear explosions and war-torn environments in a state of social collapse. These colorful compositions, along with her installations covered in light design, utilize conceptual pop art effects which reveal an entertainment factor as well as an implication of war being a ‘popular’ concept and industry. 

The installations and photography portraying figures in interiors typically convey the aesthetic of the bathroom. Ranging from a hand holding a cigarette with a light filter to a woman protruding her tongue in the bathroom to images of fabric superimposed against a bathtub or depictions of cabinet curtains, Sudipta conveys an eerie mood of an environment meant for solitude and replenishment. Solemn attitudes seem to be a recurring theme within her work, whether through images of atomic bombs or bathrooms, through light filters and light design she expresses the poetic and sociological implications in solace and exploration of environments. 

Towards Ultra Violet (pictured above) depicts a light design installation with a projected image of a photograph depicting a figure with swimming goggles. The immense neon glows of the environment and specific colors have Vapor Wave connotations and the communication through text reveals an extremely interactive work of art. The words ‘free the capital’ blazened on the projection along with a purple UV light laying on the floor suggests several interpretations. If the word ‘capital’ is meant in the meaning of a city, then the work suggests a sense of liberation against oppression. However, if ‘capital’ is connotated towards gain and monetary value, the work could be described as an act of rebellion against a structured system. 

Sudipta Modi explores environments and acts of attrition through sociological implications with ambiguous figurative expressions, found imagery, and expressive neon colors. Through repetition, improvisation, and clever light design she conveys a willingness to use a variety of methods to express conceptual approaches in the irony of romanticising the absurd and acts of horror, such as uncomfortable expressions in the bathroom or depictions of warfare and destroyed environments. There remains a sense of boldness and unrestrained essence to tackle imagery which are provocative in substance and how they are presented. Sudipta instills an avenue for the viewer to reinterpret concepts of familiarity and enacts twisted behavior and unusual occurrences in certain choreographed scenes pushing the audience to come up with their own indirected conclusions.

https://www.sudiptamodi.com