Derelict

Created as part of a room-sized installation during her residency at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, this work by Hema Upadhyay titled Derelict has multiple connotations inspired by her life in Mumbai and the time she spent in Pittsburgh. As she explains, "The crux of the work is that it comes from the idea of using materials that are flammable, literally. And everybody’s familiar with that ... People are like, 'ok this is a matchstick, and it’s a potent, flammable object. I want to use it in a destructive way.' A lot of these works stem from my own personal experiences in Mumbai and are a response to what is happening all over the world in terms of war. In the city of Pittsburgh, and in my neighborhood here where I’m living, I have seen that a lot of homes are abandoned. It’s almost like somebody just left and wasn’t allowed to take their things. It kind of builds your own fantasy, and stories and myths about certain things and the objects from these homes. A chandelier has a connotation of wealth. In earlier days we may have thought that only rich people could afford chandeliers because they are made with crystals and semi-precious stones and things of that sort. In this piece there’s one chandelier crushed into the wall, so that it’s almost breaking apart. One is hanging very pretty and one is just on the floor. The silhouettes now read as people who were possessing these objects ... they become the shadow of the object." (Artist statement, 'Derelict / Hema Upadhyay', Mattress Factory website, accessed July 2017)