
Image credit:
Sunil Gupta, Untitled (from Songs of Deliverance), 2022. Commissioned by Studio Voltaire and Imperial Health Charity. Image courtesy the artist and Hales Gallery, Stephen Bulger Gallery and Vadehra Art Gallery. © Sunil Gupta. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2022.
Sunil Gupta
in collaboration with Studio Voltaire
April 2021- March 2022
We are delighted to announce a major new commission by Sunil Gupta with Studio Voltaire, displayed across two St Mary’s Hospital and Charing Cross Hospital, with a concurrent presentation on view at Studio Voltaire.
Gupta spent a year working in residence at St. Mary’s Hospital in Paddington and Charing Cross Hospital in Hammersmith. Recruited via an open invitation, LGBTQIA+ people from the adult HIV clinic and gender affirmation surgery service were invited to collaborate and spend time with Gupta.
The resulting series of photographic works present portrayals of his collaborators’ lives, their experiences of receiving care and the relationships and transformations that occur in the process. Each work incorporates a colourful accompanying text panel, referencing the work of artist Ken Lum. Some fictional, some personal—they explore family, community, stigma and the lived realities of individuals who access these vital services. With tenderness and insight, Songs of Deliverance explores how public health systems shape private modes of belonging.
A digital installation of the entire series of thirty-eight works are displayed in the Studio Voltaire Project Studio, whilst a concurrent exhibition of selected large–scale photographic works from the series are on display at St. Mary’s Hospital, Paddington and Charing Cross Hospital, Hammersmith until 24 June.
This project is a collaboration between Studio Voltaire and Imperial Health Charity and has received additional funding from Arts Council England. Songs of Deliverance forms part of Desperate Living, an ongoing programme supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation that brings artists, public organisations and informal groups together to test out new and experimental forms of collaborative programming, knowledge sharing and production, explored through the lens of LGBTQIA+ healthcare.
With special thanks to all the participants, models and hospital staff involved.
Sunil Gupta (b. 1953, New Delhi India) is a photographer, writer and curator. He has exhibited internationally and published several books, including Christopher Street, 1976 (Stanley/Barker 2018) and Queer (Vadehra Art Gallery/Prestel 2011). His work is in many public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (NY, USA) Tate Britain (UK), Philadelphia Museum of Art (USA), Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (Japan), Arts Council of Great Britain (UK) and Harvard University (Massachusetts, USA). A forthcoming retrospective From Here to Eternity opens at the Ryerson Centre in Toronto in 2022.
Gupta is represented by Hales Gallery, Stephen Bulger Gallery and Vadehra Art Gallery.
Studio Voltaire is one of the UK’s leading not–for–profit arts organisations. Its pioneering public programmes of exhibitions, participation projects, live events and offsite commissions have gained an international reputation.
