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India Shining 1 (Gandhi and the Laptop)

Date2007

Label TextFor the artist Debanjan Roy, Gandhi is a tense symbol for the nation of India. In his lifetime, Gandhi advocated for the poor and the marginalized and he recommended that society should emulate a traditional village. Nowadays, as India advances on the global stage and enters late-stage capitalism, Gandhi has become a national symbol for wealth, progress, and advancement. The viewer of this work confronts this dual symbolic usage of Gandhi by witnessing Gandhi posing not with traditional symbols, such as a spinning wheel, but with contemporary technologies, such as a laptop and headphones.

Object number2021.33

ProvenanceThe artist; [Aicon Gallery, New York]; purchased from gallery by Dipti and Rakesh Mathur, San Francisco, California; to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2021

Exhibition HistoryAhmedabad, India, L & P Hutheesing Centre, Looking for Bapu, 2010. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Asian Art Museum, Be/longing: Contemporary Asian Art, Feb. 8, 2020 - ongoing [on view beginning Jan. 20, 2023].Published ReferencesJoseph, Anjali and Neel Mukherjee, “India 2.0,” The Times Literary Supplement, No. 6028, October 12, 2018. Reproduced on cover.

Credit LineGift of Dipti and Rakesh Mathur in honor of Mimi Gardner Gates

Dimensions27 x 46 x 30 in. (68.6 x 116.8 x 76.2 cm)

MediumFiberglass, acrylic paint, quilted mat, and bolster pillow