{"id":4278,"date":"2024-12-06T10:39:54","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T10:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/?page_id=4278"},"modified":"2025-02-11T10:53:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T10:53:10","slug":"sutapa-biswas-december-2024","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/sutapa-biswas-december-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Sutapa-Biswas-December-2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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What I am Reading Now\u2026<\/strong>
Sutapa Biswas<\/b>
December 2024<\/p><\/div>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

A Library of Maps:<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>

There is a collection of books that I keep by my bedside on the wooden floor. Somehow the knowledge that they are simply there inhabiting my mind\u2019s eye whilst I am in a deep state of sleep is a source of great comfort to me. For what is contained within and between them, like secrets whispered to me, become my mantra for the day ahead. They exist as a ballet of worlds and as ballast in driving rain. They live as the warmth of sunshine against my forehead when I most need it. It is in the company of voices found through the act of reading, that I discover myself.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

A book that I return to often is the late Guy Brett\u2019s The Crossing of Innumerable Paths: Essays on Art<\/em>.<\/strong> Guy (1942-2021) was a dear friend of mine for over thirty-five years, and though now departed his writings continue to offer guidance and wisdom. In this book, he writes, \u2018You probably wonder what this book is about. But there is no reason to explain things. You don\u2019t need to have an answer. I think of the artist Len Lye and his \u2018feeling days\u2019, an idea he had as a youth. For instance, \u2018If you\u2019ve just heard someone clanking a nice piece of metal outside your window, then that\u2019s a sound day\u2019, what Lye would call \u2018the sound aspect of things\u2019. Then there were taste days, anything you care to choose and concentrate on. My intention is not just for you to see but to feel<\/strong><\/em> your way around this book.\u2019 This concept in essence is how I have come to navigate myself through life – not purely by the act of seeing, but by feeling<\/em> my way through it.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>

I am reminded too in this process of reading or writing or making art, of the importance of what the film director and author Mrinal Sen<\/strong> articulates, \u2018I have told stories of my life, also of my times, not the whole of my life and times, and hardly anything chronologically. But all the time, I was intent on writing my stories \u2018simply in the simplest words\u2019.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

Books, Boats and Birds:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

It was Guy Brett<\/strong> who in 2004 during our conversation about my film Birdsong<\/em>, 2004, shared that he felt my spirit animal \u201clike the title of my film, was a bird\u201d.\u00a0 His words registered because Birdsong<\/em>, featuring my son and a horse situated in a living room entirely dressed with period furnishings to resemble that of an old uncle\u2019s \u2018colonial-style\u2019 quarters, centres on my son\u2019s first \u2018joined-up\u2019 spoken sentence in which he expressed his desire to have \u201ca horse living with us in our living room\u201d. My film is a silent work, its title alluding to that which we imagine we hear when making, for example, a wish. In this, led by feeling, for me it functions like a love song.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>

It is in my search for wisdom that may ground me, that I also turn to the writings of the painter and poet Etel Adnan<\/strong>. In her book The Beauty of Light<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0– a compilation of interviews between Etel Adnan<\/strong> and Laure Adler<\/strong> – Adnan reminds us of the importance of \u2018the remembrance of a life of impressions.\u2019 She asserts, \u2018It\u2019s a cumulative experience, it\u2019s not a precise place. Even when I mention the mountain, this mountain had infinite points of view; you went around it, you climbed it. It comes back to me most often the way I saw it from my windows. I can draw it with my eyes closed, I saw it so many times. But I was closer to the mountain than [the artist] Cezanne was. Cezanne went to see it, whereas I had it in my bay window. I couldn\u2019t see anything else. My paintings are compositions that reflect, that visually translate diverse experiences. I can\u2019t tell you it\u2019s this or that place. It\u2019s a collage of these places.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>

Existing by profession in an artworld that tells me that I am this or that, all I can do is reconcile myself in the knowledge that I am an artist, and one of art\u2019s monsters. Cast, and monstered by a system, from this vantage point \u2013 if indeed one can call it that \u2013 I can give myself grace to break all the rules. Grace to claim that space which allows me to define all my own geographies and the gravity to state for myself, where I can and do belong. I live in the knowledge that the etymology of my name \u2018Sutapa\u2019 is a verb. Through my art, my reading, my writing and my making, I know that I too am citizen of the universe.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

My recommendation:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

Here is a list of books and films that I am currently reading, have read and am re-reading. Not all of them are included in the photograph here. But all are beautiful books. I do not wish to present a summary of each, but rather to propose them for you to consider reading. For me they exist as being part of a \u2018library of maps\u2019 which, once upon a time a dear friend of mine, the art historian Moira Roth<\/strong> (1933-2021), and I exchanged stories of long into the summer.\u00a0<\/p>

In honour of those we love – those who held us – but who do not always define us:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>

A brief note however, about a particular book by Jhumpa Lahiri: The Lowland<\/em><\/strong>. One of my favourite books because though a work of fiction, it holds details of a history, time, and place that belongs to the era and lives of my mother and father. For this I am truly grateful to Lahiri.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

Read. Make art. Live life through feeling<\/strong><\/em>. Be happy. Be well.<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Reading<\/p><\/div>

The Beauty of Light: Interviews, <\/i>Etel Adnan and Laure Adler,<\/strong> translated by Ethan Mitchell (Nightboat Books, New York, 2024)\u00a0<\/p>

The Crossing of Innumerable Paths: Essays on Art, <\/i>Guy Brett (Riding House Books, 2019)<\/p>

The Lowland, <\/i>Jhumpa Lahiri (Bloomsbury, 2013 and 2014 (paperback))\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

Art Monsters, <\/i>Lauren Elkin (Chatto & Windus, 2023, and Vintage, Penguin, Random House, 2024 (paperback))<\/p>

Ruth Asawa: Citizen of The Universe,<\/i> Emma Ridgeway and Vibece Salthe (Modern Art Oxford, and Stavanger Art Museum, MUST, in association with Thames and Hudson, 2022)<\/p>

Mrinal Sen: A Memoir. Always Being Born (Stellar Publishers Pvt Ltd, 2006)<\/i><\/p>

Opened Ground: Poems 1966-1996, Seamus Heaney (Faber and Faber Limited, 1998)\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/p>

3 X Abstraction: New Methods of Drawing \u2013 Hilma af Klint, Emma Kunz, Agnes Martin, <\/i>Ed. Catherine de Zegher and Hendel Teicher (The Drawing Centre New York, 2005)<\/p>

Notes from the Woodshed, <\/i>Jack Whitten, edited and Introduction by Katy Siegal (Hauser & Wirth, 2018)<\/p>

Everyman Library Pocket Poets, Lullabies and Poems<\/i> (Everyman Publishers plc, 2002)<\/p>

Vision, <\/i>Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) (postcard, date unknown)\u00a0<\/p>

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Watching<\/p>

Dog Day Afternoon, <\/i>Sidney Lumet, 1975\u00a0<\/p>

Barry Lyndon, <\/i>Stanley Kubrick, 1975\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Sutapa Biswas<\/strong> (b 1962) is an Indian-born, internationally known British artist who lives and works in London. Biswas came to prominence in the mid-1980\u2019s when immediately following her graduation from the University of Leeds where she studied fine art, art history and the philosophy of science, her iconic undergraduate painting Housewives with Steak-knives<\/em> (1983-85) and video Kali<\/em> (1983-85) were showcased in the landmark ICA, London exhibition The Thin Black Line<\/em> (1985) curated by artist Lubaina Himid. An interdisciplinary artist, in 1992 Biswas held her first solo exhibition Synapse<\/em> at The Photographer\u2019s Gallery, London, following which her Synapse<\/em> series (1987-1992) was nominated for the Deutsche Bank European Photography Award, 1992. In 2021 \u2013 2022, Biswas held two solo concurrent exhibitions at Kettle\u2019s Yard, University of Cambridge and at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK. A Fellow of Yale University (2019), recipient of the Art Fund UK 2019 Award with Film and Video Umbrella (London) and Bristol Museums, Biswas\u2019s works have been exhibited widely including at Tate Modern (UK), Tate Britain (UK), Art Gallery of Toronto (Canada), the 2015 Oita Triennial (Japan), Melbourne International Arts Festival 2006 (Australia), and the Havana Biennial, 1997 (Cuba). Public Collections hosting Biswas\u2019s works include: Tate, Government Art Collection (UK), Sheffield Museums and Art Galleries (UK), Arts Council England (UK) and Reed College (USA).\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Please note the views published in\u00a0What I am Reading Now…<\/i>\u00a0are personal reflections of the contributors.
These may not necessarily represent the views of the University of Dundee.<\/span><\/p>

Readers who wish to make a donation to support\u00a0Medical Aid for Palestinians can do so\u00a0here<\/a>.
<\/span>\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>

Home<\/a><\/p>

Previous Issue: Ajamu X, November 2024<\/a><\/strong>
Next Issue: Elaine Mitchener, January 2025<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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about projects What I am Reading Now\u2026Sutapa BiswasDecember 2024 \u00a0 A Library of Maps:\u00a0 There is a collection of books that I keep by my bedside on the wooden floor. Somehow the knowledge that they are simply there inhabiting my mind\u2019s eye whilst I am in a deep state of sleep is a source of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":271,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4278","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4278"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4383,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4278\/revisions\/4383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}