We had the good fortune of connecting with Udita Upadhyaya and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Udita, what do you want people to remember about you?
My art and birthwork practices are based in community and connection. I want to highlight the urgency to be kind to one another, to see each other, to listen deeply to each other without just waiting for our turn to speak or be heard. The idea of “be who you would’ve wanted/needed when you were younger” is such a driving force for me. Every child, every young person deserves a grown up to count on and to relate to. And underneath each of us, often actually just below the surface is our inner child, still wounded and looking for reassurance. I make creative work because I want to hold my own inner child, and make room for others to be their true vulnerable selves. Sometimes this comes from radical letter writing. I love letters. (As an aside, my partner and I wrote a personalized love letter to each of the 111 people who were at our wedding.) My current work up at Weinberg Newton Gallery in Chicago is a love letter to any person considering an abortion, called “from an abortion doula.” My show and artist book “nevernotmusic” featured twelve love letters written to various people in my life. It was written shortly after November 2016, so the goal was to infuse the world with care, holding and permission to rest. The COVID19 pandemic created even more urgency around this idea of radical rest. We are not just cogs in the capitalistic machine, our worthiness is inherent and not based on hours worked, or how packed our schedule is, or our earning potential. I say this, but it is not meant to be preaching: I say this because I too struggle with it. I too forget my inherent worthiness and feel the loss of years and potential, but starting with myself, I want us to take each step with the question “what is the kindest thing to do,” kindest to ourselves and to those around us. I also use my creative work to highlight this tenderness. My 2018 work with dear collaborator Lindsey Barlag Thornton is about durational hugs, and holding our friends faces, and arms and resting on each others shoulders: touch need not just be for sexual intimacy. And my recent series of quilts about grief and loss, and family stories is a reminder of the need for cozying up and hiding in soft fabric, and feeling our feelings. My work is essentially about how do we let ourselves be human and tender to ourselves and others.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am an interdisciplinary artist. My creative practice spans live art, devised theatre, performative photographs, installation, writing, text, and fiber arts. I work intuitively across these mediums using the principles of Vipassana meditation to call on the wisdom of the body.

Currently I am most excited by the textile work I created for my recent solo show at the O‘Connor Gallery in River Forest, Illinois. I have been in love with fabrics for as long as I can remember. I dream in fabric… and I dream of fabric. Most nights just as we are falling asleep I nudge my partner to say “which color are you seeing right now? and respond with “When I close my eyes I see purple with gold threads or peach and green wavy lines.”

On my recent trip home to Mumbai, I asked my grandmother‘s tailer for his leftover scraps or katran. Back in Los Angeles, I pieced together these fabrics, adorning them with embroidered text. I embroidered text in cycles, making it hard to read. I hope that my viewer navigates them as the misreading and confusion of processing a family story when you first hear it as a child, and then when you recognize the elements in it as a grown human, one that is considering the impact of what was passed down and subsequently what you may pass down to your next generation.

I like to imagine the folks that wear the rest of these fabrics and where they are headed. I like to imagine that I am in conversation with the women who are wearing the rest of these fabrics. In my quilt star strings I created these orbits and infused them with writing about cyclical stories of women in my lineage and beyond – the women from and of the land that I am from and of.

Additionally, transparency and texture play a key role in the details of the work. I hide discarded thread in transparent pockets, masking much away from view.
For this show, I tackled the time and loss. I was slow stitching on a deadline, slow stitching about loss, slow stitching while anxious and living through a pandemic. I learned to love and cherish my imperfect stitches. They are not always neat and perhaps not always beautiful but they do accurately reflect my navigation of being human, being alive in a changing world, with a changing self being in conversation with loss, hiding loss away in pockets to encounter later.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We would absolutely go to “Friends and Family” at 5150 Hollywood Blvd. We would go to the Griffith Park for a hike, and possibly stop at “Trails” for a lavender cookie! I’d love to share the new show at Craft Contemporary, such a lovely space. I would also take them to the India Sweets and Spices Market in Atwater so we could get some groceries and then cook them a simple home-style Indian meal. Of course we would have to visit the Eagle Rock Dog Park a few times so that my 3 year old Border Collie Husky got her share of attention and play. We may also stop by the Remainders store in Pasadena to thrift some fabric and notions.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I am absolutely motivated by incredible thinkers and radical creatives. I already mentioned my dear friend and frequent collaborator Lindsey Barlag Thornton, whose work is so joyful and silly and deals with the hardships of being alive in a unique and unabashed way. My partner and collaborator Caleb Neubauer’s music always inspires me and moves me to meditation and feeling in a safe and comforting way. I love the Nap Ministry’s work. I am so grateful for Women’s Center for Creative Work. I am grateful for Zak Foster’s Quilty Nook, a welcoming digital space for so many artist and crafters. I love Raeanne Madison of Postpartum healing lodge who is a fierce advocate for her community, and works to reminds us of how to care for our bodies. I am forever grateful to Davinah Simmons an LA native and a full spectrum doula who was critical to my approach to loss in this work. I could go on and on.

   

Website: www.uditaupadhyaya.com

Instagram: @uditau

Image Credits
Tom Van Eynde and Caleb Neubauer

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