For Ratna Gupta, repetition is sacred. The act of doing, over and over, what has become instinctive, is a way of unearthing new meaning, to mark the passage of time and the metamorphoses of bodies. Many of her sculptural objects, at once strange and familiar, echo this obsession with recurrence and transmutation, though her practice doesn’t suggest a desire for permanence, but instead reaffirms the ephemeral. Ratna's works are all ultimately subject to disintegration in the same way our bodies are—resin may crack, latex might morph, needles will rust, and things will fall apart.
Ratna invites viewers into this fragile, intimate world where memories are cast into objects and the body is in flux. Her works reconcile with restlessness and pain, the awareness of death and ecological degradation, but are also filled with a deep sense of wonder and surprise that asks usabove all else, to consider the things that we hold dearest.
After finishing her B.A from St. Xaviers College, Mumbai, Ratna studied graphic design at the Weighan and Leigh College, Mumbai. She further went on to do a B.A Honours in Book Arts and Crafts at the London College of Printing. She lives and works in Mumbai.