Light is Being

During the European Middle Ages, when books were copied by hand at various monasteries, artists known as “illuminators” painted small illustrative images and beautifully ornamental initial letters in the books. These images and letters are called illuminations. The word comes from the Latin illuminare, which means “enlighten”. Latin had long been the language of the church, power and learning in Europe and all books were written in Latin, even though the common people spoke other languages.

In the work Light Is Being in the new Kulturkvarteret cultural centre, multiple languages are given space and light, and text and language are linked together in a new way. On the wall in the large lobby of Kulturkvarteret, and in two places outside, a message fans out. The short lines of verse are about light, sight, being and truth. The text is cut from mirror glass.

We can see ourselves and our surroundings in the fragmented text landscape. The languages are Swedish, Arabic and Hindi. Hindi is the most widely spoken language in India and one of the most-spoken languages in the world. It is also the artist’s mother tongue. Arabic is another of the world’s five most-spoken languages and one of the most common languages in Örebro. Swedish is spoken by most Örebro residents, but it is a minor language in comparison with the other two.

The creator of the artwork is the internationally renowned Indian artist Shilpa Gupta. Gupta has an educational background in sculpture, but her art has always transcended genres and she likes to work in newer artistic media such as video, performance, and Internet environments. Text, language, and light are recurring media and motifs in her art.