Hema Upadhyay

Ahmed Ali | TNN | Updated: Dec 1, 2018, 7:11 IST This story is from December 1, 2018 Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam quits double murder case of artist-lawyer: ‘Dindoshi is too far’

A Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh police intercepted Shiv Kumar on his way from the Varanasi station to his native village Gosaipur. The STF recovered ATM cards, SIM cards and other documents belonging to Hema and Bhambhani from him. He confessed to the murders. Vidyadhar is currently at large. The police have not completely ruled out Chintan as a suspect, due to his close acquaintance with Vidyadhar. The call detail record (CDR) of Chintan's phone shows that the two men exchanged several calls a fortnight before the murders. Hema's family as well as police suspect that Chintan paid Vidyadhar to commit her murder. In February 2016, a group of 61 artists demanded his release arguing that the police had been unable to find any evidence against him.

Hema Upadhyay (born Hema Hirani; 1972 – December 11, 2015) was an Indian artist based in Mumbai. She was known for photography and sculptural installations. She was active from 1998 until her death in 2015.

Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Haresh Bhambani were killed on Friday, 11 December 2015, reportedly over a financial dispute.

Moderniznation, 2011, Espace Topographie de l'Art, Festival D' Automne a Paris, Paris, France

The Princesses' Rusted Belt, 250 handmade clay birds, iron wire, acrylic, watercolours, cotton thread and text on printing paper, dimensions variable, 2011, Studio La Citta, Verona, Italy

The Princesses' Rusted Belt, Mixed media on arches paper, 72 x 48 in, 2011, Studio La Citta, Verona, Italy

Think left, think right, think low, think tight, 2010, Aichi Triennial, Nagoya, Japan & Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, 2011

In 2010, Hema was invited to a residency at Atelier Calder, Sache, France. While there, she completed the work Only Memory has Preservatives, this work was inspired by the natural surroundings in Sache, but also reflected ideas that have been part of her practice. Hema tried to replicate the forest in her studio, though not in the literal sense. Using copyright free images of certain trees found in the area, she created a landscape work without using materials from nature.

Only Memory has Preservatives, 2010, Atelier Calder, Sache, France

Bhambhani had represented Hema in court cases against her ex-husband Chintan. After filing for a divorce in 2010, Chintan and Hema had lived in different rooms of their Mumbai flat until their divorce in 2014. In 2013, Hema had filed a harassment case against Chintan, accusing him of painting obscene sketches on the walls of their Mumbai flat. Represented by Bhambhani, she lost the case after the court ruled that Chintan's bedroom was his personal space. After their divorce, Chintan moved to Delhi. Bhambani represented Hema in another case seeking alimony: Hema demanded an alimony of ₹ 200,000 per month; but the court reduced that amount to ₹ 40,000 per month. On the day of their murders, Chintan had paid ₹ 200,000 to Bhambhani as part of an alimony payout.

8' x 12', 2009, installation, Indian Highway

Where the bees suck, there suck I, 2009, MACRO Museum, Rome, Italy

Killing Site, 2008, Studio La Citta, Verona, Italy

Loco foco motto, 2007, Hanger Bicocca, Milan, Italy

In collaboration with Chintan Upadhyay, she did a work titled Made in China, which spoke about mass consumerism, globalisation and a loss of identity through this. Her next collaboration was in 2006 when she collaborated with her mother, Bina Hirani, the work was titled Mum-my and was shown at the Chicago Cultural Centre.

Her later works featured patterned surfaces, which quote from Indian spiritual iconography and traditional textile design, titled Killing Site. Dream a wish-wish a dream (2006) was the first large-scale installation that Hema did. At first glance her installation seems to be only a landscape of Bombay; however, it is actually a statement on the changing landscape by migrants who make Bombay.

From 2004 onwards, Hema Upadhyay came up with installations that were part of various group shows at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art Beijing, China; National Portrait Gallery Canberra, Australia; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Museum on the Seam, Jerusalem, Israel; MACRO museum, Rome, Italy; IVAM, Valencia, Spain; Mart Museum, Italy; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Hanger Bicocca, Milan, Italy; Chicago Cultural Centre, Chicago, USA; Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts, Paris, France; Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan; Japan Foundation, Tokyo and the Henie Onstad Kunssenter, Oslo, Norway. A few months after Hema died, in 2016, her work was exhibited under the theme "Megacities Asia" at the Museum of fine arts, Boston.

Made in China, Collaborative installation, 2003, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai, India

In 2003 she was part of the Vasl residency in Karachi where she made a work titled Loco foco motto (which she later in 2007 exhibited in a group show at the Hanger Bicocca, Milan, Italy) that spoke about the India-Pakistan divide keeping in mind her own family history related to the partition of India. The works were also a break from her trademark symbolism, they were more craft oriented as she used matchsticks and glue to make chandeliers. Constructed of thousands of un-ignited matchsticks assembled into elaborate chandeliers, these pieces embody an important element of Hindu ritual, symbolising creation and destruction.

Hema had her first solo exhibition, titled Sweet Sweat Memories, at Gallery Chemould, now Chemould Prescott road (Mumbai), in 2001. The exhibition consisted of mixed media on paper works. In these works she has incorporated her own photographs to communicate her ideas of migration having moved to Bombay in 1998. Hema's paintings were usually characterised by the inclusion of small-collaged photographic self-portraits.

The Nymph and the Adult, Installation, 2001, Artspace, Sydney, Australia

In 2001 Hema had her first international solo at Artspace, Sydney, and Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia, where she exhibited an installation titled The Nymph and the Adult (also exhibited at the 10th International Triennial – India held in New Delhi) she hand sculpted 2000 lifelike cockroaches, infesting the gallery with them. The work was intended to make viewers think about the consequences of military actions.

Born Hema Hirani in Baroda, she met her future husband and fellow artist Chintan Upadhyay in 1992. The couple married in 1998, and settled in Mumbai. They worked together in many exhibitions, before filing for a divorce in 2010. They were officially divorced in 2014. Chintan then moved to Delhi; she lived in their flat on the Juhu-Tara road.