Obscenity's rich dividends Artist Chintan Upadhyay is planning to highlight the issue of female foeticide by exhibiting dead foetuses on canvas ANIL SADARANGANI Times News Network There are more instances of artists getting controversial than artistic these days. And the latest artist to join the rabble rousing bandwagon is Chin tan Upadhyay. He is planning to put up an exhibition on female foeticlde -by purchasing actual aborted foetuses! ISays Upadhyay, "I feel very strongly about this as I've seen this happen in my home state Rajasthan. I know people will consider me a bad person for doing this but that is fine. Art and artists is not meant to please." Last year in April, Upadhyay sat in the nude as part of his instaila­tion Baar baar kitne' baar? Har bear at Vadodara. People who caine to view the exhibition, were told to put turmeric powder on him. According to him, he was protesting against the 2002 Gujarat riots. He had also helped artists Sanjeev Khandekar and Vaishali Narkar put up the controversial exhibition two weeks agp, Tits, Clits and Elephant Dick. According to Upadhyay, he plans to put up the dead foetuses on canvas to make people 'more aware' of the issue of female foeticide. "Someone has to raise these issues. 18 thIs art? Yes, it is. Anything that an artist does is art. People have a choice not to seesuch exhibits. Even the media gets moralistic about such shows," he says. He has also lashed Out at Pravina Macklal the owner of Jamaat Art Gallery ~r condemning Khandekar and Narkftr's art show. "$ho con­denined the show without even seeing It. She has vested interests to say things like that. Isn't that sensationalism?" Anil.sadarangani@timesgroup.com Bombay Times The Times of India Wednesday, August 23, 2006 Chintan Upadhyay Bombay Times, August 23rd 2006