art_works recently caught up with the artist Gupi Ranganathan in her cozy home studio populated by multiple projects that revolve around memory, cell structure, and the relationship between people and nature.

Born and raised in India, Gupi currently resides in the Boston area. She received her BA from Simmons University and MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, respectively. Her artistic practice sits at the intersection of art and science, exploring how minute changes at the microscopic level can lead to existential reflections on the macrocosm. Gupi uses multimedia materials, including writing and mark-making, along with mathematical and scientific concepts to evoke biological processes and investigate the phenomenon of memory.

During our studio visit, Gupi caught us up on her recent creative projects, discussed her background in engineering and management, and her transition to pursuing bio-inspired art full-time.

art_works: What does your studio routine look like?

Gupi Ranganathan: I work most days in my studio. When I have deadlines coming up, I work on weekends too. The benefit of having our home basement as my studio is that I can easily slip in and out when working. Sometimes, the work expands – even the kitchen countertop and the table upstairs become my workspace and get covered in paint! Even on days when I’m not working, I still come down to my studio, turn on the lights, and go through my works in progress.

a_w: What are some of your habits when it comes to making art?

GR: A large part of my work is reading scientific papers and googling topics since I collaborate with scientists and work at the intersection of art and science. I sometimes have 10 tabs open on my laptop to try to understand one line of what I’m reading. Even when I don’t fully understand the content, I push through.

Journaling is another very important part of my work. Every six months, I take off a few days just to sift through all the materials I’ve compiled over the period of time – thoughts, meeting notes, doodles, drawings, etc. Ideas will come to me when I work on past materials, as my work centers around memory, remembering, and learning.

My work develops over time in stages. Many of my pieces have spanned over many years and look different when shown at different stages – in three years, seven years, and maybe ten years – until I decide to retire the poor surface struggling to hold up to all the material changes! It has its own lifespan; it contains a body of memories.

a_w: You’ve mentioned memory several times. How did you come to define memory as a core concept in your work?

GR: When I started as a student at MassArt, I spent the previous summer with my grandmother, who was experiencing memory loss. In an attempt to understand my grandmother’s condition – the medication, treatment, and diagnosis – I read research papers relating to memory disorders and was constantly thinking about memory as a phenomenon. When I went to art school, I asked my professors: how do you capture memory loss as a visual thing since it’s so abstract that one can only feel it? My professors suggested that that may be what I should start digging into with my art.

So I continued with my research, visualizing my memories of walks with my grandmother, then silk screen-printed those drawings and played around with the patterns that evolved. Each pattern could be applied in multiple ways, reflecting how memory manifests itself in our brains. Then I started experimenting with the idea of traces of memory, both biological and sociological. 

I learned that in biology, scientists discuss the overarching theme that structure determines function. A change in one can change the other; I see memory as the interconnecting link between the two. I work with memories to explore how changes in memory can alter and/or improve the structure and function.  

Artists are always asking questions and trying to find solutions to problems in their studios. If you’re doing something that you know already, what’s the point of it? I do something because I don’t understand it, so I may learn about and from it. As artists, we learn by doing. I see myself as a researcher in fine art, pushing the limits of the discipline and contributing to it in my own small way. Questions around memory are the gap that I’ve identified for myself to fill, something I feel excited about 24/7.

a_w: What are the differences and similarities between working with artists and scientists?

GR: I have stopped differentiating between the two. Both artists and scientists are acute viewers and wonderful thinkers. It’s just different types of knowledge and perception that people have developed within them.

When collaboratively working with scientists, say at the Broad Institute, the content is easily set – the basic question of where we start depends on our interactions and the questions that crop up during discussions. I will then ask my own questions to inform the process. I can understand scientists well since we are both constantly asking questions, as I draw and create my artworks using different forms to raise even more questions. The scientists are able to identify and draw on what is relevant to them when they see my artworks, and discuss them with me from their perspective. 

With an artist, in my current collaboration with Michael Zachary, for example, we have started from a rough idea of printing together. While Michael sees birds as portraits, I see even the body at the subcellular level as a landscape. We’re not concerned with set questions – we’re working to see what naturally emerges from the process.

Also, the vocabulary is slightly different, both within the artist and scientist communities and between artists and scientists. For example, people mean different things when they say “space” and “form.” Ultimately it’s about what type of person you are and how you make connections.

a_w: What was your journey like from a career in engineering and management to fine art?

GR: I went to high school in a small town in India nationally ranked in STEM, and thus felt a responsibility to fulfill the family dream of becoming a woman engineer, while also keeping my passion for art alive. Although an honors student, I knew by the second year in college that engineering was not my calling.

My way of getting out of engineering was through switching to management. I then studied at the Indian Institute of Management at Calcutta for 2 years, where I majored in software development and marketing. Several years into working in software and advertising after graduation, I realized that it was not for me. When my husband worked in Malaysia, South Africa, and the Netherlands, I took the opportunity to quit my job and travel with him. I experienced new people and places, read a lot, and developed a portfolio of ink drawings on paper, even though I had no formal art training.

When my husband’s work brought us to Boston, I enrolled in courses at the Art Institute of Boston, where I learned about the different art materials and techniques for the first time. I was intimidated in the beginning since my background was so different. However, it ended up being an incredible learning experience.

By the time my son enrolled in kindergarten, I had developed a portfolio of different types of artwork. I wasn’t sure if I could be an artist; all I knew was that I needed to make the attempt. I took it one step at a time.

I decided to pursue art and applied to become a student at Simmons University. The professors at Simmons and MassArt recognized something in me, even though I was from a different part of the world and had a portfolio that looked very different. From there, I slowly developed as an artist and I hope to continue doing what I love.

It’s a journey of converting problems into opportunities and making use of those opportunities. I believe that this is the key for every individual and our human species to thrive and flourish.