Until April 23, 2006, the Museum features two highly personal collections by this artist. Social Security (1988) features Sunil Gupta?™s family photographs and his mother?™s words to shed light on the story of one immigrant family in Montreal. His family came from a middle-class background in India, and after their move to Canada they had significant adjustment problems. Sunil?™s father was forced to work as a security guard and the family experienced a loss of financial security and social status. This was complicated by the fact that his parents were already in their fifties by the time of the move which made integration into Canadian culture even more difficult. This photo collection illustrates the fact that his parents had traditional desires for both Sunil and his sister, and neither of the two children fulfilled the role expectations put upon them by their Indian parents. Sunil?™s sister ended up marrying an American, something the parents did not support. Sunil himself is actually gay and had several long-term relationships with men, much to the chagrin of his parents. Neither offspring fulfilled the role of marrying an Indian spouse and creating a traditional Indian family. As such, the move to Canada was a big disappointment, particularly for Sunil?™s father.

Incidentally Sunil?™s father died of a heart attack on a Montreal street in 1986. He wasn?™t found until several days later. One particularly gripping photograph shows Sunil?™s father?™s belongings, money, identification, credit cards, that were removed from his body after his death. It took the authorities three days to notify the family, presumably because his father was assigned to the ?œimmigrant??section of the morgue. Nobody had bothered to check his identification and call his family, even though his father had all the necessary papers on him. And his social security card had been neatly cut in half.

Sunil Gupta?™s second photo collection Homelands (2001 to 2003) includes large-scale diptychs that juxtapose images from his experience in the West with images from his home country in India. His exhibition explores highly personal topics, such as Gupta?™s homosexuality and the fact that he is HIV positive. Gupta was diagnosed with HIV in 1995. For me the most powerful image of the collection includes Gupta in front of a mirror, stark naked, facing the camera, with a sliver of his mirror image showing right next to an image of India. My museum guide indicated that Sunil has actually commented that he lives right in that narrow line between East and West.