Anju Dodiya
(1964)
The Site
Although she has worked in several different media, fabric has always fascinated Anju Dodiya; from the way in which Robert Rauschenberg, an artist she has always admired, incorporated pieces of cloth in his collages, to the intricate weaves and patterns that textiles offer her as an escape from the intimidating whiteness or blankness of paper. Always cognizant of, and forthcoming about the violence inherent to her creative process, the artist...
Although she has worked in several different media, fabric has always fascinated Anju Dodiya; from the way in which Robert Rauschenberg, an artist she has always admired, incorporated pieces of cloth in his collages, to the intricate weaves and patterns that textiles offer her as an escape from the intimidating whiteness or blankness of paper. Always cognizant of, and forthcoming about the violence inherent to her creative process, the artist explains, “When you work on paper, confronting that white is a terribly fearful thing. With textile, something's there already, and I have to interact with the textures. It made the painting process more carefree for me. And there was a great pleasure in working with the textures and also kind of fighting them with the paint. It was great fun” (as quoted in “Gieve Patel talks to Anju Dodiya”, Anju Dodiya, Bose Pacia exhibition catalogue, New York, 2006, unpaginated).
Dodiya's use of mattresses in her work has added a new dimension to her painterly affiliation with fabric. Reflecting on this, she says, “…the mattresses, when they are up against the wall, the bulge has a terrific physical presence…it's a pregnant painting. It has a lot of body, and it has this presence that I thought I could use and work with…Also, because the mattress is a bed it threw off new ideas that had to do with my areas of interest and content. I got to thinking more about bodies and relationships and sleep and dreams. Those have always been important to my work” (Ibid.). The present lot is one of the first mattresses Dodiya painted. A daunting portrait of the artist in a ruffled Elizabethan collar with a crude, overlarge crown suspended around her head, this three-dimensional piece explores themes of captivity and sovereignty, obligation and independence. A skull and mask, only partially visible behind the crown, reminds the viewer, however, that power and position are ultimately subject to mortality, the final leveler and emancipator.
In Dodiya's introspective works, the creator and subject, and actor and acted upon, are often confabulated. “If paintings are windows to the world, Anju's window invariably turns into a mirror. In it, she sees herself and those with whom she bears emotional affinities: the mirror knows no borders; it is deep enough to hold the Japanese courtesan of the floating world, the Romanian street performer, the Russian clown, and Dürer's angel. She is connected to them by a transparent genetic thread, painting them so that they all look a little like herself. Her narratives are hyperlinked to theirs; they meet in refractions, always a little askew, hard-edged, prickly, uncontainable in any single psychological narrative or art-historical dispensation” (Nancy Adajania, “In the Cold Country of the Mind”, Throne of Frost, Bodhi Art exhibition catalogue, Baroda and Mumbai, 2007).
Read More
Artist Profile
Other works of this artist in:
this auction
|
entire site
Lot
52
of
130
AUTUMN AUCTION 2008
3-4 SEPTEMBER 2008
Estimate
Rs 40,00,000 - 60,00,000
$100,000 - 150,000
Winning Bid
Rs 1,06,95,000
$267,375
(Inclusive of Buyer's Premium)
ARTWORK DETAILS
Anju Dodiya
The Site
Signed and dated in English (verso)
2005
Acrylic on mattress
78 x 46 in (198.1 x 116.8 cm)
EXHIBITED AND PUBLISHED:
Anju Dodiya: The Cloud-Hunt, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2005
Category: Installation
Style: Figurative
ARTWORK SIZE:
Height of Figure: 6'