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Lot 68

 

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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,... 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, not paginated).

In the present lot, "a brilliant golden-yellow and deep blue painting on corrugated textile is dominated by two large, suspiciously similar heads paired with two tiny birds pecking at their teeth. This unusual image is based on a newspaper photograph of a bird cleaning the teeth of a Chinese man: a quixotic painting that remains elusive, despite being glossed by an explanation. Dodiya mischievously adds another layer of mystery by recalling an old custom in Gujarat, where a bird opens the mouth of a child who has not spoken yet, and says a few words to provoke speech. These stories connote different things: speech and sympathetic magic, or the loosening of barriers to artistic expression. It could also be perceived as the narrative of a couple who cannot talk to each other and deploy the birds as their trucial intermediaries" (Nancy Adajania, "The Varying Temperature of Love: Recent Paintings by Anju Dodiya", Anju Dodiya, Bose Pacia exhibition catalogue, 2006, not paginated).

Furthering one of her readings of the work, Adajania observes, "The breakdown of communication between lovers has been a thrumming ground note in Dodiya's work. In 'Forked' (2005), the birds prise open the mouths of an estranged couple to make them talk or teach them a new vocabulary of love" ("Birds in a Mirage of Gold", All Night I Shall Gallop, Bodhi Art exhibition catalogue, 2008, p. 11). The title, underscored by a forking branch in the background, recalls the expression 'speaking with a forked tongue', leading viewers to question whether this collapse in communication might be more malicious than simple silence.

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