Art frat

Artist ANJU DODIYA returns with her arresting mattress series which has been unveiled at the Galerie Templon in Brussels, says UMA NAIR Tower of slowness

AFTERa five-year absence from Europe, Indian artist Anju Dodiya is unveiling Tower of Slowness, a series of around 20 previously unseen watercolours, at Galerie Templon in Brussels. At the age of 57, she is one of the most respected artists on the Indian art scene. For the last 30 years, her paintings have used the self-portrait form to explore the conflicts between the inner life and external reality, the anguish of creation, the artist’s frustrations with the violence of the world and the incommunicability between people.

The pandemic and the strict lockdown that she was forced to adhere to in her house-cum-workshop in Mumbai naturally resonated particularly strongly with her. The situation acted as a catalyst for an artist whose work engages closely with questions of isolation and social marks. As she explains, “This past year has been unusual for all of us. We are suddenly sharing a common wound, a painful recognition of the precariousness of our lives.”

Her response has been to create a set of seven-padded canvases cut in geometric shapes. Welcoming but, visibly, uncomfortable these incongruous ‘mattresses’ cover the gallery walls with a series of portraits combined with animal skin motifs —zebras and snakes —which are both familiar and enigmatic. These powerfully poetic works, in a mixture of charcoal and watercolour, provide a glimpse of brief, intimate scenes, both reassuring and ambiguous. In the words of the artist: “As we lie down on our bed or sit on our chair, sharp, geometric shapes occupy our minds and cloud all our thoughts. Slowness, loneliness, and a heightened awareness of our body and mindset our emotional antenna shivering. These padded works are simply the fruit of those darkened rooms we inhabit.”

In contrast, a series of watercolours depicts the theme of the mask, a long-standing favourite motif for Dodiya, who has often depicted herself covered with one. Inspired by James Ensor’s work, for her Belgian exhibition, she has drawn faces that are frozen and covered either with a wisp of ‘blue air’, diamond veils or surgical masks. Drawn at duskor sunset or in the desert light or on the way home, these not-quite-faithful self-portraits are presented solely in their relationship to time and space, shot through with solitude that, though oppressive, is also possibly redeeming the Indian art scene. The artist’s practise centres on a reinterpretation of multiple historical sources as varied as medieval tapestries, Italian Renaissance painters, Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock prints and newspaper photographs.

MESMERISING MATTRESSES EQUIVOCALyet evocative, in its many sensual as well as narrative suggestions, these incongruous ‘mattresses’ cover the gallery walls with a series of portraits combined with animal skin motifs at once both familiar and enigmatic. These powerfully poetic works, in a mixture of charcoal and watercolour, provide a glimpse of brief, intimate scenes, both reassuring and ambiguous. Dodiya is both, an artist and a woman, and she had created a mattress work as a commission in 2005 where the subject was the marriage of Shiva and Parvati.

In Delhi for an exhibition years ago at Vadehra’s Art Gallery, she spoke of the experience and said the mattress offered her texture and

presence while influencing the subject of the work as well. When asked about the difference of the experience between paper and the mattress she said: “I realised that, with the mattress, there are textures that I have to interact with. My painting process became more carefree. And there was a novel pleasure in working with textures and playing with its bulges. Also, being a bed, mattresses pushed me to contemplate new ways in which to express… bodies and relationships and sleep and dreams.” The mattress works come out of the shadowed rooms that viewers inhabit and make us realise how precious both life and relationships are.

Stepping into Dodiya’s world is akin to falling under the spell of her self-portrait. And when you look at the astute language of narcissistic syncopation, it is clear that conspicuous impulses govern her art. Her insatiable curiosity for inventing and exploring instruments of self-presentation is both elegant as well as elusive. Her masked women flit back through time and tide and it is amply clear that she wanted to translate and present an archive or museum to the metropolitan artist in the global world. At Galerie Templon, she proves she is an iconoclast in the world of narratives.