Private Self ANJU DODIYA
Although the central protagonist of Anju Dodiya’s oeuvre is a FECUND, CREATIVE SELF-IMAGE, her work is devoid of overt feminist concern: her preoccupation and delight lie with the private self. Primarily a watercolourist, Dodiya has also created a fascinating body of work on tapestries, mattresses and fabric. The source material for her ‘daily dramas’ and terrifying tableaux is eclectic: she draws from diverse disciplines; specific areas of inquiry include 19th-century Japanese Ukiyo-e prints, world cinema, print-media photographs, fashion catalogues and images and text gleaned from the Internet. Highly complex, her imagery has its genesis (through association) in personal objects/images that hark to wellsprings of memory. A highly informed painter, her work is like a well-orchestrated suite that combines formal sophistication with vigorous intellectual inquiry. Entering it calls for an awareness of private codes of meaning that lace her pictorial image. An informed sensibility is a prerequisite in this activity, as the artist does not believe in straightforward explanations.
