Anju Dodiya (b.1964)

Acquired from Bodhi Art Gallery, Mumbai

Baroda, Lukshmi Vilas Palace, Throne of Frost: Anju Dodiya, March 2007

Mumbai, Bodhi Art, Throne of Frost: Anju Dodiya, April - May 2007

N. Adajania et. al., Throne of Frost: Anju Dodiya, exhibition catalogue, Bodhi Art, Mumbai, 2007, illustrated pp.50-52

F. Bousteau, Made by Indians, Galerie Enrico Navarra, France, 2007, detail illustrated p. 175

Y. Dalmia, Journeys: Four Generations of Indian Artists in Their Own Words, Vol. II, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2011, illustrated p. 198

This work was part of a series of large format double-sided panels that Anju Dodiya created for a site-specific exhibition at the Durbar Hall, Lukshmi Vilas Palace in Baroda. Twenty-eight works in total were placed around the perimeter of the Grand Hall facing each other. Large mirrored shards were placed on the floor in between the works, reflecting the paintings as well as the surrounding opulence of the Durbar Hall.

Victor is a meditation on loss. Consisting of watercolour and charcoal on paper on one side with an embroidered mattress of the same size on the reverse, it addresses Dodiya’s principal artistic concerns but also relates to the lavish environment in which it was first displayed. The monarch, inspired by a Chinese painting, is entangled in a pearl necklace, his well-groomed hair and moustache along with luxurious clothing speaks to this old world glamor and wealth that the palace represents. The variety of scissors on the variegated mattress hints at violence but is also a beneficial tool. The images of the scissors were taken from historical dictionary texts. Referred to as an ‘Allegorist of Ambivalences’, she often presents imaginary alter-egos of herself in novel and contemporary ways. Dodiya casts her characters into a plethora of quirky, dramatic and sometimes violent realms. Commedia dell'arte featuring masquerade and theatre are dominant themes within her work. Ornate masks, entertainers, costumes, performers and harlequins often make appearances in her paintings. Inspired by an extensive gamut of sources, Dodiya’s repertoire includes contemporary art and fashion, the cinema of Jean-Luc Godard and Robert Bresson, black and white photographs, Victorian medical texts, Gothic tapestries, Medieval and Renaissance paintings and Japanese ukiyo-e prints. By cobbling together diverse images and materials, Dodiya is demonstrating her consciousness of the physicality of the surfaces of her works as well as the meaning of their content. This large scale installation is aptly titled Victor, as the face of the protagonist reminded Dodiya of Victor Banerjee, the renowned Bengali actor. It was also relevant because the noun, victor -- the one who wins, fits appropriately in the context of the palace in which it was first displayed. 

Dodiya has worked in a wide variety of media including charcoal, acrylic, paper, silkscreens, upholstery, embroidery and mattresses. With a finely honed mastery of drawing, Dodiya’s watercolors are meticulous and exacting. Painting in delicate layers that allow her colours and forms to merge as well as separate, this approach leaves small sediments of paint in the folds of her protagonists clothes and skin which serve to enhance the visual images. Her careful choice of color also plays a crucial role in cultivating a particular mood from the painting. Poisoned yellow-greens impart foreboding and fear while rosy reds and pinks convey warmth and romanticism. The use of the mattress adds another dimension to the physicality of textile. Dodiya is inviting the viewer to ponder its many meanings; traditionally a place to relax, sleep, dream or have erotic encounters, she is visually creating these scenarios upon the surface of her works, invoking intense emotions including joy and fear. While commenting on this particular medium, the artist states ‘…the mattresses, when they are up against the wall, the bulge has a terrifying 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.’ (‘Gieve Patel talks to Anju Dodiya’, Anju Dodiya, Bose Pacia, 2006, unpaginated)

As a natural progression from paintings of self-portraits and alter egos, Dodiya finally allowed men to enter her constructed scenes and performance area, as in the case of this painting. 'In these end-of-the century tales, Anju celebrates the storyteller’s cunning. As the creator and subject of her own art practice, she does not need to resort to the representation of simplistic gender binaries. In life and in art, she no longer bears the burden of being a member of the proletariat of gender. With absolute commitment to her art, she enters the ring once again and reaches out for the coat of multi-coloured fictions.' (N. Adajania, Anju Dodiya, Max Mueller Bhavan and Vadehra Art Gallery, Mumbai and Delhi, 1999, unpaginated)