Lot 527: ANJU DODIYA (B. 1964)

ANJU DODIYA (B. 1964)
Opus
signed
watercolor and charcoal on paper and embroidery on mattress
84 x 110 in. (213.4 x 279.4 cm.)
Executed in 2007

Mumbai, Bodhi Art, Throne of Frost: Anju Dodiya, April - May 2007
Baroda, Lukshmi Villas Palace, Throne of Frost: Anju Dodiya, March 2007

All Night I Shall Gallop: Anju Dodiya, exhibition catalogue, Bodhi Art, Singapore, 2008, p. 9 (illustrated)
Throne of Frost: Anju Dodiya, exhibition catalogue, Bodhi Art, Mumbai, 2007, pp. 118-121 (illustrated)
T. Mehta, 'The Seductions of Horror', Art India, Volume XII, Issue I, Quarter I, Mumbai, 2007, p. 116-117 (illustrated)

Opus is part of Anju Dodiya's installation 'Throne of Frost' which was exhibited at the Durbar Hall of the Lukshmi Villas Palace, Baroda. Each of the 28 double-paneled paintings were placed facing each other to form a large rectangular structure. Within this formation lay shards of glass that reflected the paintings along with the opulence of the Durbar Hall. Speaking on the two faces of each work:
Once the decision was taken that the paintings were going to be looking onto the mirrors and I was going to play with the reflections, the back of the painting was a problem. I thought that I would just layer it with fabric; it was something I had used over the years. And then I thought that a mattress was a better idea simply because it would catch the light of those eight fabulous chandeliers [...]. I kept telling Atul [Dodiya] that it's like they [the paintings] are standing in a Durbar and wearing robes and that they should have some insignia behind. I kept joking about it and had this hotel towel example and said "Something like this![...]". They [the embroideries] became like a parallel narrative. There was a theater going on and they connected to the front: sometimes in direct ways and sometimes there was a clue to the painting. Sometimes it was a secret code. Anju Dodiya (in dialogue with Gieve Patel, Bodhi Art, Mumbai, April 2007)