is reinforced by the design of the central exhibition space: the informal, secular andfundamentally modern improvisations of the maze and its object-spaces are superimposed on aformal, sacred and unmistakeably traditional plan reminiscent of the kund (temple tank) or
mandapa (pillared hall), as embodied in the central courtyard-like space.16
Access to this walled and sunken courtyard, where a number of deeply disquieting anddeeply moving artworks are concentrated, is controlled by a collapsible gate rather than by theceremonial archway of tradition. Passages or corridors stretch along either side of the courtyard,
simulating the alleyways of the big city, where strange and even sinister encounters could takeplace. These conduit spaces are punctuated by the 60 small watercolours that make up the Body/
Washsuite (cat.no.21), 17 miniature visions of the body and its various destinies. In one of thepassages, Myoo I (cat.no.39) and Myoo II (cat.no.40), metal cutouts fashioned into guardian
deities, 1• rear up to halt the unsuspecting visitor. Unexpected presences, they might reassure or
unsettle the viewers: this ambivalence of effect reinforces the anti-Arcadian aspect ofmetropolitan existence.
And at the farther end of the exhibition space is the "Ramakrishna room," which marks atransition to an experience of spiritual awareness, simultaneously an overcoming of material
limitations and a withdrawal into meditative body-centred inwardness. Again, in true Dodiya
fashion, the intensely private rapture experienced by Sri Ramakrishna, the mystic and ecstatic
worshipper of Kali, the Great Mother, is interwoven with the public narratives of urban history as
recorded in the HoneycombTriptych.19
Finally, we reach the awesome but tranquil icon of the Swordof Kali (cat.no.38), an
emphatic free-standing nine-foot-high iron sculpture with fiberglass bones attached; and behind
it, a large photograph of the artist's daughter. At the end of our dramatic and polychromatic
explorations, we come to a charged silence. Curiously enough, our movement as viewers through"Labyrinth/Laboratory" is not unlike that traditionally undertaken by pilgrims in a Hindu
temple: through layers of multiple appearances to the one essence at the centre. Kali's sword is asymbol of that transcendent knowledge which cuts through ignorance. But ignorance, in thespiritual tradition, signifies our ambiguities, vulnerabilities and secret motivations-in otherwords, all that constitutes our humanity. Can we truly savour such a symbol of transcendent
knowledge as Kali's sword, when it would cost us the sacrifice of all that makes us human? Andso we turn back, and re-enter the maze of action, extending our awareness more gradually,
through the half-glimpsed epiphanies and the probing reflections on collective life that Atul
Dodiya's theatre of surprises offers us.
Bombay, May 8, 2001

I take this opportunityto express my thanks to the Japan FoundationAsia Centerfor inviting me to guest-curate this exhibition.
The experience has been a challenging as well as an enjoyableone. I wish to recordmy special gratitude to Ms. YasukoFuruichiand
her patient and dedicated team, without whose tireless efforts this projectwould not have been realised.
Notes
1. Foran account of the earliest phase of this transition in Dodiya'sart, see RanjitHoskote, "InterimReports:Recent Paintingsby
Atul Dodiya" (exhibition catalogue essay; Gallery Chemould: Mumbai, January-February 1995).
2. The implicationsof this predicamentfor art practiceas well as the altered relationshipbetween artists and their viewershipare
analysed, and the varying responses with which younger generationIndian artists have addressedthese changes are examined,
in Ranjit Hoskote, "In the Public Eye" (The Art NewsMagazineof India, Vol. V, Issue IV: Mumbai, October-December 2000).
3. The first four roller shutter works that Dodiya executed were shown at the exhibition CenturyCity:Art and Culturein the Modern
Metropolis(Tate Modern, London, December 2000-February 2001), in the section devoted to Bombay and guest-curated by Geeta
Kapur and Ashish Rajadhyaksha.
4. Foran account of Dodiya'smelding of the aesthetic and the political into a critique of the postcolonial Indian nation-statethrough the creation of a contemporaryiconography,see RanjitHoskote, "Tearscape:Recent Watercoloursby Atul Dodiya"(exhibition catalogue essay; The Fine Art Resource: Berlin, May-June 2001).
5. For a detailed phenomenology of Dodiya's politicisation of the art-viewing experience, see Ranjit Hoskote, "Experiences Parallelto Beauty: Some Reflections on Atul Dodiya's Man with Chakki"(under publication: paper presented at "Saundarya,"international conference held at the India International Centre, New Delhi, November 2000).
6. For a concise history of the origin and development of Bombay as a British colonial metropolis, see Gillian Tindall, Cityof Gold:
TheBiographyof Bombay (New Delhi: Penguin Books, rpt. 1992) . For an exhaustive history of Bombay from the earliest times to83

the present, accompanied by maps and photographs, see Rahul Mehrotra and Sharada Dwivedi, Bombay:The Cities Within(Mumbai: Eminence Designs, revised edition 2001).

7. The Shiv Sena-BharatiyaJanata Partycoalition governmentof Maharashtra
took this decision in the mid-1990s.Intendedas a
populist measure,it was widely regardedas a retrogressivestep: perhapsthe governmenthad not taken into account theincreasingacceptabilityof the value of "cosmopolitanism,"even among its own traditionalistsupportbase.
8. Dodiyawas awardeda FrenchGovernmentScholarshipin 1991, and was attached to the Ecoledes BeauxArts underits terms,
although he receivedpermissionto pursuehis own course of workand extramuralstudy.
9. See Ranjit Hoskote, "An Autobiography in Fifteen Frames: Recent Works by Atul Dodiya" (exhibition catalogue essay; Vadehra
Art Gallery: New Delhi, March-April 1999).
10. For a detailed study of Bombay's informal-sector economy, and the complex place and role of the shanty-town within it, see
Kalpana Sharma, RediscoveringDharavi:Storiesfrom Asia's LargestSlum (New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 2000).
11.For a study of the collapse of Bombay's textile-mill economy and the city's move towards the so-called "sunrise sectors" of theconsumeristeconomy,see DarrylD'Monte'sforthcomingstudy, FromMills to Malls in Mumbai:UrbanCrisisin a GlobalWorld(provisional title). The beginning of the collapse of the textile mill industry may be dated to the total strike called by the
influential tradeunion leadersDr.DattaSamant,in the early 1980s; the mill ownersrespondedwith a lockout, and no
subsequentnegotiation could resolve the deadlock. The principaleffect of this crisis was that thousandsof mill workerswere
renderedunemployed,and their familiesforcedinto petty enterpriseor crime;the large "reservearmy"of resentful youth thatgrewout of this predicamentwas recruited,less than a decadelater, either into the Shiv Sena, the strong-armlocalist outfit
that re-inventeditself as a militant Hinduright-wingparty, or into one or another of the city's criminalmafias. Overthe 1990s,
as real estate prices in Bombay climbed steeply to rank among the highest in the world, the mill lands in the heart of themetropolisfell into ruin. Theybecame, nonetheless, the centre of conflict amongmill owners,the long-time residential
populationof mill workers,real estate developersand criminalsextorting "protectionmoney"and offeringkillers-for-hireto
settle disputes outside the purview of the law. The government, called upon to arbitrate, failed to adopt policy measures toresolve the crisis; housing experts and visionaryarchitectswho had proposedsolutions were ignored;and mill ownerseager tosell these blockedassets began to adopt extra-legalapproachesto land re-sale. At the time of writing, no clear policy has been
adoptedto resolve the issue, but the mill lands are being leased out piecemeal,informally,to developersestablishing high rent
apartmentblocks and office premises.
12. For a careful study of the role played by "mythological" television serials in sustaining the Hindu right-wing upsurge of the
1990s in India, see Arvind Rajagopal, PoliticsAfter Television:Hindu Nationalismand the Reshapingof the Indian Public(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
13. The Bombay Stock Exchange bore witness to two major scandals involving the manipulation of the market and the consequentruinationof manyinvestorsand share-marketadventurers:the first was mastermindedby HarshadMehtaover 1991-1992, thesecond by Ketan Parekh during 2000-2001. For a detailed account of the nature, causes and effects of the first, authored by thefinanc ial journalists who exposed the scandal, see Debashis Basu and Sucheta Dalal, TheScam: Who Won,WhoLost, WhoGot
Away (New Delhi: UBSPublishers' Distributors, 1993).
14. Forthe vital role of autobiographyin Dodiya'sart, see "ADialogue,"an introductioncast in the formof letters by Bhupen
Khakhar to Amit Ambalal, with an accompanying clarificatory note by Dodiya (exhibition catalogue introduction; CIMAGallery:Calcutta, February-March 1997).
15. For a detailed account of Dodiya's fascination with Mahatma Gandhi, and the body of Gandhi images that he has produced since
the early 1980s, see Ranjit Hoskote, "Re-imagining Bapu: A Response to Atul Dodiya's An Artist of Non-violence" (exhibition
catalogue essay; Gallery Chemould: Mumbai, February-March 1999).
16. I wish to express my acknowledgement, here, to Dr Apinan Poshyananda's gallery plan of the Heri Dono exhibition, 2000, which
was the first in this series of Asian Contemporary
Artists'Solo Exhibitions.Since the sub-historyof the spatial choices madeby
curatorstakes its place in the largerhistory of a series of exhibitions held at the same site, I have phrasedmy own galleryplan
for Atul Dodiya'sexhibition as a responseto Dr.Poshyananda'sis innovativeand even subversivedeploymentof the Indonesianpendopo (Skt. mandapa) or traditional pillared hall (see Apinan Poshyananda, "Heri Dono: Bizarre Dalang,Javanese Bricoleur,
Low-TechWizard",in Hen·Dono:DancingDemonsand DrunkenDeities,exhibition catalogue;Tokyo:TheJapan FoundationAsia
Center, October-November 2000). I hope that this choice will be seen as an attempt at an inter-cultural dialogue and theaccentuation,howeversubliminal,of culturallinkages now subjectedto the strain of distance and mutualestrangement.
17.See Ranjit Hoskote, "Body/Wash: Recent Watercolours by Atul Dodiya" (exhibition catalogue essay; Gallery Chemould: Mumbai,
April-May 2001).
18. Thesefiguresare inspiredby the myOO
(Skt. vidyarajas)or "radiantwisdomkings,"who are a class of divine protectorfiguresin
the Japanese Buddhist pantheon. The specific impetus for these works came from Dodiya's reading of Myi!i!:Buddhist Deitiesof
Wrathand Love (illustrated catalogue of a special exhibition mounted by the Nara National Museum, April-June 2000; with a
Foreword by Hiromitsu Washizuka). On a personal note, I should add that the artist and I bought copies of this catalogue at thebookshopof the TokyoNationalMuseum,while on a visit to Japanin November2000.
19. For a compelling and sympathetic biography this 19th-century Bengali saint, which situates him in the social and intellectual
context of an India febrile with religious reform and political revolution, see Romain Rolland, Ramakrishnathe Man-Gods:A
Study of Mysticismand Action in LivingIndia (trans . E.F. Malcom-Smith,1929; rpt. as TheLife of Ramakrishna;Calcutta : Advaita
Ashrama,1992). Fora succinct social and psychologicaldelineationof Indianecstatic devotionalism,emphasisingthe dynamic
relationshipbetween structure/play,order/transgressionand contemplation/action,see RichardLannoy,TheSpeakingTree:A
Study of Indian Cultureand Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971).

84

Atul Dodiya: Sincere Impurity
Hayashi Michio

Since being asked to write this essay, I have been wondering how to proceed. I am still
uncertain. What I am having difficulty deciding is what style of writing to use, not in terms oftechnique but in the broad sense of reflecting the writer's viewpoint and its fluctuations . This
perplexity could have been expected since I only have a smattering of knowledge of the nationof India and the life of its people and know nothing of its contemporary art. Because of this, I
started out thinking that if I could put the process of my wondering into words, I could produce
a different type of text than that of a professional expert. This was in fact what both theorganizers and I expected at first. However, my perplexity led me into a maze that was more
complicated than I had expected. And now that I am beginning to write, my thinking haschanged. What makes it most difficult is that I am unable to find a firm place to stand in thislabyrinth. This sense of the ground shifting under my feet did not come from abstract selfreflection. Rather, it is the result of my actual experience of India, which has begun toundermine the premises of my thinking. The main purpose of this journey was to directly observe
Atul Dodiya's art, but in addition to that I came into contact with many different kinds of people
and landscapes there. The memories of these things worked on my mind, irrespective of myintentions, continuing to arouse fragmentary and confused thoughts. Therefore, I will present
here some brief notes on how I was affected by this experience and how it resisted unification.
KitschI first saw Dodiya's work through reproductions. Upon looking at a large number of his works all
at once in catalogs of past exhibitions, the word that first entered my mind was "kitsch. " I
believe that this would be a common reaction of many people both inside and outside of Japan.
In fact, the concept of kitsch seems to have currency in India as an idea filled with criticalpossibilities, and while I was there, one of Dodiya's works, Tomb'sDay ( cat.no.2) was included in
an exhibition called "Kitsch Kitsch Hota Hai" being held at India Habitat Centre in Delhi.
The concept of "kitsch" has been treated negatively throughout the history of modernism,
especially in the well-known essay by Clement Greenberg, as a form of psuedo-art that distorts
and degrades the avant-garde. This trend began to change with the Pop and Camp of the 1960s,
and kitsch was viewed quite positively in the 1980s, the chaotic heyday of Postmodernism.
Supported by the methods of appropriation and simulation, kitsch began to be used strategicallyas a category in diverse areas and sites of cultural production and consumption. In this cultural
atmosphere, Japanese stars like Morimura Yasumasa and Mori Mariko began actively showinginternationally. The play of "quotation" that characterized the work of these artists became
established as a general grammar of art-making, so much so that it can no longer be seen as
something new.
The 1980s was also a time when "globalization" was a catchword in the contemporary art
scene while much attention was given to what was happening in Asia, Africa, and South America.
Kitschified copies of Western art flourished in these regions as they were inundated by belated
waves of modernism. Artists who were surrounded by these forms of art saw the shift toPostmodernism, and the tendency to revalue kitsch, as opportunities to reexamine the latentpossibilities in their own art. The fact that an exhibition on a theme like "Kitsch Kitsch" can be
welcomed in India today is due to the atmosphere created by Postmodernism.
What I learned from Dodiya's works and plans for this exhibition as well as from experienceof cities like Bombay and Calcutta is that there are multi-dimensional twists and turns andnuanced shades of meaning in the seemingly simple category of kitsch. Many works of art withkitsch elements that have emerged from the Postmodernist movement in Japan and the Westappear flat in the sense that the quoted images they are composed of are all processed into signsof equal value to be cut out and pasted together on the same plane. Dodiya's paintings are moretextured and layered, producing a tactile sense of discord. The interest of kitsch since
Postmodernism lies in its defiant presentation of quoted and juxtaposed images, whether takenfrom past works of art or present popular culture, all placed together on the same plane/field of
exchange as consumer culture materials (or properties), but this does not explain Dodiya's
strategy of quotation. His work has a quality that exceeds or transcends this superficial85

"sampling" or "play of the surface," to borrow cliches from the postmodern discourse of the
1980s, which is motivated by an ideological indifference to the meaning of the images. In
retrospect, the resistance I sensed to assimilation into this discourse was what made me want toanalyze Dodiya's works more carefully.
Difference
It is obvious from a look at Dodiya's works that they are pervaded by a radical, relentlesseclecticism. Images from many different sources overlap on the same plane, creating a new
synthesis (if it can be called a synthesis). However, why does his eclecticism go beyond thesurface of the picture plane, solidly conveying the nuances of his lived world?
One reason is the character of the images the artist chooses to combine. The images thatfirst strike the eye-Gandhi, the heroes and heroines of the Indian mass media, and maps andlandscapes of India-have obvious associations with contemporary Indian history, even for aviewer who is not particularly knowledgeable of all its ins and outs.
These images are mixed with self-portraits and images of relatives, Indian and Westernartists who have had a profound influence on the artist, and ancient Indian gods and legends.
There are also well-known political figures like Clinton and Putin and images of a quite different
kind, media images of disasters such as floods, prisons, and suicides by hanging. This dazzlingand disparate array of images does not provide the viewer with a single comprehensive message,
but it is possible to grasp threads in the tangle that link certain ideas together. At the end/
origin of these threads is the artist's life in the violent existential chaos of the city of Bombay,
including his involvement in its political and social dimensions.
In viewing Dodiya's art, one is jarred into a new sense of the multi-dimensional depth andbreadth of the concept of "difference" that has been associated with postmodernist thinking. The
postmodern idea of difference has called into question the systems of values that were embodied
in modernism, performing the critical function of revealing their fictional character. It has
liberated the text from the author, formerly considered to be its ultimate source. And it has led
to the reexamination and resetting of the boundaries of previously fixed categories like art andpopular culture. In spite of this critical role, however, the idea of difference often resulted insimply fusing categories that had previously existed in a hierarchical relationship, creating asituation in which they were stored up as interchangeable units of image capital under the nameof "visual culture." In the postmodern context, difference always ran the risk of dissolving into a
concept or perception of simple stylistic or formal/textual difference. When the concept of"play" first came into operation, it contained suggestions of critical transgression, but it was
eventually defanged and domesticated as a sign of mere entertainment. In retrospect, the risk it
suggested turned out to be real.
The viewer is obviously made aware of "difference" in Dodiya's work through thejuxtaposition and contrast of images that appear in the format of individual paintings and theassembly of paintings presented in an exhibition. In this array of images, he consistently
presents political motifs and images of tragedy in Indian life. In this exhibition , they are brought
together in an overall composition that helps the viewer perceive a "vertical" difference that
resists reduction to stylistic difference on a leveled field of image exchange. The threedimensional coexistence of diverse images makes it impossible to recover "chaos" as a styleanother name for homogenization of difference-and gives a palpable reality to the realdifferences created by political and economic inequality.
However, this palpable, tactile quality of diverse difference is not just a result of "what isquoted" as imagery. It is inextricably linked to the materials and techniques used to depict theimages and the method of presentation. In this regard, it is important that Dodiya prefers topaint and to make the supports with his own hand. His works are highly finished but without
the slickness that the viewer might associate with computer graphics. At the same time, they are
devoid of the fetishistic brushwork that emphasizes the existence of the artist. Dodiya avoids
these extremes while incorporating elements reminiscent of cheap signboards and posters foundon the street or such attributes of the space of everyday life as doors and furniture. Considered86

in terms of the function of the picture plane, his work emerges from a network of negotiations
and differences between four main sites-the computer screen, the wall of the museum,
billboards in the city, and the interior of ordinary rooms. To this we might add a fifth site, thepages of books, since most of his appropriations are based on images reproduced in books.
Dodiya's experiments with the support are fueled by a desire to create the space of his paintings
in the gap between these five sites . He adds legs or handles to the canvas, "alienating" it in the
Brechtian sense by making it into a furniture-like object; uses varied formats such as the
triptych, which recalls ritual space; paints his own images directly over the reproductions on thepages of a book; and executes paintings on the kind of roll-up shutters found on Bombay stores,
even painting images behind a shutter so that they are revealed when it is raised. Painting on
novel supports that might be seen as "impure" is a way of producing chance encounters between
objects that prevents the artist from becoming absorbed or immersed in the act of painting as
such. It makes his practice tabor-intensive. As a result of this sort of negotiation with alreadysocialized space, the support gives concreteness to the sense of difference suggested by the
jumble of socialized images, making them tactile.
BombayThe sense of three-dimensional difference that I read out of Dodiya's paintings was greatly
influenced by my experience of the city of Bombay. Although I was only there for two days (outof my nine days in India), the memories of visiting Dodiya's family home, my firsthandexperience of Bombay streets flooded with diverse people and images, and my exposure to themass media of India altered my way of perceiving the paintings.
For example, I saw many shutters of the type Dodiya employs in his art actually in use in
the storefronts of the city. All of the shops lining the streets had entrances of the same size
fitted with the same kind of shutter. These shuttered entrances continued on endlessly on manyof the streets, and I imagined how the rows of closed shutters must have added to the tension of
the Bombay riots in 1992 and 1993. It would be easy for anyone who has seen Bombay toimagine such a scene. It is significant that Dodiya has painted images of missing children basedon childhood portraits of the his sisters and brothers. Although not directly related to the
Bomaby riot, they nevertheless reverberate with the memories of the children lost in the riot, theartist's own childhood in the old city of Bombay that is now lost . In other works, the shutters are
opened to reveal tragic images of the history of conflict between conservative Hindus andMuslims. An example is the portrait of Ritwik Ghatak, the film director who sought refuge in
Calcutta when Bangladesh gained independence . Since I have only a superficial knowledge ofcontemporary Indian history, I am not qualified to speak of the historical background of thepainted images. This information is best provided by Dodiya himself and Ranjit Hoskote, thecritic who helped curate the exhibition .
For my part, I would simply like to report my own impression of how memories of the city of
Bombay resonate forcibly with the experience of seeing Dodiya's art. In addition to the shutters,
Dodiya also uses ladders in this exhibition that automatically recall the steel staircases leading
directly from the street to the second floor of houses in Bombay. The existence of suchconnections does not mean that an experience of Bombay is a necessary prerequisite to an
appreciation of Dodiya's work, but it indicates that the fundamental structure of the work refers
to the urban space of Bombay and historical incidents that took place there . It is significant inthis context that the structure of the work suggests that it should be read like cinematicmontage. Compared to Dada photo-collages, for example, it is clear that all Dodiya's quotations
obey the rule of being "readable" semantic units that can be recognized for what they are-even
if they are fragmented or layered. Also, the sequential process of viewing suggested by thefrequent use of the series format or the physical movement of climbing up and down a ladderurges us to produce narrative readings. These structures bring the experience of Bombay reality
and the images in Dodiya's art into an interactive relationship in which they energize each other.
The environment which provides the setting for contemporary art in Bombay, indeed inIndia as a whole, is very different from that in Japan . An example of this difference is found in87the name of Bombay itself. I had nai:velythought that the currently official name, Mumbai, wasmore "politically correct" because it expunges the memories of the colonial past. However, when I
went to India I found that the matter was not that simple. It is a true that the name Bombay wasa British modification of local pronunciation that eventually became the internationally accepted
name, but the change by the regional government to the more genuinely local Mumbai reflects
the literally "reactionary" policies of the Hindu right who had taken over the local government.
Therefore, the names Bombay and Mumbai represent a choice between the poles of memories ofcolonial rule and a rigid nationalistic response to the past, so most artists and critics, who dislike
the connection with reactionary nationalism-as embodied in the Hindutuva slogan, "Onenation, one people, one culture" -prefer to use Bombay, since it suggests connections between
diverse cultures.
I was surprised to find that India is a land where everyone is unavoidably assigned aposition in political space, even when choosing what to call their city. But I was even more
surprised at the extent to which politics has become a popular spectacle. The phrase, "world's
greatest democracy," often crops up in discussions about India. What was surprising to me is that
this refers to the fact that voter turnout is especially high in India and not just that it has thelargest number of voters of any democratic country in the world. This high turnout is caused by
the problems of social inequality, as exemplified by the old caste system. Elections have a major
function as an avenue of political participation and protest for the lower classes. While this is
one of the ideals of democracy, it has brought about a downgrading of politics and the use ofspectacle to appeal to the masses. It is well known that there are many ex-actors in Indianpolitics, and the media, especially films and television tend to treat political differences as
elements of drama. Thus, the use of spectacle in politics is advanced by both the politicians andthe media. During my short stay in India, I had the impression of being continually bombarded
with melodramatic political films as well as the words and images of politicians painted on signs
and walls all over the city (for some reason, there are more painted images than photographs).
What happens when these political spectacles created through mass propaganda are tied to
the religious divisions slumbering in the old strata of memory? One would guess that the Bombay
riots were caused by a chemical reaction of this sort, but this sort of thing defines thecontemporary culture of India on an everyday level. Another thing that I did not realize until
going to India was how frequently the word "secularization" is heard in conversations of artists
and critics. It is difficult to understand how important this concept is in Japan where everythingin everyday life is thoroughly secularized. Obviously, it is a concept that opposes the conflict anddiscrimination arising from the absolutist religious doctrines of the Hindus and Muslims
throughout contemporary Indian history. Although I thought I had an intellectual knowledge of
this, I became aware that I had no idea of the urgency contained in the word "secularization" as
it is used in India.
In one actual example, a demonstration was held to protest the solo exhibition of a Muslim
artist, M.F.Fusain, in a Hindu-dominated region, and his art was damaged. Dodiya has produced
paintings that run the same risk, such as Man with Chakki (cat.no.17) in the collection of the
CIMAGallery of Calcutta, which appears in this exhibition. Above a map of India and Bangladesh,constructed with many small round mirrors and enamel paint, the squatting figure of a man
turning a stone mill is shown defecating all over the map. The curator of the gallery told me that
this painting can be shown in Calcutta, where there is relative freedom of expression, but he said
that Dodiya had been concerned about the reaction to it. If it were shown in Bombay or Delhi, it
is possible that it would be attacked by Hindu conservatives. In a milieu where the pressure thatcan be put on artistic expression by religious factions is a real, everyday concern, the idea ofsecularization is much different from that in Japan where the situation is more relaxed (except
for works dealing with images of the Imperial family). Because of my previous ignorance, I wasamazed at how much positive hope was invested in this word.
Considered from a different angle, however, it is doubtful that Indian religious conflicts, or
any of the religious conflicts in the world, are based purely on doctrinal grounds. They
necessarily involve secular conflicts and discrimination, and there may be situations in which88secular issues are fundamental and religious differences are employed simply to justify or hide
the real problems. Trouble between two factions may be stirred up into simple religious or classconflict by the process of spectacularization.
With such considerations in mind, we might be able to appreciate Dodiya's radical
eclecticism, with its kitschy appearance and structure arousing the desire of the viewer for areading, as an attempt at artistic intervention from inside a social environment inundated byspectacles. This art is not just proposing cultural tolerance by juxtaposing images of different
origins, but freshly foregrounding the fact that spectacles are actually formed, always andalready, of complex entanglements of eclectic images. Paradoxically, kitsch can lead people to a
purified faith in spite of its mongrel origins. Kitsch has the greatest effect when it leaves behind
the impurity of kitsch and is elevated into an emblem (as seen in the strategies of new religious
groups in Japan.) Dodiya's works take the opposite course, raising people's awareness that thereal cultural power of kitsch lies in its essential impurity.
Dodiya's art should not be understood in terms of the simplistic concepts of globalism andmulticulturalism. The former always has the tendency to unify concepts of difference into styleas capital. The latter risks falling into the trap of advocating co-existence of discrete cultures on
the premise that their differences are absolute, and each culture is monolithic and internally
fixed. The lesson of Dodiya's work lies precisely in its opposition to the pressure from both these
extremes. It urges us to grasp the concept of difference multi-dimensionally . The blending ofdifferent elements continues to act as a source of nutrients for the nation of India and theseparate communities that have emerged within it, reminding us of the ever-present possibilities
for crossing boundaries that always and already exist.

Postscript: In writing this essay, I relied extensively on the ideas and views of many people I met in India. The followingindividuals
in particu lar served as guideposts to my t hinking : Atul Dodiya himself; Ranjit Hoskote, the critic and poet who worked together
with Dodiya in organizingthe present exhibition; the critic GeetaKapur, who kindly agreed to an interview in Delhi in spite of herbusy schedule; and the painter Bhupen Khakhar, who provided sincere answers to my questions at the home of Vadodara(Baroda).
I would like to take this opportunityto express my appreciation to them.
(translated by Stanely N. Anderson)

89

From the Fragmented to the Plural: Atul Dodiya's Art
Sitanshu Yashaschandra

1.

When a terrain is strewn with signposts, glass-framed maps, enquiry offices and eager guides, it
is an adventure to decide to go out on an adventure. Atul Dodiya's paintings are products of a
defiant mind and exploring hands. They present a new site for interrogation and integration. Not
unlike the Upanishadic' philosophers of dissent, the rebel poets of bhakti,2 and Gandhi-on
whom he has done a series of watercolors- Dodiya suggests that thorough interrogation is true
integration. In and through his paintings, Atul Dodiya enquires into the many dimensions of his
own self, of life around him, and also the art of painting and its tools and strategies. The
structure of his paintings shows that sites of interrogation, if constructed as open houses where
the process of interrogation and the person of interrogator are questioned before theinterrogated is, become sites of integration. Dodiya's early work has been seen to havephotorealism in it, and critics have seen autobiographical narratives in several of his paintings. A
closer look at the subsequent phases of his work shows how his art embodies multiple, often
tense and mutually contradicting realities of contemporary India and is a critical biography of its
culture.
2.
Born in 1959 at Bombay in Gujarati-speaking family, Atul Dodiya's location in art and culture ofIndia is that of an insider who feels free and capable of negotiating all kinds of boundaries. The
dynamics of the journeys of perception and interrogation extend from inside to out, rather thanfrom outside to the inner spaces. He is an explorer, not an intruder. The family, the city and theculture constitute his home-site. He interrogates them intimately: affectionately in the earlyphases of his work, and, in later phases, in desperation and anger. Paintings like Crucifixion(1994) and No FreshLesions (1994); Iceberg (2000) and Shipwreck(2000) show this continuity
and shift.
But none of these three locations is his confinement. Starting from his journey to Europe
and stay at Paris (1991-1992) on a French Government Scholarship, extending to a five-weekartist's residency at the Civitella Ranieri Center in Umbria, Italy (1999), he has been moving into
the territories of several other sensibilities, styles and strategies of painting. Stranger enough in
his homeland and at home enough in strangers' lands, Dodiya has interacted, with purpose andpower, with self and with the other. Starting with the boyishly mirthful self-portrait, The Bombay
Buccaneer(cat.no.3), in which the images of David Hockney and Bhupen Khakhar aresuperimposed on the shiny dark glasses of the Dodiya James Bond, extending to the Body/Wash
series of watercolors done in 2000-2001(cat.no.21), in which Dodiya has superimposed hiswatercolors on the reproductions of pale black and white watercolors by the German painter
Gotthard Graubner, Dodiya has continued a conversation with several other artists and arttraditions. As Dodiya's self-portraits show, his own location varies: he moves from the mythic
lotus emerging out of Vishnu's' navel, to the historic group sharing Gandhi's joke about postdated check, to the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen in front of a Rene Magritte illusion. Whileomnipresence is a divine prerogative, multiple presence is a right that an interrogative artist like
Dodiya claims for himself. The restless movement corresponds to a growing anxiety of the artist
as he watches the changing social, economic, political conditions of society around him. He is
desperately looking for adequate strategies, as he moves from site to site, city to city.
Among these cities, native and foreign, is city of Dvaraka,' founded by Krishna himself-theCity of Gold. Dodiya's PalaceGuest (cat.no.16) shows the glitter of Dvaraka. Sudama, a learned
but poor Brahmin, a childhood friend of Krishna, has just arrived, unannounced, uninvited, insearch of survival. The Lord and the Lady of the Palace welcome him warmly, wash the guest's
feet with obvious respect. But the semiotic space of the painting shows rigid figures of soldiers,
in present day uniform, with rifles in their hands, on three sides of the new arrival. A spiralstaircase, with its base superimposed on Sudama's chest, leads nowhere at its upper end. On theupper left corner is the image of a drawn down roller shutter. This shutter in Krishna's palace isthe earliest roller shutter in Dodiya's paintings, indicating its antiquity! It is interesting to notethat Bombay is popularly known as the Gateway of India, and the name of the ancient city of90

Dvaraka also means "the Gateway," in its case to ancient India.
But those who come to Dvaraka/Bombay/Mumbai, do bring a few things with them. Sudamaof the BhagavataPurana5 brought a handful of puffed rice as a gift to the Lord of the Golden
City. Those who arrive by trains and buses today, bring what is named by an intimate Gujarati
word, des, i.e. a homeland. Des is not to be confused with desh or svadesh, country or nation, aformal entity of political power. Des, a word from common speech, is an informal, personalentity, never lost on any external battleground. In just a few places Dodiya gives a glimpse ofthis abstract notion. Letterfrom a Father (cat.no.4) is one such place.
The Island City of Bombay is also a city divided. Through its railway stations withovercrowded trains entering the city over long bridges, the city is connected with the hinterlandsof India. Through its seaport filled with cargo ships of its present day and the passenger liners(as in Dodiya's watercolor S. S. Rajputana, 1998) of yesteryears, and through its airports,
domestic as well as international, the city is linked to a world which is external in more than one
way. In this sense, it is a twin-city, two places with one name. Not many of its residents live inmore than a fragment of this problematic totality. To have a single address in the twin-cities is achallenge that many authors, painters and performers have shied away from. They prefer to live
in south Bombay, and write on colonialjpostcolonial India in English, and keep an
epistemological distance from the vernacular areas north and east of the city. Dodiya's paintingsinterrogate the immensity of pre-colonial and extra-colonial India, as well as the immediacy ofthe colonial and postcolonial India. In the tradition of Indian epic narrative, a heroic warrior isdescribed as savyasachi,i.e., capable of using weapons with both of his hands, and as ajanabahu,i.e., with long arms reaching down to the knees of his legs.' The adjectives are applicable to Atul
Dodiya as an artist, for compositional control over various modes of presentation and for therange of his perceptions and sympathies.
Many of Dodiya's paintings use the written language as a structural, visual element. The
language that is seen in his paintings on Gandhi, as well as in Letterfrom a Father,is his mothertongue, Gujarati. It was also the mother tongue of Mahatma Gandhi. He wrote extensively in
Gujarati, translating his books later into English when needed. Gujarati was also the mothertongue of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan . Jinnah lectured and wrote inelegant English. His wife was from a Parsi' family, of the Zarathrostian community. The Parsis
speak Gujarati as their mother tongue and have contributed greatly to Gujarati literature andtheater. Earliest travelogues in the language are by Parsi authors. Gujarati Diaspora is centuries
old, spread over Africa, Europe, America and Asian countries to the east and west of India. It has
been, mainly, a Gujarati-speaking diaspora.
A renowned Gujarti poet, Umashankar Joshi , once asked through a poem of his: "what sortof Gujarati is he, who is only a Gujarati?"8 To be a Gujarati, the poet says, you have to be otherthan-Gujarati also, and to be Indian is also be other-than-Indian.
Dodiya uses Gujarati script in his paintings to bring into play the multiple reality of thelanguage operating in its many semiotic sites.
3.
To be alien enough when among one's own people, and to be native enough when among aliens,
to function as a critical insider and a fresh interpreter of one's identity- such an ontologicalmode enables an author, a painter, a performer to be a major presence within his own culture.
Atul Dodiya's relationship, as a person, with Gujarat, Bombay and Europe and, as an artist withtraditions of art nearer home and away from home, has enabled him to be such a presence inIndia.
He is able to see life around him differently, see it more clearly and see it more completely.
India is not exhausted for him either by its postcoloniality or by its glorious antiquity. As a major
artist of his time, he attempts through all techniques and strategies of his art, inventing newer
ones with urgency and rare energy, to understand, interrogate and integrate into images aseemingly fragmented , "wounded," scattered reality of personal and social life around him.
Having observed the artist's relationship with his mother tongue, it might be useful to trace his

91

fig.1 (p.28)
ONayna!, 1994

fig.2 (p. 29)
Womanwith Chakki,1999

journey as a painter through some of his works which present images of women: sister, wife,
mother , daughter , goddess, actress, she-devil or mad woman. It is in itself a telling fact that
there are so many such women inhabiting and controlling the visual space available in Dodiya's
paintings.
The women come to this semiotic space from everywhere: from home, from hospital, fromheaven, from history , from mythology and from desperate worlds of contemporary politics andeconomics. Nayna is one of the earliest and closest. She is Atul's elder sister. There are twopaintings on her: 0 Nayna! (1994, fig.1) and HeroicFiddling(cat .no.5). They present images ofpain, loneliness and confusion of the family when she was hospitalized for months, sufferingfrom a crippling pituary tumor.
0 Nayna! shows only a bare hospital bed, gray-striped bedcover, occupied only by some
instruments of carpentry. There is no one nursing , nor anyone to nurse. Two coconuts, with deep
cuts of a sharp knife on them, accentuate the situation. The pillow cover, with its handembroidered rose, has clearly been brought for the daughter from home. A raksha, traditional
protection-thread, which a sister puts around her brother 's wrist , is visible on the bed. But
nothing renders Nayna visible. The institutional, public speech has muted the personal andfamilial voices. The painting gives a close up of invisibility.
HeroicFiddlingshows Nayna, weak and lonely. A few matchsticks thrown into the space
below the woman have now replaced the hardware of the earlier work. Nayna is now visible, but
she does not look at anyone. She is looking out of a balcony. There are three more figures: twoboys and a young man. The younger boy is seen at the lower left border of the canvas. He is
playing with his shadow. The older boy is at the right border of the canvas. He is standing,apparently near the playground of his school with basketball poles. But his hands are limp
against his legs. The shadow of his body extends in a direction that is different from thedirection in which the shadows of the basketball poles extend . The third male figure, only a bent
back of his head and part of the back visible, is seen at the fourth border of the canvas. The skillof the artist enables the viewer to know that he is the brother, the maternal uncle, the painterhimself. A family fragmented through pain and helplessness, each in his/ her own dim light, with
their faces partly or fully invisible. But in the center is the figure of a woman whose face is fullyand dramatically revealed and instantly recognized by all the viewers, without any help from askilled artist: the face of "Mother India," the actress Nargis in a blockbuster Hindi movie of thatname. The only patch of bright color on the canvas is her light red sari. Her right hand has beenraised in a public and publicized gesture of defiance. For all this, Mother India of the movies is a"shutter" on personal grief of a family.
In contrast with the theatrical acting out of pain and defiance, are the gestures of apparent
insanity of the Womanwith Chakki(1999, fig.2) . The film actress was using her arm to lift aplough; the skeletal female figure is doing a more practical work: she is working on a grindingstone, the traditional chakki. In this she is much more like the hardworking, famine-struck
women of India. The grin on her bone-and-teeth face might look sinister but could be a simple,
eager smile of a woman in rags who has finally found some grain, (which she desperately protects
between her legs) , to feed herself and her children. The colors around her are warm gold andyellow, a black, twisting branch with a few leaves weaving through her and around her. She could
live with it- for now. All her attention is centered in seeing to it that the grains do not fall out
and go waste. But there is ambivalence in this image. The grinding stone is a traditional symbolof death . Is she a crazed mother, the real Mother India, desperate to feed her children? Or is she
death herself, nobody to be saved from the turning wheel of her grinding stone? Is Womanwith
Chakkia companion piece to Sour Grapes(cat.no.9) or Gangavataran:After Raja Ravi Varma(cat.no.11)? Or does it replace them now in Atul Dodiya's world-and ours?

fig.3 (p.29)

Tearscapefromthe Tearscapeseries,
1999

4.
From 1999 to 2001, Atul Dodiya has painted and shown four groups of paintings: An Artist ofNon-violence(1999), Body/Wash, Tearscape(1999, fig.3), and the series of paintings on roller
shutters and canvas (2001). Each of these has compelled the viewers to muster their inner92

fig.4 (p.29)

Iceberg, 2000

fig.5 (p.30)

Gau-RaskshaMeeting, 1998

fig.6 (p.30)

The Post-dated Cheque, 1998

fig.7 (p.30)

Chancellor Gandhi, 1998

resources, emotive-intellectual-moral-active, to the utmost. Their impact has been deep anddisturbing and widespread. A passage of time is required to see fully the internal relations among
the paintings of these four series, The images of men, women, children, animals, birds andtrees-the basic pictures of life, have been given in such varied, contrasting, clashing colors,
forms, compositions and contexts in these four groups, that viewers who try to juxtapose themwould know with a disturbing immediacy the urgency, desperation, anger and sorrow which is
being conveyed to them, It is this that confirms and reinforces the authenticity and strength ofAtul Dodiya's presence as a major artist within Indian society today,
Images of basic life forms have shifted their residence from homes and community
neighborhoods to a terrain that is pre-culture/post-culture. The human body, in desperate erotic
state, leads not to life but to death. Dodiya's colors shapes and compositions suppress and erase
any possibility of rebirth that might have existed in Graubner's gentle black and whitewatercolors. Rose and Motherspell jointly the end of the political and economic power of Kamadeva, god of desire, the Indian Eros.
Life images have been changed into images of subhuman and extra-human beings of Indian
mythology in the paintings of Tearscape.The woman, the mother seems to have changed into ademonic female, a dakini, shakini, bhairavi, But, though, in Iceberg (fig.4) the skeletal woman in
the boat merely looks at an almost fully drowned India (only the top fragment of its map visible
over the primitive waters of the deluge, the title of the painting as well as the look in the
woman's eyes-not indifferent to but fixed on the sinking culture) leaves some room for"rebirth." She could look like the female angel of death, but she might well be the mother crazed
by pain and desperation. Govardhanram Tripathi, a great 19th century Gujarati novelist, has, in
his novel, Sarasvatichandra,9 described India through an image of Pancholi,i.e. Draupadi, thequeen of the Pandava princes in the epic Mahabharata,10 lying semiconscious on her bed, withhuge monkeys sucking milk from her breasts, while her human children are crying with hunger
some distance away.
It is the series on Mahatma Gandhi that alerts the viewer against publicly sold packages ofhope and plans of action, Dodiya has tried to reach out to some personal moments of Gandhi'slife, as in Gau-RakshaMeeting (1998, fig.5), 11 which shows Gandhi reading from some papers in
his hand before the meeting. Of the handful of people of the collecting audience, two seem to belooking not at Gandhi but at the viewer outside the painting. And in ThePost-datedCheque(1998, fig.6), the painter has, as a painted figure, entered the group of figures smiling at
Gandhi's joke, Such painterly devices seem to suggest a possibility of living contact with Gandhi
and his times. The title of the painting, however, opens up a chilling possibility that the joke has
been made not only by Gandhi but also by Dodiya. The bank of the political, economic and social
institutions on which Gandhi wrote a post-dated check has, says Dodiya with a Gandhian smile,
has gone bankrupt. Nonetheless, the flowing grace and authenticity of human bodies in action,
seen in ChancellorGandhi(1998, fig.7), shows that there is still some counter-weight to thesoon-to-follow despair.
The most recent group of paintings is the one with roller shutters which, in a way, pitches
the activity of painting against the mindless commerce of the market place and pervading
politics of society today. Mahalaxmi(cat,no,24), a 9ftx6ft painting been painted on a real roller
shutter, as used in the market place to close a shop. Painted on it is a calendar art picture of
Mahalaxmi, "great goddess of wealth" in golden, red, deep blue and snow-white oil colors. The
popular iconography is complete on the shutter: the goddess, the lotus, the swan, the elephantand all the jewelry. A generous shower of gold coins falls from the open palm of one of the fourarms of the goddess. Her full body, complete with the iconographic details has been painted on
the open shutter. But her head, with jewelry and golden yellow has been painted on the fixed
upper encasement of the shutter. When the shutter moves a little, the head loses its synchrony
with the body, giving impression of a rolling doll. As the viewers roll open the shutter, using hisarms and back to push it up, they see a canvas stretched underneath the shutter with ironhooks. On this canvas they see, painted in acrylic, are the figures of three sisters, daughters of
the Shahu family of Kanpur. Because they could not bear their father's agony at his inability to93pay the groom-price, dowry for their marriage, th e unmarri ed daughter s had killed themselves,hanging their neck from the ceiling. Dodiya has here initiated a kind of civil war, painting contra
painting , in a kind of last ditch attempt to fight th e Chancellor's University, Gandhi's India.
Indian families like t o call the ir daughte rs lakshmi at thei r birth and th eir daughter s-in-law
griha-lakshmi (griha is home) after marriage. The civil war is between Mahalakshmi and
Grihalakshmi. There is another shutt er-and-canva s painting : B for Bapu (cat.no.26) Gandhi was
fondly called "Bapu," i.e. "Father" by millions in India. B for Bapu shows, on canvas, Gandhi
weakened as if after one of his long protest fast. It seems to have ju st ended, and he is shownta king a sip of some liquid food, perhaps honey-and-water, as was his practice. There are somehoneybees on th e case of the shutter. They look too monstrous to be bringers of honey. The roller
shutter here has a grill surface and when shut looks like a prison door over Gandhi . Gandhitaught his followers importan ce of physical tabor and demanded active involvement from th em inthe strugg le for freedom. The artist expects the viewer to use their body, arms, shoulders, back,t o open the shutte r from over th e canvas, from over the Shahu daught ers, and from over the
Bamiyan Buddha, 12 which was destroyed in the name of religion. Gandhi is, once again, perhaps,
nourishing himself for action. The viewer is expected to open the prison gate of the grill shutte r
enclosing him.

Notes
1. Ancient Indian thinkers, who, in worksgenericallycalled Upanishad,arguedagainst ritualistic action and for criticalcontemplationof self and reality.Theterm, Up-ni-shad,means,literally,"sittingdownclose to" a teacher,for dialogiclearning.
2. MedievalIndian poets of devotional literature,who challenged unjust traditionalsocio-religious practicesand composed poetry
in over fifteen regional Indian languages, includingGujarati. The term, Bhakt, means, literally, "divided,""separated"from theorigin, God, and desirous of unity with it.
3. In Indian mythology Vishnuis the Godof Sustenance, Brahma,of Creation and Shiva, of Destruction.However,Brahmahas been
given a subordinateposition to Vishnu fromwhose navel he has been seen to emerge,seated on a lotus flower.Shiva has been
associated with an originarymoment, the time of the descent, avataranain Sanskrit,of the heavenly riverGanga(or Ganges)
on earth. See, Dodiya'sGangavataran.
4. Dvara,in Sanskrit,means "adoor"or "agateway."The city of Dvarakaor Dvarika,a seaport on the western coast of India, in
the State of Gujarat, is said to have been founded by the Yadava clan led by Lord Krishna. It was called SuvornaDvaraka,Golden
City of Dvaraka, indicating its p~osperity.
5. A semi-historicalnarrative,in Sanskrit,ShrimadBhagavataPaurananarratesevents of the life of Krishnaas a child, princeand
divine being. Its tenth chapter, the DashamaSkandha. The story of the two childhood friends meeting years later is given in its
Sections, Adhyaya,BOand 81. (Tagare, 1978, 1752-1763.) This has been told and retold in many Indian languages, including
Gujarati. Sudamais called Kuchaila,i.e. "ill-attired"or "one whose clothes are inferior"in the DashamaSkandha.
6. Mahabharata,Indian epic, repeatedlydescribesthe matchless warriorprince, Arjuna,with these two adjectives.
7. Gujaraticommunityof Persianorigin. Followersof Zarathrostianreligion. Theirancestorsreachedthe coast of Gujaratnear the
town of Sanjanin southern Gujarat,by sea-route from Persia, after Arabinvasion, to escape extreme religious tyranny, in the
9th century A.D.
8. Joshi, Umashankar, 1981, p.701.
9. Tripathi, Govardhanram, 1901, pp.639-657.
10.Mahabharata,one of the two epics, along with Ramayana,of ancient India which continue to profoundlyinfluence Indian
psyche through different historical periods till the present one.
11. Gau,meaning Cow.Raksha,meaning Protection.
12. Destruction of statues of Buddha at the Bamiyan region in Afghanistan by the ruling Taliban militia in 2001.
Select Bibliography
Umashankar J. Joshi, SamagraKavita(Mumbai: Chimanlal Literary Trust, 1981).
Ranjit Hoskote, "Interim Reports: Recent Paintings by Atul Dodiya" ( exhibition catalogue essay ; Gallery Chemould: Mumbai,
January-February 1995).
Ranjit Hoskote, "Re-imaging Bapu: A Response to Atul Dodiya's An Artist of Non-violence" (exhibition catalogue essay; Gallery
Chemould: Mumbai, February-March 1999).
Ranjit Hoskote, "An Autobiography in Fifteen Frames: Recent Works by Atul Dodiya" (exhibition catalogue essay; Vadehra Art
Gallery: New Delhi, March-April 1999) .
Ranjit Hoskote, "Body/Wash: Recent Watercolours by Atul Dodiya" (exhibition catalogue essay; Gallery Chemould: Mumbai, AprilMay 2001).
Ranjit Hoskote, "Tearscape: Recent Watercolours by Atul Dodiya" (exhibition catalog ue essay; The Fine Art Resource: Berlin, MayJune 2001).
Shastree, K.K. (ed.), TheBhagavata,Vol. IV (Ahmadabad: B. J. Institute of Learning and Research, 1997).
Tr. Ganesh Vasudeo Tagare, TheBhagavataPurana,Vol. IV (Varanasi; Motilal Banarasidas) .
Govardhanram M. Tripathi, Sarasvatichandra,Part IV (Mumbai: M. N. Tripathi and Co., 1901).
Svarni Venkatesanand, TheConciseSrimadBagavatam(New York: State University of New York Press, 1989).

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