Tracing Anju Dodiya’s artistic trajectory

The new set of large works on paper by Anju Dodiya on display in France refers to the prints with images of samurais that Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), an artist of the Ukiyo-e School. Ukiyo-e (meaning Pictures of the Floating World) was a school of popular art which depicted, in paintings, woodblock prints and books, life in urban Japan from the 17th to the 19th Century.

The prints have been frequently acknowledged as a prime source of imagery for Anju Dodiya, who finds inspiration in a rather wide range of things, including cinema, and popular culture (from comics to advertising). The artist is also influenced by Persian and Indian miniatures, European tapestries from the Middle Ages, Renaissance Art, Classical Chinese and Japanese Painting, and different modern and contemporary artists, such as Antonin Artaud, Robert Rauschenberg and Francesco Clemente.

Rather than creating pastiches with images and ideas from all these sources, she uses them, as well as stories from different literary and mythological narratives, and, of course, her own fantasies, to explore issues of identity and self-examination. Anju Dodiya’s work is rooted in Oriental traditions, using images as a vehicle of storytelling.

Figures tend to appear in isolation or besides a few props. Ground is only indicated by the weight implied in the exaggerated folds of the voluminous garments worn by the characters, and also by possible distortions of perspective. Figures are depicted in exaggerated movements and their balance is unstable, being always in motion. They are also very expressive, suggesting a diverse range of feelings. When they wear masks, her characters underline ideas of role playing, narrative and intention beyond aesthetic accomplishment.

The world of imagination or ideas is clearly more important than that of verisimilitude and observation. In the group of her new works at Galerie Daniel Templon, the image of the artist working in the studio as a samurai – we see her painting, sometimes split in two characters, while adopting dynamic martial art postures.

This is a good metaphor to convey the life of the artist as someone dedicated to sacrifice, discipline, pain, tradition or service, like that of the Japanese warriors. Anju Dodiya, whose body often appears also tormented in her work, has already represented herself as a samurai in ‘Holding the Mountain’ (1996).