Anita Dube and Mithu Sen in ‘Conundrum’

Anita Dube and Mithu Sen are among the participating artists in ‘Conundrum’, a group show at Bose Pacia, Brooklyn, New York.

Anita Dube, born in Lucknow in 1958, received a degree in History at the University of Delhi. She then studied art criticism at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda. Also trained as an art historian, her work ranges from sculpture to photography. Her recent work makes use of a variety of found objects in order to explore critical ideas, which are visually compelling and at once, both political and personal.

She deftly combines imagery and references to Indian culture with specific contemporary concerns, to negotiate the slippery terrains of identity – both societal and individual. She also has employed the enamel eyes often found on idols of Hindu deities for her sculptures and installations. Elaborating on their context, she has stated in an interview: "I’ve realized that when a cluster of these eyes carry the charge and energy of crowds. The sense of being in crowded places, an attraction to the violent energy present in these situations - either revolutionary or fascist - is the reason I continue to explore this material."

Mithu Sen, born in West Bengal in 1971, received a BFA and MFA (painting) from Kala Bhavan at Santiniketan, and later, completed a postgraduate program at the Glasgow School of Art in the UK. In her video works, drawings, collages, paintings, installations and found objects, she explores the permutations of identity politics alongside the vagaries of self-perception.

Forms that are Anthropomorphic, anatomical and animist mingle with flora & fauna as well as other hybrid objects in order to create witty and provocative portraits. According to her, the humor in her works is meant to inviting viewers to play with the ideas and meanings of 'self'. They subconsciously apply ‘my caricatures to their own lives’, by engaging with the work she elaborates.