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Lot Essay
Atul Dodiya's work has been exhibited around the world, from New York and Yokohama to Madrid, Venice and London, and have earned him the mantle of 'international artist'. "His images travel with him; like him, they operate best in the border zones between cultures, are actively different in relation to different audiences; like him, they look like X and behave like Y; they allude, with grace and cunning, the profile scanners of ethnography." (R. Hoskote, 'The Amplitudes of Connection', The Wet Sleeves of My Paper Robe, New Delhi, 2005, p. 19).
The title of this work Jatayu refers to another figure in the Ramayana. Jatayu, represented in the lower right of the work, refers to the Vulture King who gave up his life in a battle to save Sita from the Demon King, Ravana. Sabari, the hermit, devoted to Rama and the protagonist of the Wet Sleeves of My Paper Robe series is seemingly absent. However, through this conspicuous omission, her presence is keenly felt in the constant reference to femininity through the synthetic hair and collaged photograph.
Whilst others reference the traditional miniature format in deference, Dodiya monumentalises his works in grandeur and scale; where others overtly reference great cultural epics of the past, Dodiya confronts them elliptically. Dodiya, "[...] reclaims the epic through trace and gesture, emblem and allusion. Rama recedes, is broken on the image-maker's wheel. The bird-kings of the Arunachal Mountains and the simian aristocrats of Kishkinda, the demon hoards of Lanka and the furred giants of Jambuvanta's ursine legions become masks, bits of hair and feather, glosses of shield and sketches of beak.' (R. Hoskote, 'The Amplitudes of Connection", The Wet Sleeves of My Paper Robe, New Delhi, 2005, p. 22)
The title of this work Jatayu refers to another figure in the Ramayana. Jatayu, represented in the lower right of the work, refers to the Vulture King who gave up his life in a battle to save Sita from the Demon King, Ravana. Sabari, the hermit, devoted to Rama and the protagonist of the Wet Sleeves of My Paper Robe series is seemingly absent. However, through this conspicuous omission, her presence is keenly felt in the constant reference to femininity through the synthetic hair and collaged photograph.
Whilst others reference the traditional miniature format in deference, Dodiya monumentalises his works in grandeur and scale; where others overtly reference great cultural epics of the past, Dodiya confronts them elliptically. Dodiya, "[...] reclaims the epic through trace and gesture, emblem and allusion. Rama recedes, is broken on the image-maker's wheel. The bird-kings of the Arunachal Mountains and the simian aristocrats of Kishkinda, the demon hoards of Lanka and the furred giants of Jambuvanta's ursine legions become masks, bits of hair and feather, glosses of shield and sketches of beak.' (R. Hoskote, 'The Amplitudes of Connection", The Wet Sleeves of My Paper Robe, New Delhi, 2005, p. 22)