Overview
Anindita wields the familiar markers available in the tradition, such as the fine brush drawing, the wasli paper, the decorative passages, the hashiya or the border, but to a large extent these are tropes that camouflage the underlying disquiet. The fact that the artist takes a great deal of pleasure in these tropes cannot be overstated but it is also masterfully used as a diversionary tactic. Massive political mobilisation to undermine certain unique characteristics of our very being is underway. The idea of our nation as a syncretic culture is under attack. The manifestations of these tectonic shifts, even in our quotidian lives – our identity, our food habits or self-expression are hard to ignore.
Works
Anindita Bhattacharya, Rewriting on the Wall, 2018
Variable SizeAnindita Bhattacharya, The Opera that Came our Way, 2018
60 x 48 inchesAnindita Bhattacharya, City by the Mournful Sea, 2018
96 x 60 inchesAnindita Bhattacharya, I know not how to fable, 2018
Variable SizeAnindita Bhattacharya, War Rugs, 2018
Variable SizeAnindita Bhattacharya, Contraband Drawings, 2019
Variable SizeAnindita Bhattacharya, Wasteland, 2019
60 x 108 inches
Essay
Anindita Bhattacharya is a Gold medalist of the Nasreen Mohammedi Award from Prestigious Maharaja Sayaji Rao University in Baroda. The aesthetic trope of Anindita’s vocabulary allures and encourages the viewers to travel through thousands of year of art history across various cultures and traditions; the content is paradoxical.
The Ornamentation in her work is not benign but conflicting in more than one respect, though they appear to create harmony, on a closer glance one might observe that they are layered and infused with imagery of subtle violence and chaos.
The aesthetic trope of Anindita’s vocabulary encourages the viewers to travel through thousands of year of art history across various cultures and traditions. The narratives are expressed in multiple layers in her paintings allowing her to juxtapose various experiences from different time frames. Creating patterns and ornamentation remain an integral part of her work, serving to camouflage her images. Though they appear to create harmony, on a closer glance one might observe that they are layered and infused with imagery of subtle violence and chaos. The seductive power of the intricate craftsmanship is in full display but it is marshaled to hold a mirror to contemporary realities; the fraying of our syncretic tradition, the disquiet of a world torn asunder with rhetoric laden with violence. This paradox is the central leitmotif of Anindita’s oeuvre.
The tug of war between the beguilingly seductive surface and the coded messages embedded in them adds to the allure of her work.
Notes
Curatorial Note
Anindita Bhattacharya is a Gold medalist of the Nasreen Mohammedi Award from Prestigious Maharaja Sayaji Rao University in Baroda. The aesthetic trope of Anindita’s vocabulary allures and encourages the viewers to travel through thousands of year of art history across various cultures and traditions; the content is paradoxical.
The Ornamentation in her work is not benign but conflicting in more than one respect, though they appear to create harmony, on a closer glance one might observe that they are layered and infused with imagery of subtle violence and chaos.
The aesthetic trope of Anindita’s vocabulary encourages the viewers to travel through thousands of year of art history across various cultures and traditions. The narratives are expressed in multiple layers in her paintings allowing her to juxtapose various experiences from different time frames. Creating patterns and ornamentation remain an integral part of her work, serving to camouflage her images. Though they appear to create harmony, on a closer glance one might observe that they are layered and infused with imagery of subtle violence and chaos. The seductive power of the intricate craftsmanship is in full display but it is marshaled to hold a mirror to contemporary realities; the fraying of our syncretic tradition, the disquiet of a world torn asunder with rhetoric laden with violence. This paradox is the central leitmotif of Anindita’s oeuvre.
The tug of war between the beguilingly seductive surface and the coded messages embedded in them adds to the allure of her work.
Venue
Threshold Art Gallery, New Delhi
C-221, Sarvodya Enclave
New Delhi- 110017
