Carrion Culture and Other Stories

There is something reassuringly traditional in the works of Anindita Bhattacharya. Beauty is not a word that one readily associates with contemporary art yet it is likely to crop up at the first glance at her works. Anindita has always been interested in using a template that recalls a language forged in the imperial Mughal courts of Delhi, Agra or Lahore and to a lesser extent the provincial courts of Rajasthan and the Punjab hills. A small but significant group of artists for the last half a century have been engaged in the project of re-investing in a language that evolved over the centuries, primarily reflecting the courtly powers, to hold a mirror to contemporary realities. This has emerged as a significant strand in contemporary post-colonial art practice of the sub-continent and Anindita emerges as a young voice, who positions herself to claim and further that heritage.The cosmopolitan universe of Anindita privileges a period in Indian history known for it is syncretism but It does not shy away from referencing myriad sources with wicked fun, ranging from medieval Gothic gargoyles to Turkish monsters of Siyeh Qalam or skeletal chamundi figures from the Punjab hills. Magical animals, figures from hellish torture scenes of being flayed or disembowelled or headless figures engaged in mortal combats with animals, both real and fantastic, Sinbad-esque sequences of an elephant being carried by a giant bird, all are painted with loving dexterity in the seventy two tooth images in the “Future Relics of a Carrion Culture”. They feel like a veritable source book of ideas and imagery where, Hamza-nama to Harry Potter all are fair game.