Atul Dodiya
Ghatkopar, 1959
Atul Dodiya is an Indian artist born in Ghatkopar in 1959, currently living and working in Mumbai. Through his watercolors, paintings, and installations on old, rusted shutters, he explores themes of politics, art, and globalization. Dodiya seeks to blend street life with the wealth of a city like Mumbai, characterized by enormous contradictions. His words narrate what our eyes observe.
Spirit of the Tree.
Language is a text. They know that bamboo cannot pronounce the modern word for parrot correctly. They offer a woman a machete. Their hands are clean as they sit down for dinner. The grove has been cleared. The Constitution is written in a modern style. It takes time for the land to crack and open, swallowing dictionaries and their authors. Years pass before they sign the painting “The Woman and the Tree in a Suicidal Pact.”
The Tale of the Whale.
We find them, closing drawers and tearing apart letters that have never seen the light of day for eighty years. Petals crushed in the notebook of notes, a medallion with its blue and red fabric in tatters, a padlock without its portrait. We throw ourselves beyond the cord into our grandfather’s secrets.