Biraaj Dodiya has built her art practice around grief and its interaction with humans, thinking through her research as well as her personal experiences. She works with both contemporary and traditional media developing a body of work that includes paintings, sculptures and a cross-over of the two.
SP: I am quite intrigued by the title of the show ‘Stone is a Forehead’, which is from a poem by Federico García Lorca. Tell us about your earliest memory of this poem?
BD: I first came across the poem three years ago after reading Lorca’s lecture on the phenomenon of ‘duende’. He describes the spirit of duende through elements of irrationality, earthiness, a heightened awareness of death, and a dash of the diabolical. The poem was part of a book that responded to these ideas and it stayed with me.
SP: We would like to know about the curatorial approach, the connection between your works and the poetry?
BD: The poem is a lament, Lorca commemorating the death of a friend. Since I make paintings and sculpture, both very physical media, I was drawn to the references to physicality and the body – the weight of a body, the absence of a body, the body in action, the body laid out.
I particularly connected with the phrase ‘Stone is a Forehead’. I think there is simultaneously a sense of beauty and discomfort in those words. Materials taking on another’s character, distinct surfaces transforming, coexisting. I am interested in the play with syntax in that manner.
SP: What was your process of making artworks for this particular show?
BD:The initial stages involve drawing, writing and experimenting with material. My studio is often both horizontally and vertically active as I like working on the paintings and sculptures simultaneously. I collect materials that may or may not go into the work—discarded objects, industrial supplies, objects of personal significance, and detritus from a previous work. The paintings slowly transform; I am very interested in the chronology of the paint’s application and cancellation becoming undecipherable.
SP: For this particular show what were some of your philosophical enquiries?
And through your process, how did you try to answer these enquiries?
BD: How one negotiates with loss via personal excavation interests me. Questions of the past and future, the feeling of looming tentativeness, and modes of repair and support were some of my concerns. Materials (both private and found) are extremely important carriers of meaning for me. The physical processes of layering, digging, drawing, scraping, soaking happen in the studio over time. The final works are a result of this breakdown and repair.
SP: The color palette that you have chosen for the entire collection of paintings have muted shades with subtle hints of bright colors, which make me think of repressed desires trying to find an escape. I would like to know what emotions do these shades invoke in you?
BD:Art that conceals and reveals at the same time interests me. I think color is closely related to the psyche. To me, through this particular palette, it is as if the paintings wear a mourner’s veil – privately shielding themselves and yet displaying grief openly.
Also, the idea of the nocturnal landscape interests me. It allows great possibilities for fiction, for distance and for uncertainty.
SP: What are your inspirations behind the artworks, not just in terms of artists that inspire you but also in terms of concepts, objects and memories?
BD: Ancient sarcophagi, Pahari miniature paintings, the clothing of monks and mourners, athleticism, David Hammons, first-aid bandaging, domestic jury-rigging, childhood memorabilia, 15th century Italian painting and taking walks are a few of the things that inspire me.
SP: Being a young artist, can you tell our young artist-readers, how to navigate the art world and make connections with important stakeholders within the art scenario to be able to collaborate with leading art spaces?
BD:Try and see everything. Make what only you can make.
SP: What are some other projects that kept you occupied during the
quarantine?
BD:I am now able to spend some time at the studio working. Besides that I have been reading, writing and watching films.
SP: Tell us about some of your upcoming shows
BD:There are a couple of group exhibitions I am working towards.
Images Courtesy: Biraaj Dodiya
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