Working from the academic heritage of art criticism, Dube’s sculptures and photographs straddle the often nebulous line between conceptual and artisanal productions; between the cerebral and visceral. Recent Works presents an interesting dialogue between: Phantoms of Liberty, a suite of eight sculptural compositions comprised of found objects wrapped in camouflage fabric; two large-scale words made of wax; and a series of photographs of words molded out of raw meat. While each body of work has a distinct voice within the spa... Read more
Working from the academic heritage of art criticism, Dube’s sculptures and photographs straddle the often nebulous line between conceptual and artisanal productions; between the cerebral and visceral. Recent Works presents an interesting dialogue between: Phantoms of Liberty, a suite of eight sculptural compositions comprised of found objects wrapped in camouflage fabric; two large-scale words made of wax; and a series of photographs of words molded out of raw meat. While each body of work has a distinct voice within the space, they come together in an intelligent and thoughtful investigation of the aesthetics of the inside/outside dynamic that navigates the intricacies of the access to and representation of personal and social phenomena.
In Phillippe Vergne’s 2005 Telling Times catalogue essay Dube’s work is described as having Dube’s work is described as having “developed an aesthetic language that privileges sculptural fragment as a cultural bearer of personal and social memories, history, mythologies and phenomenological experiences.”
The same rings true for her most recent body of work. Wax sculptures spell out the words love and void. There is a certain intimacy that arises from the nearly life-sized proclamations whose molded surface tactility is both inviting yet foreboding. The photographs document words that have been formed from raw meat. Soft lighting and gentle placement provide a sometimes uncomfortably desirous mood as one is invited to read the images of inside out, disorder, so near and yet so far, desperate amour, and materialist theology.
Dube’s work harkens to the space between private and public labor. Phantoms of Liberty is composed of found household objects. These items have been meticulously wrapped in camouflage-patterned fabric. The objects are therefore given a second skin, a protective layer, which predicates the performative act of making personal objects public. The act of wrapping these sculptures is reminiscent of historically feminine forms of domestic labor which have often been tied to the public repression of personal exertions. While each body of work in the exhibition is visually distinct they all quite eloquently contribute to the conceptual gestalt of embodying the space between personal and social labor as well as consciousness.
Anita Dube studied art criticism from the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda, India. She was involved in the activities of the Indian Radical Painters and Sculptors Association until 1989. Dube’s recent solo exhibitions include Galerie Almine Rech, Paris (2007), Galleryskye, Bangalore (2006), and Bose Pacia, New York (2005). Her work has been included in many group exhibitions including Urban Manners: 15 Contemporary Artists from India, Hangar Bicocca, Milan (2007); Bombay Maximum City, Lille300, Lille (2006); Indian Summer, Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris (2005); iCon: Indian Contemporary, collateral event, 51st Venice Biennale, Venice (2005); How Latitudes Become Forms: Art in a Global Age, The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2003); 7th Havana Biennale, Cuba (2000). Anita Dube currently lives and works in New Delhi.
