Tsuktiben Jamir

Biraaj Dodiya and Heidi Lau are jointly presenting an exhibition, ‘Shadow Speaks’, at Bureau in New York. Both of the artists are exhibiting for the first time at Bureau as well as working together for a show. Dodiya’s paintings and Lau’s sculptures will be presented together; Dodiya’s architectural rigidity contrasts well with Lau’s more organic sculptures, which manifest the otherworldly with bits of the familiar. The talents of these artists complement one another well, and blend in together so well, resulting in a surreal, dreamlike environment, almost as though only one person had produced the artworks.

Dodiya, a Mumbai-based artist, is displaying a series of huge paintings amid many groupings of painted wood and miniature canvases. Dodiya’s ethereal abstractions envelopes the mood through both the ambiance and structure. The big oil-on-linen paintings have elements that are reminiscent of Clyfford Still, such as the prominent green and purple tones of her “Split Caves” (2023), a huge oil painting on linen that contrast with blue, cream, and washed-out black tones. Some of her more intriguing pieces include painted hardwood planks that are bordered on one or both sides by smaller paintings on linen. Painted steel boxes are often used to hold the column- or cross-like assemblages to the floor.

According to Bureau, New York, “Dodiya’s compositions capture and envelope the viewer’s body within painted psychological landscapes. Between sculpture and painting, her totem-assemblages disrupt the authority of the two-dimensional picture plane where faceted surfaces generate new landscapes from fractured and adjoining topographies. Dodiya’s works bear traces of their making and unmaking; layers of earthy pigment accumulate and erode as the act of painting gives way to burial and excavation. The large compositions shift from a distanced perspective to an encompassing geological scale, where vibrations of tectonic movement seem to resonate and engulf; the feeling of earth and form emerge slowly, the way water carves rock. These works might present an answer to the question, what is landscape without light? For Dodiya the works embody the violence of time, suggesting “there is no landscape without ruin, there is no body without failure.”

On the other hand, we have New York-based sculptor Lau with her unique sculptures that portray a speculative realm of imagination, which has been greatly influenced by Shanhaijing (The Classic of Mountains and Seas), an ancient Taoist text, a wonderful collection of myths and stories from antiquity that also serves as a record of the topography, ethnic groups, and folkways of the area. This ancient text has provided the framework for Lau’s sculptures. Bureau writes, “Within Lau’s compositions, these allegories take shape in the mutable nature of clay, crystalized in glaze and oxides. Undulating landscapes evolve and erode revealing personifications that permeate a natural environment. Hands emerge among winds and waves; black pearls bloom out of networks of round, burrow-like cavities. Two tall stacks of wall-mounted reliefs conjure columns; their opposing poles of darkness and light take root and reach towards the sky. Through Lau’s sculpting and manipulation, she pushes her material to the brink of its physical limit; like a willow tree’s branch bent by water-soaked leaves – about to succumb, yet holding form and potential.”

The joint display of Heidi Lau’s sculptures and Biraaj Dodiya’s paintings in their exhibition “Shadow Talk” gives the impression of one immersive installation rather than a collection of artworks by two different artists. The blending of two different artforms and making them belong is the magnificent experience of this two-person show.

Dates:

11th March 2023- 15th April, 2023

Venue:

Bureau, 178 Norfolk Street, Manhattan, New York.