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May 2008 New York – Bose Pacia presents Anita Dube's
Recent Works, The gallery is located at 508 West 26th Street on the 11th Floor, in the Chelsea district of New York City. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 11 to 6 pm and by appointment. The artist will be in attendance at the opening reception on Thursday, May 15th from 6 to 8 pm. The public is invited.
Working from the academic heritage of art criticism, Anita Dube's sculptures and photographs straddle the often nebulous line between conceptual and artisanal productions; between the cerebral and visceral. Recent Works presents a dialogue between:
Phantoms of Liberty, a suite of eight sculptural compositions comprised of found objects wrapped in camouflage fabric; a large-scale word 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, providing 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 Philippe Vergne's 2003 essay
Anita Dube, 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 word void. There is a certain intimacy that arises from the nearly life-sized proclamations whose molded surface 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, together they 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), Gallery Ske, 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.