Lullaby - 2000

Capitalizing on the post-modern tendency towards ironic juxtaposition, Dodiya's works convey complex messages of life in his native country. Executed as painterly collages, his canvases echo the raw and graffiti-ed art of Jean-Michel Basquiat, while at the same maintaining a skilled handling of paint able to accommodate styles as varied as the photorealism of Gerhard Richter and the slick acrylic paintings of David Hockney. With its sepia tones and black fissures, this work from his Tearscape series conjures images of a weathered road map or cave painting. Preserving the less than optimistic attitude established in his well known series on Mahatma Gandhi, Lullaby 2000 offers a haunting allegory of life in India. Its sardonic pairing of the fetus and the skull reminds the audience of the indissoluble bond between life and death while crude crosses act as both religious symbols and mythical markers of a lost treasure. The chain of hanging skulls becomes a macabre torana, while the baby attached to the umbilical cord is meant to represent hope and life's potential.