“Bako Exists. Imagine.” is a text-based work consisting of twelve paintings and an installation with nine wooden cabinets. These poetic episodes are based on a fiction, written in Gujarati by the major contemporary poet Labhshankar Thakar.

Bako is a boy who meets Bapu — Mahatma Gandhi — in his sleep. In fact, they meet each other only in their sleep, and they talk. This is a kind of fantasy which allows and evokes childhood memories. There is no fence of age between this old man and the young boy. They joke, they laugh, they talk of the abstract.

In these twelve blackboard paintings, and in the cabinet installation, autobiographical references gradually mingle and flow into a larger creative journey. The intention is that the viewer no longer remains an outsider, but subconsciously becomes an invisible character, involved with Baka and Bapu in this hilarious fantasy.

Atul Dodiya, August 2011

 

Read more about Atul Dodiya’s exhibition here and his interview with the Indian Express here.

 

Erase It

Atul Dodiya, “Erase It”, 2011. Oil, acrylic, watercolour, oil bar and marble dust on canvas, 60 x 90”

The Gujarati original by Labhshankar Thakar:

 

No Studies, No Keeping Count

Atul Dodiya, “No Studies, No Keeping Count”, 2011. Oil, acrylic, watercolour, oil bar and marble dust on canvas, 90” x 60”

 

 

Draw as you Walk

Atul Dodiya “Draw as you Walk”, 2011. Oil, acrylic, watercolour, oil bar and marble dust on canvas, 78” x 78”

 

 

Pray to Whom?

Atul Dodiya, “Pray to Whom?”, 2011. Oil, acrylic, watercolour, oil bar and marble dust on canvas, 78” x 78”

 

 

A Crow

Atul Dodiya, “A Crow”, 2011. Oil, acrylic, watercolour, oil bar and marble dust on canvas, 54” x 78”