Rekha Rodwittiya’s art is personal, political, arresting
Rekha Rodwittiya engages with art at an aesthetic and intellectual level simultaneously, writes Kishore Singh
Jehangir Nicholson was the kind of collector one meets not very often — more’s the pity — for he began his journey not so much rationally as passionately. He collected well, if not always wisely, putting his money on stalwarts but also trusting his instinct on yet untested talents. One such acquisition is now on view at the eponymously named Jehangir Nicholson Gallery at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) and has been garnering a lot of curiosity since it opened last month.
In 1995, the United Nations had invited Rek ha Rod wit ti ya to create an installation at its office in Geneva. The occasion was the celebration of the agency’ s 50 th year, and Rod wit ti ya’ sS on gs from the blood of the weary covered the interior sofa wooden port a cabin. Its women-centric theme of shared histories and experiences was nurturing and em pathetic at one level, but also will fully disturbing at another. A sense of betrayal and defilement formed a necessary part of that dissertation, even though it is not immediately evident to the unwary visitor.
Today, thatroomhasbeen re assembled for the first time since its acquisition by Nicholson. The saturated colours lu ll the visitor with it simmers ive floor-to-ceiling art. At firstglance, thereissomething appealing about what appear to be the accoutrement sofa woman’ s world with it spots and pans, its cup sand kettles, the chores undertaken a midst the chao sofa household with it stiff in sand clocks. Yet, there is something unsettling about these everyday acts of domesticity. Why are there multiple eyes on the woman’ s dress—are they gazing at the woman, or watching out for her? What is the womansewing— adress, orrepairingthe damagedonetoit? Thescissors, thesickle, the knives—are they instruments of punishment, or of resistance? The cart on with its cuckoo clock andfurniture, itsladders— surelythatisa woman rendered as mere possession, achattel?
Rod wit ti ya is the art fraternity’ s out li er insider, warm to a fault but surgical ly incisive to a degree, a mood change ling whose chimeric practice comes from a deeply felt space for which she is both admired and critic is ed. Hersisa processofengagingwithartatalevel simultaneouslyaestheticandintellectual, somethingthatreflectsherpositionasbotha participantandanobserver. Herinstinct, bothas apersonandasanartist, isfeminist; shebelieves thatartthatdoesnottakeaposition hasnorelevance.
Rodw it ti ya’ s work is not strictly auto biographical, though she does bring to it elements of herself as a woman, and as someone who listens to other women’ s whispers, reads the news and is aware of the world. Away from the claustrophobia that Songs from the blood of the weary induces ,12 works from the same period on loan fro mS a ks hi Gallery carry a sense of the artist’ s birthing process. The woman is the central character in these paintings, butsheis also peripheral, for without the raindrops and palm prints, the incidentals of threads pool sand umbrellas, thelockandkey, thefigurewould count for less. When she places her hands under her dress over her genitals, one can’ t help but feel that it isles san act of masturbatory defiance as it is of feminine defence. Thepaintings, though, aremore overt political than the installation.
Rod wit ti ya has been a door keeper for concerns such as these, keeping a censorious vi gil over unravel ling social events .“Issues related to gender politics have been the corner stones to my articulation asa painter all these many years. My work bears the insistence to discourse about the territories of violence that snatch away in no cencewil fully and where within this the spirit of the woman stands tall—in endurance and insightful awareness—to overcome ,” she says in acknowledge men to ft he exhibition’ s bearing .“Today, almost 20 years and more since these works have been painted, we face the shameful truth that India continues to allow a child like As if a to remain unprotected from the criminalities of power—where the lives of women or female children are still considered dispensable. For me this exhibition has come at a time( unknowingly) to act as a reminder to us of where our alertness needs to be, and how important it is to con front issues of equal rights andfemaleliberty.”
At theJe hang ir Nicholson Art Foundation, which was setup by the executors of Nicholson’ s will, and which has entered into a 15- year collaboration with CS M VS to house the permanent collection as well as cu rate rotating shows from it, the Rod wit ti ya outing isa case in point of the collector’ s vision. The exhibition may celebrate an incandescent point in Rod wit ti ya’ s journey, but it is the central premise of its subject that makes its reprisal relevant.
Rodwittiya’s work is not strictly autobiographical, though she brings to it elements of herself as a woman, and as one who listens to other women
The exhibition will beo nat theJe hang ir Nicholson Gallery in Mumbai’ sC SM VS till July 31
( From top left) Rodwittiya at the Jehangir Nicholson Gallery in Mumbai’s CSMVS; the woman is the central character in her paintings, but she is also peripheral