Anindita Dutta (India)

Hourglass /2014/installation,earth pigment on wood/243.8cm×670.5cm

Appreciation: Time and space are mysteries of the universe that people have been unrelentingly explored. Time has no absolute definition. A saying about time variables in ancient Indian mythology “A day in the celestial is one year in the terrestrial” finds its counterpart in a Chinese legend “A thousand years have gone as fast as a fillip is done.”(A thousand years slipped by as a woodcutter watched two celestial beings playing chess.) It can be compared to the Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Hourglass used to measure time in the West was introduced to India during the Mughal Dynasty. The installation Hourglass made of earth pigment on wood by an Indian artist Anindita Dutta is a symbolic timepiece in abstract shape. When seen from above, it resembles the Chinese bronze wine vessel “Gu”. The artist has used a large amount of wet clay instead of sandy soil in her sculpture and performance. The character of wet clay allows her to express her emotions in all of their subtle nuances. Traversing the exhibition hall the sculpture is like a tunnel that connects the memory of thepast and the dream of the future.

Anindita Dutta was born in Dhanbad in 1973. She graduated from the University of Iowa,USA. She is a freelance artist now. Her works can be seen at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology, China. She has participated in the Dhaka Art Summit 2014, the Queens International Biennial, Queens Museum, Queens, New York, 2006 and many exhibitions all over the world.