Anindita Dutta: The Shadows of Duality

Installation view: Anindita Dutta, The Shadows of Duality, at The Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Foundation Gallery, NYC. 

By ROBERT CURCIO January 1st, 2025

 The dualities are vividly on display – corporeal and banal objects, intimate rites and cultural artifacts, pain and bliss, manufactured and natural, contained and inside out, oppression and resilience, to name only a few in Anindita Dutta’s solo exhibition, The Shadows of Duality. 

Abhay (Fearless), 2024; used boots, belts, leather jackets, and gold frame; 100" x 30" x 38"; image courtesy of the artist and The Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Foundation Gallery. 

 Dutta’s older works were in clay, installation, and performance; these new works from the past couple of years are assemblages of discarded and repurposed horns, carpets, animal hides, leather coats, furs, purses, shoes, belts, artificial flowers, and more. The nearly two dozen works are mostly all wall works; out of these, two are on pedestals, and one remarkable free-standing work, Abhay (Fearless), 2024.  This modern-day Venus de Milo calmly dominates the scene, but not the exhibition. At 7 feet tall with her torso covered in stitched animal hides, woman’s worn shoes with their soles cut off and turned inside-out that are strapped around her waist, her long legs in a tight-fitting sheath, and a large bowl-shaped headdress(crown) of leather belts with a single large and long horn piercing the sky. And of course, no arms. No longer a cool white marble sculpture of a modest beauty, she is resplendent in her warm, worn leather-brown tones as she strikes a pose and looks you in the eyes.

Velconic Bed Flowers, 2025; used boots, animal horns, dyed carpet, and artificial flowers; 64" x 41" x 14"; image courtesy the artist and The Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Foundation Gallery.

Hanging on the wall near Abhay is Velconic Bed Flowers, 2023.  This wall assemblage of recycled women’s boots, animal horns, dyed carpet, and artificial flowers is overflowing with duality. It appears simple enough in its materials; however, Dutta refurbished the frayed carpet as the work’s canvas, being ruptured by a large collection of black boots, again heels removed, but this time replaced by very long horns acting as stiletto heels. The collection of black boots is framed on two sides by beautiful, but fake, cloth flowers in various shades of red with a touch of purple and a hint of white. The homey/domestic vibe of the carpet and flowers is inviting, while the vibe of the heeled boots is a mix of foreboding and sensuality.

Sex, Sexuality and Society - BOTSWANA, 2023; used shoes, animal horns, and hide; 91" x 81" x 13”; image courtesy of the artist and The Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Foundation Gallery. 

 As the elevator slowly opens onto the gallery, the visitor stands face-to-face with Botswana, from the 2023 series Sex, Sexuality, and Society. An imposing and ominous wall assemblage, Botswana’s black animal hide is attached to the wall at the top and left hanging and again covered with cast-off stiletto-horned heeled women’s boots. The entire work is a shimmering shadow in matte black with only a dash of white or a sliver of light on the shiny horns.  Another work from this series, Eswatini, 2023, is an intimate work that has a stunning burst of fuchsia across it with a central row of plush slippers stuffed with horns protruding, which, instead of being threatening, the horns gently curve sideways or downward. The row of slippers and horns is nestled in playful fur and more fuzzy slippers, all of this in fuchsia. Botswana seems like an unsettling trophy case on prominent display, that is nearly overbearing in its heaviness.  In contrast, Eswatini conveys an odd, but revealing tenderness that exudes an alluring sexuality, tempting all, just like a flower.

Sex, Sexuality, and Society – ESWATINI, 2023; hand dyed animal skin and used shoes; 39" x 47" x 13”; image courtesy of the artist and The Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Foundation Gallery. 

 Dutta’s assemblages shed new light on an old discussion, the duality of life itself. By a process of revived materials and altered histories intuitively woven together, Dutta provides a new conversation that, while open-ended, is definitely well worth the time to have. 

The exhibittion was at The Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Foundation Gallery, NYC, October 15 – December 19, 2025