Exhibition: Shadow Speak

Biraaj Dodiya and Heidi Lau Shadow Speak March 11 - April 15 2023

A vertical sculpture leaning on a wall in the shape of cross leaning against a gallery wall.

Bureau is pleased to present Shadow Speak, a two-person show featuring Biraaj Dodiya and Heidi Lau. Mumbai-based Dodiya presents a suite of large paintings alongside several assemblages of painted wood and small canvases. Lau, a Macau-native based in New York, presents a group of ceramic works, featuring her recent experiments with cast glass in addition to several vessels, free-standing objects and wall reliefs. This is the first time either artist has shown at Bureau and their first time showing together.  Lau’s works engender a speculative space of imagination that takes inspiration from Shanhaijing (The Classic of Mountains and Seas), an ancient Taoist text of mythical geography, ecology and cosmology. This originary text offers Lau a conceptual framework to employ a non-hierarchical, non-linear paradigm from an ancient mythological model. Within Lau’s compositions, these allegories take shape in the mutable nature of clay, crystalized in glaze and oxides. Undulating  landscapes evolve and erode revealing personifications that permeate a natural environment. Hands emerge among winds and waves; black pearls bloom out of networks of round, burrow-like cavities. Two tall stacks of wall-mounted reliefs conjure columns; their opposing poles of darkness and light take root and reach towards the sky. Through Lau’s sculpting and manipulation, she pushes her material to the brink of its physical limit; like a willow tree’s branch bent by water-soaked leaves – about to succumb, yet holding form and potential. Dodiya’s compositions capture and envelope the viewer's body within painted psychological landscapes. Between sculpture and painting, her totem-assemblages disrupt the authority of the two-dimensional picture plane where faceted surfaces generate new landscapes from fractured and adjoining topographies. Dodiya’s works bear traces of their making and unmaking; layers of earthy pigment accumulate and erode as the act of painting gives way to burial and excavation. The large compositions shift from a distanced perspective to an encompassing geological scale, where vibrations of tectonic movement seem to resonate and engulf; the feeling of earth and form emerge slowly, the way water carves rock. These works might present an answer to the question, what is landscape without light? For Dodiya the works embody the violence of time, suggesting “there is no landscape without ruin, there is no body without failure.” Biraaj Dodiya (b. 1993, Mumbai, India) lives and works in Mumbai. She received a BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2015, and an MFA from New York University, New York in 2018. Recent solo exhibitions include Every Bone a Song, Experimenter - Colaba, Mumbai, 2022; Stone is a Forehead, Experimenter, Kolkata, 2020; Burn your finger, And kiss it yourself, 80WSE, New York, 2017. Recent group exhibitions include Do You Know How To Start A Fire?, Experimenter, Bikaner House, New Delhi, 2021; The Profound Object, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2021; (ME)(MORY), Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2021. Dodiya was awarded a residency and fellowship at Civitella Ranieri, Italy, in 2022.

Heidi Lau (b. 1987, Macau, China) lives and works in New York. She received a BS from New York University in 2008. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include Gardens as Cosmic Terrains, Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, 2022; Empire Recast, Grand Lisboa Palace, Macau, China, 2021; Spirit Vessels, Matthew Brown, Los Angeles, 2020; Blood Echoes, AALA Gallery, Los Angeles, 2019. Lau presented Apparition for the Macau-China Collateral Exhibition at the 58th Venice Biennale, 2019. Lau has received numerous fellowships including, NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, Emerging Artist Fellowship at Socrates Sculpture Park, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Process Space, the Martin Wong Foundation Scholarship, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant.

Two vertical sculptures and paintings rendered in a dark palette leaning against gallery walls. In the distance a group of ceramics are placed on top of white pedestal.
A vertical painting and sculpture in the shape of a cross leaning against a gallery wall.

Biraaj Dodiya, Folded Territory, 2023, Oil paint on wood, galvanized steel and linen, 84 × 28 ½ × 7 ½ in. (213.36 × 72.39 × 19.05 cm)

A vertical painting and sculpture in the shape of a cross leaning against a gallery wall.
A vertical sculpture and painting rendered in a dark black and green palette installed against a brick gallery wall.

Biraaj Dodiya, Suddenly, a Tree, 2023, Oil paint on wood and linen, 84 × 22 × 3 in. (213.36 × 55.88 × 7.62 cm)

A vertical sculpture and painting rendered in a dark black and green palette installed against a brick gallery wall.
A large gestural, abstract painting installed next to a vertical leaning painting and sculpture rendered in earthly hues.
A large, gestural abstract painting rendered a range of muted earth tones installed on a gallery wall.

Biraaj Dodiya, Split Caves, 2023, Oil on linen, 78 × 60 in. (198.12 × 152.40 cm)

A vertical painting and sculpture resembling a cross installed against a gallery wall.

Biraaj Dodiya, Marrow's End, 2023, Oil paint on wood and linen, 85 × 31 ½ × 7 in. (215.90 × 80.01 × 17.78 cm)

A vertical painting and sculpture resembling a cross installed against a gallery wall.
A group of abstract ceramic sculptures installed on the floor and walls of a large gallery.
A tower of abstract ceramic sculptures installed in the shape of an expanding column.

Heidi Lau, From the Heart of the Mountain Anchored the Path of Unknowing, 2023, Glazed ceramic, 91 × 19 ½ × 6 in. (231.14 × 49.53 × 15.24 cm)

A tower of abstract ceramic sculptures installed in the shape of an expanding column.
A tower of abstract ceramic sculptures installed in the shape of an expanding column.
A tower of abstract ceramic sculptures installed in the shape of an expanding column.
A freestanding, abstract ceramic sculpture resembling a figure merging from a landscape.

Heidi Lau, Landscapes (In Exaltation), 2023, Glazed ceramic, 42 × 27 × 16 in. (106.68 × 68.58 × 40.64 cm)

A freestanding, abstract ceramic sculpture resembling a figure merging from a landscape.
A freestanding, abstract ceramic sculpture resembling a landscape populated by different human and animal  forms.

Heidi Lau, Ancestors, 2023, Glazed ceramic and cast glass, 14 ½ × 23 × 16 in. (36.83 × 58.42 × 40.64 cm)

A freestanding, abstract ceramic sculpture resembling a landscape populated by different human and animal  forms.
Heidi Lau, Shadow of the Nine-Headed Beast, 2023, Glazed ceramic, 12 ½ × 11 ½ × 4 in. (31.75 × 29.21 × 10.16 cm)

Heidi Lau, Shadow of the Nine-Headed Beast, 2023, Glazed ceramic, 12 ½ × 11 ½ × 4 in. (31.75 × 29.21 × 10.16 cm)

A wall mounted abstract ceramic sculpture resembling a landscape populated by different human and animal forms.
Two large abstract paintings installed in a gallery with a vertical leaning painting and sculpture in the center. Each are rendered in muted palette of browns and greens, predominantly.
A large, gestural abstract painting rendered a range of muted earth tones installed on a gallery wall.

Biraaj Dodiya, Convoy, 2023, Oil on linen, 78 × 60 in. (198.12 × 152.40 cm)

A vertical, abstract painting and sculpture leaning against a gallery wall.

Biraaj Dodiya, Map Trace, 2023, Oil paint on wood, galvanized steel and linen, 84 × 24 × 7 in. (213.36 × 60.96 × 17.78 cm)

A vertical, abstract painting and sculpture leaning against a gallery wall.
A large, gestural abstract painting rendered a range of muted earth tones installed on a gallery wall.

Biraaj Dodiya, Freighted Pause, 2023, Oil on linen, 78 × 60 in. (198.12 × 152.40 cm)

A group of abstract ceramic sculptures installed on the floor and walls of a large gallery.
A wall mounted abstract ceramic sculpture resembling a landscape populated by different human and animal forms.

Heidi Lau, The Mountains Are My Dialect, 2023, Glazed ceramic and cast glass, 20 ½ × 15 × 6 ½ in. (52.07 × 38.10 × 16.51 cm)

A wall mounted abstract ceramic sculpture resembling a landscape populated by different human and animal forms.
A tower of abstract ceramic sculptures installed in the shape of an expanding column.

Heidi Lau, Withering Tree Full of Jades and Moons, Reaching for Rain, 2023, Glazed ceramic 90 × 19 × 7 ½ in. (228.60 × 48.26 × 19.05 cm)

A tower of abstract ceramic sculptures installed in the shape of an expanding column.
A tower of abstract ceramic sculptures installed in the shape of an expanding column.
A tower of abstract ceramic sculptures installed in the shape of an expanding column.
A freestanding, abstract ceramic sculpture resembling a figure merging from a landscape.

Heidi Lau, Landscapes (At Fall), 2023, Glazed ceramic, 42 × 27 × 16 in. (106.68 × 68.58 × 40.64 cm)

A freestanding, abstract ceramic sculpture resembling a figure merging from a landscape.
A group of abstract ceramic sculptures installed on the floor and walls of a large gallery.
A group of abstract ceramic sculptures installed on a pedestal against a brick wall.
A small abstract ceramic sculpture resembling a hand emerging from another form.

Heidi Lau, Symbiosis, 2023, Glazed ceramic and cast glass, 4 ½ × 6 ½ × 3 ½ in. (11.43 × 16.51 × 8.89 cm)

A small abstract ceramic sculpture resembling a hand emerging from another form.
A small abstract glass sculpture resembling a pink shell.

Heidi Lau, Rose Shell, 2023, Cast glass, 8 ½ × 6 ½ × 4 in. (21.59 × 16.51 × 10.16 cm)

A small abstract glass sculpture resembling a pink shell.
A small ceramic sculpture resembling an abstract human hold a cast of green glass in the shape of a flame.

Heidi Lau, Birth, 2023, Glazed ceramic and cast glass, 5 ½ × 7 × 5 in. (13.97 × 17.78 × 12.70 cm)

A small ceramic sculpture resembling an abstract human hold a cast of green glass in the shape of a flame.
An abstract ceramic sculpture resembling a vessel installed in front of a brick wall.

Heidi Lau, Breathe in the Morning, Listen at Night (Vessel), 2023, Glazed ceramic, 25 × 15 ½ × 15 ½ in. (63.50 × 39.37 × 39.37 cm)

An abstract ceramic sculpture resembling a vessel installed in front of a brick wall.
An abstract ceramic and glass sculpture resembling a landscape with cavities and holes.

Heidi Lau, Dew Drops on Crescent Cave, 2023, Glazed ceramic and cast glass, 10 × 17 ½ × 11 in. (25.40 × 44.45 × 27.94 cm)

Installation shot

Photography by Dario Lasagni.