Daughters of India, Art & Identity
Fowler Museum at UCLAMarch 29, 2009 to September 13, 2009
One in every six women in the world lives in India. Yet, most people outside India know little about South Asian women, who often receive confusing and inaccurate press. Now, through DAUGHTERS OF INDIA, critically acclaimed author-photographer Stephen Huyler trains his eye on the women of India and sheds light on this often misunderstood population.
Through engaging storytelling and 250 illuminating photographs, Huyler profiles twenty women from diverse communities - from the rice paddies of southern India to the tea plantations of the Himalayas, from the dry western deserts to the verdant east coast and from tiny villages to enormous cities. They represent everywoman: the traditional and the contemporary, the repressed and the highly innovative, the outcast and the entrepreneur, and from Hindu to Christian to Muslim. These stories, told in the women's own words, express the innate strength they demonstrate in their battles against adversity.
These women are connected by a single thread: creative expression. Some view themselves as artists while others would be surprised to be identified in this manner, but each woman creatively embellishes her daily or seasonal life. In profiling these remarkable women, author Stephen Huyler expresses many aspects of Indian womanhood: preparation for marriage and leaving the home; the influence of contemporary values; the stigma of unbending customs; the courage to break centuries of tradition; the challenge of entering the marketplace; the removing of veils; and more recently, competition with males in a modern world. Each chapter is evocatively illustrated with photographs of community, environment and art, intimately portraying the lives, activities and rituals of Indian women.
DAUGHTERS OF INDIA is about change in the face of almost impossible odds, personal initiative that carves out a new identity, and implacable insistence on the recognition of human rights - providing a beautifully illustrated and stirring tribute to the women of the Indian subcontinent.