Creativity of Indian women showcased at Fowler

With its overwhelming popularity and the afterglow of victory since winning the Academy Award for Best Picture, “Slumdog Millionaire” has brought the world of India into the American consciousness.

Now students can learn more about Indian culture as UCLA’s Fowler Museum hosts “Daughters of India,” an exhibition about Indian woman who express themselves through art.

The exhibition is a product of photographer and cultural anthropologist Stephen P. Huyler’s published book, “Daughters of India: Art and Identity.” Much of Huyler’s published work has been centered on his experience in traveling across India and the people he encountered.

“I spent 37 years in India, and I was mentored always by the women there,” Huyler said. “The book was a product of that (experience). My work is documenting people in their art.”

Huyler’s photographs aim to battle misconceptions about Indian women, such as ideas of women being “oppressed as chattel,” according to the exhibit’s press release.

“Daughters of India” includes a series of portraits and photographs of Indian women from different social and economic backgrounds who overcome obstacles in their lives and rise to meet the challenges they face head-on using their creativity.

Roy Hamilton, the curator for the Asian and Pacific Collections at the Fowler Museum, has worked with Huyler in the past. When Huyler’s book was published last fall, Hamilton asked Huyler to develop his book into an exhibition.

“Stephen Huyler spent a lifetime traveling and photographing in India and is very aware that many people in America have no idea about India,” Hamilton said. “(The exhibit) is showing the challenges and strengths of Indian women and their daily lives.”

Huyler interviewed hundreds of women and later selected those whom he thought best represented a spectrum of roles.

“(These women) face challenges such as discrimination and poverty,” Hamilton said. “(Despite this, they) use their creativity to overcome their obstacles. There are even some women from privileged backgrounds who use their positions and talents often.”

Huyler’s book consists of profiles on 20 different women, and six of these were chosen to be displayed in the exhibition. The profiles display the wide range of women who express themselves through their own art, ranging from paintings, sculptures, embroidery and other decorative art such as kolam, a rice flower drawing drawn in front of their home.

The exhibit will also include an introductory section which will show a number of situations women in India face as well as other detailed portraits and daily scenes of their lives. Examples of Huyler’s photographs include a portrait in which women are performing a harvest dance. Some portraits depict groups of women interacting with their families and taking care of household duties, while others show the ways women balance tradition and modern fashions.

“What I’m trying to do is to challenge people’s preconceptions of women in India,” Huyler said. “I want people to see into the lives of the women chosen and for them to re-evaluate their conceptions.”

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