Casting glances, throwing shade is a textile-based work by Indo-Caribbean artist Suchitra Mattai. It is weaved together from found, vintage saris, strips of magnetic, plastic film from the inside of a Bollywood cassette tape, broken glass salvage from a shattered window from the artist’s studio in Denver, and a found bust resting on a vintage shelf.

Like all of Mattai’s work, this piece tells visual stories that touch on her family lineage. The saris relate to post-colonial concerns surrounding gender, labor, and family; the cassette tape is literally embedded with a fictional narrative connected to Mattai’s heritage; the method of construction is suggestive of domestic labor which she learned from her grandmother, such as sewing, embroidery and crocheting; while the broken glass, found sculpture and vintage shelf connect the work to the personal daily experiences of the artist in the here and now. Materially and figuratively, the work addresses such topics as the legacy of colonialism, and relationships between culture and gender roles.

Mattai frequently uses materials in her works that have their own embedded meanings. This creates a call and response between the materials, the topics addressed in the work, and processes involved in the work’s creation.
 
“I say I’m a storyteller,” says Mattai, “but the story does not only come from history. When you’re thinking about what constitutes memory, it’s part truth and it’s part myth. These sari pieces become a way of connecting women of the South Asian diaspora over time, because they’re of different vintages. Being part of a diaspora community, you want to connect back to this past you no longer occupy, or have tangible evidence of.”