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courtesy of artist and Kavi Gupta gallery
![Suchitra Mattai, her shadow held the weight of 10,000 years, 2023](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_1600,h_1600,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/artlogicstorage/kavigupta/images/view/d7d9585f0600493b85a076bbd4c42fa2j/kaviguptagallery-suchitra-mattai-her-shadow-held-the-weight-of-10-000-years-2023.jpg)
Suchitra Mattai Guyana, b. 1973
her shadow held the weight of 10,000 years, 2023
Gouache, embroidery floss, and vintage advertisement page from India on paper
16 x 12 in
40.6 x 30.5 cm
40.6 x 30.5 cm
8795
This work by Suchitra Mattai mobilizes a vintage advertisement from India as a support for the composition. The shadow is key for Mattai—a metaphor for all that is concealed: history,...
This work by Suchitra Mattai mobilizes a vintage advertisement from India as a support for the composition. The shadow is key for Mattai—a metaphor for all that is concealed: history, context, illness, etc. The painted pattern is based on elements within various Indian textiles, and on patterns Mattai found in The Grammar of Ornament, a colonial era design book that liberally takes credit for visual languages invented by colonized cultures. In the past, Mattai has used embroidery floss as a means for suggesting a gate, or a prison. “In this image I wanted those bars to be open and for the heroine to see an escape route out,” says Mattai. This piece belongs to a series Mattai debuted in 2023, memorializing super heroines as embodiments of feminine empowerment. A lot of these works celebrate the power of women, while simultaneously reimagining colonial narratives. “These elements are tied together, so I find it hard to extricate them,” says Mattai. “The wonder of art is that it doesn’t have to be one element. Stories are complex. I want to portray that in the works.”