Earth, sea and soul is part of Suchitra Mattai's ongoing series of sari tapestries. Expressive of Mattai's own multi-layered identity, they are made from a mixture of everyday found materials such as feather boas, fabric, beads, and rope, and legacy materials such as ghungroo bells, prayer Dupattas, and her mother’s vintage saris, which possess embedded cultural and familial meanings. Though they are fundamentally abstract, Mattai mobilizes the materials and methods involved in these works to address such topics as the legacy of colonialism, and contemporary issues surrounding gender, labor, and family.

"This work is part of a series of vintage sari tapestries which connect diasporic communities of South Asians across the globe, giving voice to generations of women while also probing questions of the history of migration and displacement resulting from European colonization," says Mattai. "The saris in a way unite women of the diaspora over topography and through time. When one leaves one’s homeland, there is often a desire to cherish and nurture memories of home and too long for a familiar community. This work allows me to weave a story of my present and past as a way of documenting an untold history."