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A loving but critical focus on IndiaAnnu Palakunnathu Matthew discovered she was an artist while at Women's Christian College in Madras, India, majoring in mathematics. She took an optional course in photography. It was love at first click. The class had one instructor, 20 students, one camera, and two rolls of film. "We were given three frames each," recalled Matthew, an assistant professor of art at the University of Rhode Island. "So we had to think very carefully about what we wanted to shoot and how to capture that slice of reality onto one frame of film." Born in England and raised in India, Matthew's varied background shapes her life and art. Matthew uses the medium of photography to focus on India, her cultural homeland, in two very distinct ways -- with loving nostalgia and criticism. Her work was recently on exhibit at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, Mass. "When I visit India, the minute I step off the plane, I recognize the smells, the sounds, the gestures of being home. I try to capture that in my black and white work," she said. Matthew uses her colorful, digital poster work as a social commentary, criticizing India's attitudes toward women. Her latest digital portfolio, Bollywood Satirized, takes jabs at traditional gender roles, behavior, and societal expectations as Matthew experienced them growing up in India. The jabs, however, are delivered with a velvet glove. Bollywood is India's equivalent to Hollywood. To create Bollywood Satirized, Matthew scanned stereotypical Indian movie posters onto a computer, and manipulated the images to create 48- by 72-inch parodies on such customs as arranged marriages and dowries. Matthew recently received the Aaron Siskind Photography Fellowship from the Rhode Island State Council of the Arts, a photography fellowship from the Houston Center for Photography, and is currently an artist in residence at the Woodstock Center for Photography, Woodstock, N.Y. Her work has also been exhibited at the Houston Center for Photography, Texas and Sepia International, New York City, among others and has been published in Exposure, LensWork, Nueva Luz, Photo Metro and The Photo Review. Matthew came to URI three years ago. "Teaching is a wonderful opportunity to be a mentor," said the artist whose husband, David H. Wells is also a photographer. "I have had some great students. It's exciting to see their talent uncovered and developed." By Jan Wenzel |
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