Suchitra Mattai: with abundance we meet

with abundance we meet is an installation made of ‘fruit’ (phala in Hindi) sculptures by the artist Suchitra Mattai that are ripe with possibilities, conjuring wombs and fertility spirits. The phala are made with braided and woven vintage saris and are a nod to the artist’s South Asian ancestry and will hang in the museum’s rotunda. These ‘migrant bodies’ seems to simultaneously rise and fall, emerge and disappear. The saris are from all over the world, from India, the Caribbean (Guyana, specifically), and the United States, and are sometimes gifted to the artist by friends and family. When braided and woven in this scale, the sculptures become monuments to women. They also allude to domestic labor as they are made of ‘everyday’ saris (not the ‘fancy’ ones worn for ritual celebrations and other formal occasions). The work honors craft-based processes historically associated with women and the domestic, such as early American braided rug-making. With every strip of fabric, the artist connects women of the South Asian diaspora and beyond.

Additional generous support provided by Melyne and Jim Strickland, the Indian Community Fund for Greater Memphis, Molly and Jason Wexler, Pooja and Kush Shah, and Drs. Swati and Saurin Chokshi.

All exhibitions at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art are underwritten by the MBMA Exhibition Fund.

Major annual support is provided by Kay Clark and Maggie and Milton Lovell, with generous annual funding from Anonymous, Gloria and Kenneth Boyland, Holly and Paul T. Combs, Deborah and Bob Craddock, Eleanor and William Halliday, Debi and Galen Havner, Sally Hergenrader, James R. Humphreys, Jay and Kristen Keegan, the Doris S. and Hubert Kiersky Charitable Remainder Trust, Carl and Valerie Person, and Bill Townsend.