Set against the backdrop of the New York City skyline, a collection of vibrant artworks by internationally acclaimed Suchitra Mattai is spread throughout the Socrates Sculpture Park. The exhibition titled “We Are Nomads, We Are Dreamers” turns the park into a space for contemplation and an exploration of identity, diaspora, and the reclamation of history. Mattai’s work continues to challenge and redefine the boundaries of art, culture, and memory.
The installation features six ‘pods’ draped in vibrantly colored saris, meticulously hand-woven together. Titled “Becoming”, These monumental forms transcend static existence, subtly evolving and adapting within their waterfront ecosystem. Here, new living beings and elements like sun, rain, and wind interact with the textiles, enriching the pre-existing lives embedded in the saris, which carry the memories of the women who wore them. These artifacts from the future serve as an ever-evolving testament to the human experience of migration and adaptation—a monument to the journey of becoming.
Mattai’s work and practice are deeply inspired and rooted in her experiences as a child of Indian parents who emigrated from Guyana. The exhibition’s title reflects upon transatlantic migration experiences, including Mattai’s ancestors who traveled from India to British Guiana (now Guyana) as indentured laborers in the early twentieth century, as well as the artist’s own personal migrations.
The artist’s process involves transforming materials and narratives. Vintage saris, needlepoints, and paintings are reimagined with added layers of beading and embroidery to create complexity and depth. These craft-based practices, typically associated with the domestic sphere, are elevated in Mattai’s work, blurring the distinctions between high and low art. The transformation of these materials symbolizes the reclamation and reinterpretation of history, where women’s labor is not only acknowledged but also celebrated.
“Suchitra Mattai’s work embodies the spirit of experimentation, innovation, and exploration that defines our park,” said Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas, visionary curator at Socrates Sculpture Park. “I’m excited to welcome Suchitra’s thrilling vision to Socrates this summer, where it will hopefully serve as a metaphorical bridge connecting the East River to the diverse diasporic communities of Astoria, offering them a space for creative refuge and respite along the water’s edge.”
Nearby, a series of seven hanging sculptures adorn the grove of trees. The title, Phala, alludes to various notions of fruit, including femininity and fertility, while also drawing from the Sanskrit term that signifies the “fruit of one’s actions” in Hinduism and Buddhism. Mattai poignantly reflects, “Imagine celebrating the fruit of thousands of years’ worth of women’s domestic labor.”
Additionally, at the south entrance of the Park, the Broadway Billboard features a thirty-foot collage by Mattai, depicting young girls playfully dancing hand in hand—a celebration of innocence and new futures. Titles “Pocket Full of Posies”, this work is part of an ongoing collage series utilizing pages from Owen Jones’s 1856 book, Grammar of Ornament, widely critiqued for its Eurocentric perspective that marginalizes non-Western decorative traditions and simplifies cultural complexities. By reappropriating and remixing patterns from Jones’s “Indian No. 2” into the composition and narrative, Mattai dismantles stereotypes and empowers her female subjects with agency. The adorned gold trees symbolize the tree of life, a motif frequently employed by the artist as she reflects on the enduring bonds spanning generations of South Asian women.
