“[A] dazzlingly prismatic, instructive, and affecting book. ... Huyler’s sensitive portraits provide evocative testimony to the persistence of creativity in even the starkest circumstances, and the transformative powers of art.” -- Booklist

Although one in every six women in the world lives in India, most of the western world knows little about them. Stephen Huyler has listened with great compassion to the voices of Indian women for over three decades. In this lecture he will present individual profiles and place them in the context of broader Indian textile arts and the development of women’s creativity as a part of their own personal empowerment.

These women are connected by a single thread: creative expression. Some view themselves as artists while others would be surprised to be identified in this manner, but each woman creatively embellishes her daily or seasonal life. Huyler seeks to dispel common western myths about Indian women and to reveal their incredible strength and determination to improve their lives and those of their children.

STEPHEN HUYLER

Stephen Huyler has been traveling in India since 1971, recording the common pulse of the peoples of South Asia and conveying his discoveries through books, exhibitions, and lectures. His work gives intimate insights into cultures that received little or no public exposure before his pioneering research.

Following two decades focused upon the documentation of folk arts and crafts, Huyler’s recent projects have examined the daily devotional practices of Hinduism. His extensive photographic archives contain one of the largest private visual surveys of India in existence. Stephen Huyler joins us from Maine, USA.

A site featuring excerpts and reviews of the book may be found at www.daughtersofindia.com. Author information is available at www.stephenhuyler.com.


Bibliography

Daughters of India:
Art and Identity

Gifts of Earth:
Terracottas & Clay Sculptures
of India

Meeting God:
Elements of Hindu Devotion

Mud, Mirror and Thread:
Folk Traditions of
Rural India

Painted Prayers:
Women’s Art in
Village India

Village India