Shulamit (Shula) Reinharz is the Jacob Potofsky Professor of Sociology at Brandeis University.Director of the Brandeis University Women’s Studies Program during the decade of the 90’s, she founded the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute in 1997.

In 2001 Shula left the Women’s Studies Program to launch the Women’s Studies Research Center in a 10,000 square foot facility on campus that she designed and for which she raised all of the funds.Born in Amsterdam, the child of Holocaust survivors, Shula grew up in the United States and has also lived in Israel.  She received her B.A. from Barnard College and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Brandeis University.

Shula is the author and editor of many books. Shula is the mother of two daughters, Yali and Naomi, and is married to Jehuda Reinharz, President of Brandeis University.

She spoke to Lokvani about the upcoming event at Brandeis University titled 'Tiger by the Tail! Women Artists of India Transforming Culture' an exhibit that runs from October till December .

What was the idea behind this event?
I am the director of the Women's Studies Research Center (WSRC) at Brandeis University, where approximately 80 scholars do research. One of the scholars has been studying women and religion in India (Elinor Gadon), and she suggested we do a show of contemporary Indian women artists. We have a curator at the WSRC, Wendy Tarlow Kaplan, who herself had been to India several time to examine the art. And the two of them knew a leading Indian curator and critic, Roobina Karode, who has collaborated with them in mounting the exhibit

Which myths/beliefs in women's lives does the exhibition hopes to discuss or portray?
 There are 17 artists and 32 works of art in this show, including sculpture, painting, video and installation. Although each work of art addresses a different topic, there are numerous themes which groups of artists address. These deal with transforming myths; subverting icons; performing the body; memory, loss, trauma, and the location of violence; issues of identity; empowerment and healing.

Navjot Altaf deals with women controlling their own fate in her sculpture, and in her video she deals with the loss she feels upon becoming a widow, particularly the loss of her husband's touch. In our catalogue, Navjot wrote, "My work...questions various frameworks of social injustice and violence...in the intimate, often hidden private lives of women. My sculptures...address the burning questions of the inequalities that exist in society, especially as concerns the female of the species. Kanchan Chander's sculptures deals with men's violence toward women.

 Sheba Chhachhi deals with paradoxes of menstruation from three perspectives: One scripture where it is polluting; A second drawing on the agricultural of eastern India where it is celebrated and third; modern medicine where it is understood as a females biological process.Some of the artists deal with the primacy of the male child and the worthlessness of the girlchild in preserving the family lineage. One deals with child marriage, other deals with sati, another with superstitions, another with dowry deaths, another with religious women. As you can see, there is an enormous range of themes. 

Are the works far from the traditional representation of India's women, religion and culture?
All of these artists are feminists, which mean that they challenge society to rethink its ideas about women. But many draw on Indian cultural symbols. Arpana Caur mentions being inspired by the bold colors of Pahari miniaturists and Chola Bronzes in her comments in our catalogue. In the catalogue , Anju Dodiya wrote that she tries to "shake off male-female traditional roles" - her paintings do so by using scissors and images of the harem. Anita Dube has images of ceramic eyes that are bought as vote offerings near temples, but she glued them to hands and then photographed the hands. She defines her work as a critique of power.

Perhaps the most interesting Artist in terms of using traditional representations of Indian women in new ways is Nalini Malani, who created a vidoe she calls Unity in Diversity that reworks the well known late 19^th century painting Galaxy of Musicians (1893) by Raja Ravi Varma. As the ground for her commentary on the atrocities of the Gujarat genocide of 2002, Malani has been honored recently with the largest single exhibition at the Venice Biennale and a retrospective at the Dublin National Musuem.

In the words of one of the curators, Dr. Elinor Gadon, "These artists are transforming the myths on which the traditional iconography is based. They are confronting oppressive beliefs and creating a new mythology for the empowerment of women."  By challenging the  2000-year old tradition of representing the female only as a symbol of fertility and beauty, they are bringing to the fore  other facets of her self, and  treating the woman as a whole human being.Another thing I noticed in the art is that many of these women, but particularly Mithu Sen, celebrate the power of women’s bodies and the auspiciousness of their sexuality.

 How does feminism differ in India compared to the West?
Many of the issues are the same - the need for opportunities to work and to advance; the need for child care, health care, protection from violence, political representation; but some of the issues are more pronounced in India, such as illiteracy, poverty and female infanticide or foeticide. Dr Gadon’s view is that feminism in India is oriented more toward the social good, and in the West somewhat more toward self-aggrandizement. We will discuss and debate this idea at the symposium on October 2 and 3 and will bring it up at the various events related to TIGER BY THE TAIL!

What has been the response from the public and the community for this program?
Extraordinary enthusiasm and interest. Most people are not familiar with this work and want to learn about it.  There are many Indian students and faculty at Brandeis and they are happy to have a show that deals with "home."

To know more about the exhibit goto http://www.brandeis.edu/centers/wsrc/arts/currentexhibitions.html

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