Review: Exhibit examines artistic, political representations of India

After the conquest of India by the British Empire in 1857,
India’s representation in the Western world had been forever
changed. The photographs displayed in the UCLA Fowler
Museum’s deeply historical new exhibition “Traces of
India: Photography, Architecture, and the Politics of
Representation, 1850-1900″ explore how the portrayal of a
vast nation has been packaged and sold.

The show features over 200 master photographs along with
drawings, books and artifacts, many of which focus on different
architectural trends used in tombs, temples and forts. While the
photographs are far more illustrative than they are artistic, the
exhibit itself does serve as an interesting sociopolitical history
lesson.

India has been one of the British Empire’s most important
areas of trade and tourism since the 1850s, and the exhibition
shows how the subcontinent was portrayed through picturesque photos
of famous Indian monuments like the Taj Mahal and the Maharajas
Fort.

Topographical sketches and illustrations by famous European
artists like William Hodges and Samuel Davis became the first
vehicles for images of India to spread across Western Europe.
Paintings and drawings portrayed landscapes and architecture that
created an image of a vastly different culture, emphasizing India
as an exotic foreign land.

The exhibition succeeds in showing crucial points of political
control through images, and focuses on how the portrayals of India
have been influenced by political and social movements of the
nation. By focusing on works by European rather than Indian
artists, the show comments on how India has been represented and by
whom.

Perhaps the biggest focus of the archival architectural
photography in the exhibit is that of religious monuments. The show
features different representations of Buddhist, Hindu, Jain,
Islamic and Sikh relics and buildings. One striking example is the
brilliant photography of Buddhist stupas (burial mounds made of
brick masonry) at Sanchi.

The exhibition is particularly powerful in how it addresses more
contemporary images of India in “Bollywood” films and
chromolithographs. The films selected show a variety of dance and
song, but all use Indian architecture and landmarks in outdoor
settings to provide a sense of grounded space. The songs hold
themes of national pride and overcoming hardships.

Lithographs are more politically oriented, representing the
governmental shifts of the early 1900s. These more contemporary
works are the only featured pieces in the show by Indian artists,
reflecting a growing independence in power over India’s
representation, which has been independent since 1947.

The show does an incredible job of documenting the
representation of India. However, a juxtaposition of photography by
Indians would help to emphasize the British image of India.

-Alexis Matsui