Ramvati Aunty, from the "Upping the Aunty" series

“Ramvati Aunty” reflects a South Indian look with her starched sari, fresh flowers in the hair, and South Indian pierced wooden comb hung delicately across her neck under a gold mangalsutra and a large money necklace. Her stern expression puts her in the ‘aunty’ category, and yet the cool sunglasses add a sense of modernity that is part of the hybrid figure. The large gold medallion hanging around her neck recalls those worn by temple deities and suggests that she is dressed to visit the temple. And yet, ever practical, she carries her offerings in a reusable shopping bag that she’ll later employ to pick up groceries on her way home. For many South Asians, in India and in the diaspora, she is familiar; she is everyone’s ‘aunty’.

This work is from a series called “Upping the Aunty,” a three-part project that combines paintings, street style photographs and an adult colouring book by Indian-born Toronto-based Canadian contemporary artist, Meera Sethi. It a clever take on the popular South Asian trope of the ‘aunty,' an elder female figure who is neither one’s mother nor in one’s peer group. ‘Aunties’ may be a biological relation, or simply a family friend or even a stranger. Aunties defy social convention yet are the gatekeepers of it. They gather for social parties, love to gossip, and yet can be fiercely independent thinking, mentoring young women into adulthood. They are revered and feared, and yet sought after as confidants and companions. They also make their own fashion statements, often pairing sneakers with saris, salwar kameez with baseball caps, and sandals with tube socks, that is as much about fine textiles as it is about comfort. Having attained a certain level of status in their lives, they can dress to impress but are also past the age of trying to please anyone but themselves. Such contradictions inhabit the persona of the ‘aunty,' a recognizable figure in any Indian community. In this series, artist Meera Sethi uses her own photographs of ‘aunties’ who she finds in the streets of India and in the Indian diaspora to create an iconic ‘look’. Each work is unique and yet familiar. These life-size paintings seem larger than life. Their graphic quality, underscoring Sethi’s own training as a graphic artist, heightens their surreal or exaggerated appearance. Many of the paintings contain some textile or three-dimensional element applied to the canvas, which allows the figure to have some degree of form / 3-dimensionality. This particular format recalls turn-of-the-century popular prints from India embroidered with fabric and sequence, such as those by Raja Ravi Varma.

"Upping the Aunty" series started in 2014 as a photo blog. Sethi’s works are an example of “transnational, diasporic cultural production” that challenges “dominant, Eurocentric narratives of feminized immigrant and diasporic communities, national identity, street style and popular fashion.” (www.meerasethi.com).