Mary-Louise Edwards
Ten years ago at Delhi airport, in a departure as marked by its strangeness as my arrival had been, a large and evidently wealthy Indian matron swayed across the concrete floor towards my companion. She had come to ask if my fellow traveller was in fact 'Madonna'. Clearly unconvinced when informed that she was not speaking to Madonna, she waved to her waiting family and friends who were visibly impressed. At the time I felt a little cheated at being hauled back into a Western world far too prematurely by this unexpected exchange. Madonna, then and now, has impacted upon Indian life in a way that few Westerners may have realised. With the Western media barons owning much of the media in India, and a middle class population of around one hundred million, the Indians join the dubious ranks of the beneficiaries of a recycled trash Western culture. Although almost all Indian in content, image-wise the media continues to be influenced markedly by the West.
In a country where the Women's Movement is strong and women are seen to be taking up arms, converting to Buddhism and bandit and outlaw "queens" are almost commonplace, the media's depiction of working women, career women, projected as the liberated stereotype, are shown sitting at their computers, but usually in an unmistakably domestic setting. Edwards, in lndralia- Reinterpreted, returns to the site of the current treatment of women, by the media, in India and in Australia. Using large drops of acetate sheeting, the works engage as banners, bright, loud, vulgar and playful. What they address are the achievements of the middle class working women's movement in India, which continues to gain influence, but which