new delhi for many westerners india continues to be a land of tigers princes snake charmers and spirituality often these cliched images also dominate the imagination of artists from abroad but four american artists carrie fonder lily stockman rebecca layton and jenny mullins have tried to break free in an exhibition titled superpower their visual narratives are filled with a different set of images autorickshaws godowns mobile phone towers and electrical transformers the art works attempt to foster a dialogue between the mythologies of the old and vibrant india with new india curator georgina maddox says each artist has employed multiple mediums to engage with the subject of india through paintings sculptures drawings and installations they express themselves in an exhibition on view from april 116 at threshold art gallerydetroitbased fonders sculptures deal with issues of gender and the way culture influences gender identity her work uses the ubiquitous autorickshaw that she purchased in october 2010 to illustrate her responses to the hijra eunuch community in india i was inspired by the beauty and boldness of the hijras that i encountered in my daily life in mumbai as well as the rickshaws hijras got me thinking about the hardships they face not only as hijras but also as women says fonderher creation titled transco takes a multicultural look at gender while paying homage to hijras and autorickshaws its a play on american car culture at the same time it nods reverentially to the world of amazing rickshaw customisations visible throughout india says fonder whos fascinated by the dualities of india despite stereotypical and historical trappings india is also contemporary and unique she says la based stockman who grew up on a farm in central new jersey was always attracted to the collision of the natural and built environment how man shapes his surroundings last year she moved to india and was fascinated to see the same thing happening here her works titled full humidity and pink mughal are contrastingly minimal as they play out areas of suburban india that sit between the rural and urban for centuries western artists have come to india to capture masterpieces of indian architecture like the taj or the humayuns tomb but im interested in the uncelebrated the unglamourous and the banal monuments of contemporary india using grain elevators silos plinths and godowns as my unlikely subjects ive depicted these structures as mechanisms for the measurement of production and consumption says stockman who researched newspapers visited staterun ration godowns and new hydraulicpowered grain silos in punjab for her project layton came to india to study block printing and miniature painting in jaipur she uses contemporary images of new india such as mobile phone towers and concrete buildings as source material for her work the project involved designing my own patterns translating them into wooden block carving then having those printed on fabric she saysmeenakshisinhatimesgroupcom