Alja Piry | Women of MAHER – duett³: say sunrise, say sūryōdaya

line after line
you draw yourself
into life

Sūryōdaya means sunrise in Marathi, the language of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is there that Sister Lucy Kurien founded her first home for women who were victims of abuse and trauma in 1997.
The institution MAHER (Marathi for “House of Mothers”, in the sense of “a home”), is now an UN-registered NGO. Today, it operates around 70 interfaith homes for people in need and those seeking protection across India.
During my visits to several MAHER homes in Maharashtra, I invited the women living there to draw with me in the mornings after sunrise. These were light-filled, joyful hours we spent together.
For this volume in the “duett” series, the artist Alja Piry has woven a selection of the drawings I brought back from India into a delicate, poetic narrative. It reflects the magic of drawing and invites us to trace the essence of the creative moment as we read.
(Kristiane Petersmann, editor)

[³/Duett is the third installment in a series of publications that combines art created by people with special needs with texts by writers.
The drawings in this volume are to be understood as a collective work by the women of Maher. The selection, compilation, and accompanying text were created by the artist Alja Piry.]

Alja Piry (*1982, Ljubljana) is an artist, whose practice takes place at the intersections of visual art and literature. She creates textual drawings, artist books, photographic series and video essays, characterised by a distinct lyricism. Participative and socially engaged projects as well as the experience gained through facilitating and accompanying other artists play an important part in the development of her work. She studied art history, painting and social-psychiatric work. She lives and works in Vienna.