Columnist:
Arts Illustrated Magazine
Recurring column in the prestigious and much loved Arts and Design Magazine, Arts Illustrated. Every issue had a column on Colour/Design/Trends/Art by Susan Mathen.
Some of the stories written were on the following topics:
The Binary Nature of Colours
Being Unabashed or Hushed Up: The Choice
How the various senses bring alive and evoke emotions
The changing cultural meanings of Pink
Visual patterns that stay in the mind
Post Pandemic Trends
Curator for
‘Blue Latte - Narratives of Today, In Colour’
Curated an art exhibition bringing alive the Colour Trend Stories from the Annual Forecast.
The four trend stories and palettes: The Julieta Palette, The Roosegarde Palette, The Chuski Pop Palette and The Slow Palette; were explored artistically and paintings were created for all these palettes.
These paintings were exhibited in an Art Gallery and there were events like Curator’s Walk, Artist-Curator Interaction, etc. All research work, cultural studies and trendspotting were done by the team at Hue & Why with Susan Mathen at the helm.
The first exhibition was at White Walls Art Gallery, Kochi.
The second exhibition was at Studio Pepperfry, Kochi.
Heritage Walk Lead for
the walk through Fort Kochi
Researched, curated and conducted multiple heritage walks with exclusive groups where the participants were taken on a journey exploring the design and colour influences in Fort Kochi - in the buildings, in the design motifs, in the language, in the social customs, etc. - from the Chinese, the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British, the Arabs and so on.
The walk was for about an hour long and ended with a lovely discussion around breakfast at one of the quaint cafes in Fort Kochi.
Art History Lecturer
A series of lectures covering Art Movements, Key Artists in each Movement, Styles of Paintings, Some Key Pieces of Art, etc., conducted at gallery spaces and yoga studios over weekends
Cultural Studies & Symbolism Researcher
Studied Arts Management in a heritage museum off Chennai, Tamil Nadu in South India - Modules covered: Curation, Art History, Photography, Documentation, Iconography & Symbolism, Cultural Studies, Temple Architecture, Folklore Studies, Artisanal Crafts, etc.
For the final group project there was a study on Colour Symbolism in Ancient Indian Concepts and Mythology. For the final thesis the topic undertaken was ‘The Mysterious Absence of Blue in Ancient Eastern Colour Concepts’.
Organised a panel discussion at DakshinaChitra, Chennai, where experts spoke about ‘Colour in specific Fields’ - Prakash Dharmarajan, Ogilvy on Colour in Advertising, Yamuna N.S. on Colour in Theatre, Vasantha Muthiah on Colour in Fashion, Leela Samson on Colour in Dance, G Venkat Ram on Colour in Photography, Sharan Apparao on Colour in Art and popular Social & Cultural Commentator Sadanand Menon moderated the fascinating session - a one of its kind event in Chennai.