The Match Maker

A British artist and his fascination with Indian matchboxes.

A British artist and his fascination with Indian matchboxes.

Its almost dusk and as artist Matt Lee looks at a tiny image of a killer whale on a battered old matchbox,his mind reels back to the time he first found it in 2007,at a roadside chai stall in Bangalore. It has an illustration of a killer whale,but its caption reads dolphin. Unintentionally funny and highly random,he decided to keep it for himself. And thus began Lees journey with Indian matchboxes.

Over the years,Lee,an artist,illustrator and educator who shifted base from London to Bangalore five years ago,came across more battered matchboxes across India and kept the ones he liked. Today,his Yelankha studio in Bangalore has a 500-strong collection,of which 100 were featured in an exhibition called Collections at the Fictilis Gallery in Seattle,US,last month.

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Lees collection includes varied matchboxes one has a sketch of a man with a stethoscope and the caption,Doctor: Safety Matches,which he bought from a tea shop in a narrow lane behind the ghats in Varanasi; another,which he picked up from a quiet residential street in Bangalore,has a cartoon of Amitabh Bachchan dressed as his character in the film Coolie its caption reads Porter in English and Bada size in Hindi; a yellow and green box has the image of a pistol,and was given to him by a friend who had bought it from a roadside vendor in Jaipur; and a red and blue matchbox with the image of a tilak,which he picked up in Fort Kochi,Kerala,are a few examples.

Does he not get bored of collecting the boxes? In a country as vast as India,I can only access a fraction of the designs available. The enjoyment is in the process and so the series is never complete. Each new design that I come across does not offer a resolution,but rather adds to the continuing story, says Lee,who is also a faculty member at Srishti School of Art,Design and Technology,Bangalore. He doesnt clean or retouch the matchboxes as the wear and tear is what gives them character. These marks add to each matchboxs journey or story, says the 32-year-old,who is also making a film on manufacturing and printing units of matchboxes in Sivakasi,Tamil Nadu.

Lee often receives emails asking if he would like to trade or buy matchboxes,but he prefers to stumble upon them. Coming across a matchbox always brightens up my day. For me,it brings back memories an early morning walk through Periyar National Park with my father and brother,getting lost in the narrow lanes behind the ghats in Varanasi,eating fresh fish in Fort Kochi and many conversations with friends in Bangalore, he says.