Breaking silos | Sense and Sensibility highlights the voices of textile craftspeople, designers and artists

The traces between craft, artwork, and design are blurring now greater than ever earlier than. Artisanal methods, as soon as seen because the antithesis of “cool”, are gaining floor in artwork and design circles.

Final yr noticed a number of narratives round textile, serving to rework them into highly effective instruments of inquiry into cultural id and sustainability. Exhibitions comparable to When Indian Flowers Bloomed in Distant Lands (on view in Ahmedabad till March) highlighted the political and financial significance of textiles in India’s world commerce, whereas From People to Fibre — featured on the ‘Journeying Throughout the Himalayas’ pageant in December below the Royal Enfield Social Mission — celebrated the myths, tales, and social bonds woven into textiles from 9 Himalayan areas.

Reimagined by a brand new wave of artisans, designers, and craftspeople, these showcases challenged conventional biases in textile storytelling, providing distinctive views on social, environmental and cultural considerations.

Themes of group and empathy

Sense and Sensibility, a showcase by Bengaluru-based analysis and research centre The Registry of Sarees (TRS) eventually month’s Uncooked Collaborative exhibition in Gandhinagar, invited viewers to see textiles not simply as objects, however as extensions of id, prompting reflections on private and collective narratives. Ahalya Matthan, founding father of TRS, describes it as “an exploration of human interactions”.

(L_R) Ahalya Matthan with Vishwesh Surve, Radha Parulekar and Aayushi Jain 

She provides, “There’s a divisiveness [between art and craft], although it isn’t at all times acknowledged. Exhibitions like this place the onus on us to inform the story inclusively, highlighting not simply craft, artwork, and design, however the folks behind them — their processes, materiality, and ability.”

Curated by textile designers and researchers Aayushi Jain, Vishwesh Surve, and Radha Parulekar, the exhibition breaks from educational rigour to discover themes of group, empathy, and collective id. Textile historical past is commonly formed by academicians and consultants, whereas the vernacular voices, notably these of up to date stakeholders comparable to weavers and designers, stay largely sidelined. By amplifying these views, TRS goals to construct a information registry that addresses the environmental, financial, and sociological challenges textiles current in trendy life.

Almost 100 works from 36 designers, artists, darners, collectors and community-led initiatives participated, the works on show tracing a continuum of influences: from industrialisation and Artwork Deco to Bauhaus, minimalism, sustainability, and know-how. Be it monochrome ikat, brocade and jamdani artworks by designer duo David Abraham and Rakesh Thakore, Kutchi torans from collector Salim Wazir’s personal assortment, heirloom Banarasi brocades showcased on the Competition of India exhibitions within the Eighties and 90s, Toda embroidery from the pastoral folks of Nilgiris, or Seventeenth-Nineteenth century carpets from Iran and Iraq from Bengaluru-based collector Danny Mehra’s assortment.

A collection of works with Toda embroidery, introduced by Coonoor & Co

“Even 76 years after independence, we’re nonetheless grappling with questions of id. Authenticity begins with understanding who we’re. Solely then can we handle the deeper points that textiles, craft, and artwork current — not simply aesthetics, however the human connections they foster. Each textile cluster embodies the need to attach; to share who they’re and the place they arrive from.”Ahalya Matthan The Registry of Sarees

Breaking typical divisions

The emotional resonance of textiles was seen within the juxtaposition of two works. Naye Mein Purana by Vankar Vishram Valji and Between Indigo and Gentle by textile designer Chinar Farooqui’s model Injiri. The previous, “an intricate piece woven from handspun cotton, kala cotton, tussar silk, desi oon, merino wool, and acrylic yarn, displays the Valji household’s deep-rooted weaving custom in Kutch”, says Dinesh, one of many 4 sons of the Nationwide Award-winning craftsman, and who devoted 25 days to weaving the piece. On the adjoining wall, Farooqui mixed artwork and structure by means of indigo, sheer jamdani panels, and a up to date tackle the mehrab motif, historically discovered on the partitions of mosques.

Naye Mein Purana by Vankar Vishram Valji

The 2 installations — one by a craftsperson, the opposite by a designer — represented distinct social and inventive experiences. And the proximity of the works, notably provided that Farooqui has collaborated with the Valji household to develop textiles for her model, broke down the standard divisions between designer and craftsperson. “A designer [who knows how to sell] bridges the hole between the market and the craftsperson, who typically lacks that market-facing method,” says Dinesh. Farooqui provides, “Design and craft should merge — we are able to’t do with out one another.”

Between Indigo and Gentle by Injiri 

As Shama Pawar, founding father of Kishkinda Belief (which promotes cultural industries and inventive economies in Anegundi-Hampi) explains, the parable of craft-making is altering. “Persons are taking extra liberties; it’s about creating partnerships that encourage.” Her personal set up, The Shuttle of Time, crafted from banana fibre and ilkal pallu yarn, symbolised the delicate steadiness between heritage and the longer term.

Shama Pawar

A cultural trade

Somewhat than framing India’s crafts as relics of colonial plunder, the narrative is evolving right into a dynamic, ongoing cultural trade between rural and concrete practitioners, craft and commerce, and the previous and the current. “I query how a lot we must always revere craft or freeze it in time,” states Mala Pradeep Sinha of Vadodara-based Bodhi design studio. “For craftspeople, it’s about responding to the market. If change is required, so be it. So why are we, the so-called consultants, attempting to impose a story that fits us?”

This considering translated into Sinha’s QR Code Quilt, a putting black-and-white wall hanging created from upcycled block-printed scraps. “Quilt-making isn’t nearly stitching material collectively; it’s about bringing folks collectively to share conversations, tiffin, and concepts. That bond fosters empathy — and with out empathy, you may’t work creatively.”

Mala Pradeep Sinha’s QR Code Quilt

Sustainability and group had been additionally central to the work of Jagriti Phukan, based mostly in Dhemaji, Assam. Her textile piece, Inheritance of Nature, created from lengthy strands of matted, handspun muga and eri silk, expressed the symbiotic relationship between heritage, custom, folklore, and nature.  

Jagriti Phukan

Textiles and fibre-based artwork are extra advanced than folks typically suppose. As Aratrik Dev Varman, the founder-designer of Ahmedabad-based Tilla studio, places it, they’re about “intent and exploring private expression”, and never simply creating for the market. “Exhibitions like Sense and Sensibility are essential for mapping India’s evolving textiles and crafts earlier than they’re misplaced,” he concludes, stressing the designer’s function in influencing and recording change.

The author is a columnist and critic, with a eager deal with vogue, textiles, and tradition.