Today is the last day of the 2015 Design batch of Somaiya Kala Vidya (SKV)’s exhibition at Artisans’ gallery, Mumbai. I attended the final class – Presentation and Merchandising, as part of my PhD fieldwork. There were eleven students on the course, four weavers, four ajrakh artisans and three bandhani artisans. Before this class, students had attended Colour, Basic Design, Marketing, Concept and Communication and Finishing and Collection Development. Each class lasts two weeks and they are spread over a year. During the weeks in between each, the students develop work at home based on what they have learned in the previous class. In Presentation and Merchandising, the students learned to display their…
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The Ajrakh block printing of Kachchh, India
Against the dull canvas of the Kachchh desert the rich and bold colours of the textiles are strikingly displayed. The millennia old tradition of weaving and dyeing textiles originated in this Indus Valley region in the North West of India, and is still in abundance today. For a typical Kachchhi man or woman, their cloth is an essential everyday commodity and decoration as well as a symbol of their identity. Whether woven, embroidered, printed or tie-dyed, the textiles worn by a person in this area can reveal a multitude of details about their caste, gender, age, religious affiliation, marital status and economic standing. The highly skilled and patterned ajrakh block-printing…
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World Eco-Fiber and Textile (WEFT) Art at the Brunei Gallery
The current exhibition at the Brunei Gallery at SOAS (the School of Oriental and African Studies), is a huge, comprehensive exhibition displaying textiles from various countries all over the world that have a rich tradition in textile making, particularly using natural fibres and dyes. The World Eco-Fiber and Textile Art, aptly abbreviated to WEFT – exhibition covers hand-woven textiles, hand-painted and printed textiles, hand painted/embellished bark, dyed textiles, hand-made felt, hand embroidered textiles, fiber and textile jewellery and ‘contemporary expressions’. The exhibition was curated by Malaysian architect-designer Edric Ong, president of the Society Atelier Sarawak Malaysia. It was interesting to see that most individual artists who created the works on display were…
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Oxford’s cultural and historical treasures
The city of Oxford may be small but the historic walls and buildings hold a wealth of history and culture within. I unfortunately just missed two interesting looking exhibitions when I visited – the ‘Made for Trade’ at the Pitt Rivers Museum and Threads of Silk and Gold at the Ashmolean. Bad planning on my part seeing as I don’t live far away and they’ve been on for ages! Nevertheless, there was enough to see at both of these museums as well as the Bodleian library. First stop was the Ashmolean Museum, a must for anybody researching Indian block printed textiles or the Middle Age Indian Ocean trade because…
