Return forgotten weavers to rich tapestry Indian textiles

For decades, Gamch has been a widespread presence on the Indian streets.

A traditional scarf made of red and white checkered fabric, used as a towel, pillows, turban, eye masks and even a shoulder drape, mainly working classes in Western Bengal and other regions of the country.

But the exhibition in the capital of India Delhi, which ended two weeks ago, uniquely emphasized the history of ordinary fabric.

Under the name Gamchha: From the usual to the unusual, it showed more than 250 pieces of short drapes from 14 Indian states to show variations of the scarf in the regions.

From white curala gags with coloring pencils, looted, fabric from leaves to cotton with red swans and large floral patterns, interpretations varying from the mill to the hands.

“The show is to advocate a symbol of social equality that the clothing can cause, even after decades that have remained from discourse,” said the textile expert Jay Jetley, founder of Dastkari Haat Samiti, the organization of crafts that presented this show.

The exhibition is part of a number of shows and efforts that have been held over the past few months seeking to review our understanding of Indian textiles, taking it in new directions.

From rich woven silk, drawings with pictures and intricate hints to a number of less spoken textiles, India’s contribution to the global textile industry is unique.

But despite the recognition, including in some of the world’s largest museums, its documentation was exceptional and lagging behind modern practice in the industry.

So far.

A number of new exhibitions at the heart of the arts and crafts, and the curator of scientists in cooperation with private collectors and museums, cause something Renaissance in the field.

This retreat from a more popular, glamorized fashion-no there is a crowd of Bollywood stars that open the show, or sponsored after participants. And places of places often from big cities.

Instead, the focus is on the departure from urban designers – most of whom are trained at elite colleges in India and abroad – and lead local artisans directly into the composition.

These exhibitions lead to “egalitarianism”, which conducts technology “in the Ecosystem” Textile “, says Rita Seti, founder of Indian Renaissance Trust.” From the instagram and other digital platforms anonymity around the masters is also cast, “she says.

The fact that it was once a small community of curators and patrons has now grown to include experts from different fields, including art and architecture.

Together, they want to take the history of textiles beyond its insightful wealth – connected with the great palaces, as well as the sophistication of ritual rites and weddings – to include a variety of traditions of fabric and people behind it.

According to the famous designer David Abraham, “sculpture is more inclusive modern identity” is a return to the homeland and “reclamation of pride and value”.

“For Indians, the connection with textiles is deeply rooted. We express ourselves culturally through colors, weavers and fabric, and each of them has a value designed for it. These shows confirm the value in our system,” he says.

Consider these cases. Bengal textiles: The general heritage demonstrated in Calcutta by the end of March emphasizes the historical uniqueness of the textile traditions of the indivisible Bengal.

The exhibition has some never seen fabrics and clothing since the 17th century so far. There are cotton sairs and dhoti (drapes wear men) who demonstrate the famous weaving traditions in the region, such as Demdani who still remain in demand even today. Then there are rare Indo -Portuguese embroidery and some Rumi Haji – an embroidered religious tissue when it is exported to Indonesia and parts of the Arab world as a headdress for men.

The program includes negotiations and demonstrations of crafts, as well as cultural performances – the dancer Punim Gosh, who performed at one of the sessions dressed in the hand -painted Batik Sarah, is noted. Batik provides drawing structures on fabrics with hot liquid wax and metal object. Then the artists use small brushes to paint dyes in the wax.

“The goal is to return attention to Bangladesh’s general heritage, whether it is textiles, methods, skills and trading, as well as narrative stories, culture and food, despite the fact that geography is changing,” says Darhan Mecan Shah, the founder of the resources of the Wevers Studio Resource resources.

Elsewhere, curators are trying to make a more nuanced understanding of textile history in India, including ways that influence the great social realities of castes and class struggles.

Take Pampa: Textile Karnataki presented by the Abheraj Baldota Foundation, which ended in Hamak, UNESCO World Heritage Site earlier this month. Among the hundreds of textiles exhibited were Lambani embroidery, a local nomadic tribe; Quadi’s blankets created by the Sidddhi state, which traces its origin to Africa; As well as sacred textiles made for Buddhist monasteries.

Through these images, the show tries to tell the history of nomadic, tribal and agrarian communities, for which the stable survival was the keynote and fabric in a way to tell about their marginalized experience.

And it’s not just about history – some exhibitions also emphasize the future of the industry, because designers find new and innovative ways to imagine traditional textiles in modern phraseologism.

For example, a recently completed surface: an exhibition of Indian embroidery and surface decoration as art, goes beyond clothing and decor at home and spotlight, as textiles are also used in paintings, drawings, artistic institutions and sculptures.

The show, organized by the Sutrakala Foundation and held a flag in the old city of Jodhpur, showed a set of textile works made by the famous contemporary painter.

These shows also play an important role in updating the history of textiles, strictly documented it.

“Even some of the largest fashion institutions of the country do not possess the archive of our textiles,” says Lech Padar, co-founder of the Davi Art Fund, which has supported nine textile exhibitions over the last decade.

The latest project of the Davi Foundation Fund called “Pehchaan: A solid topic in Indian textiles” tried to overcome this gap.

Presented in cooperation with the Delhi National Museum, a survey of visual and material ideas was conducted in the show, which repeated in Indian textiles for more than 500 years, with the oldest exhibit from the 14th and 15th centuries.

“How young designers will find inspiration for their work if they do not know about their own history and have no visual links?” Miss Poddar asks.

The success of these shows forced the organizers to rely on its future.

The next few years will be about improving this creative ecology, says Mainck Mansing Kaul, who over the past 10 years held a curatorial advisor of 20 such exhibitions.

“Slowly we will build a new audience, cooperate more and push the next generation of manufacturers and practitioners to strive for quality.”

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