Birds -Weavers' Service Centre, Mumbai -Installation

The motifs of birds which appear in this textile are taken from the richly illustrated The Book of Indian Birds, a publication from 1941, by Dr Salim Ali. Among the largest of the Visvakarma commissions, it belonged to a group which could be seen to have triumphantly concluded the series of exhibitions. By this time, the artists at the WSCs and beyond, who had been a part of the journey, could clearly envision a confident future for handmade Indian textiles. Martand Singh, the Director of Visvakarma, later refleected that such large-scale panels lend themselves as backdrops and drapes for performing art spaces.

The Birds and Animals panel was commissioned for an exhibition honouring the renowned ornithologist Dr. Salim Ali. While birds and animals are commonly depicted in Indian art, only a few species are typically portrayed, and they are often rendered in an archaic style. The panel was created using the Baker volumes of 1921, which illustrated a range of Indian and European chintz cloths from the 18th and 19th centuries, as a source for the directory of birds featured in the panel. Despite their large scale, the figures are expertly printed and have a pleasant and harmonious colour scheme.