Birds -Weavers' Service Centre, Mumbai -Details

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 stationary figures in the lower half of the panel are interspersed with birds in more animated poses. In the upper portion of the panel, some birds have broken free from the teeming colony and are being blown about in a wind-swept sky. This adds a sense of movement and activity to the scene, as the birds' dynamic movements contrast with the stationary figures below. The use of colour and detail in the birds' depictions adds to the overall impression of movement and adds to the visual appeal of the artwork.