Naksha: Patterns in Space and Time

This is part of an expanding body of work that Akhila Krishnan has been developing as her practice, exploring the resonances between textiles and film; within the textile tradition of Ikat - seeking to explore the fundamental nature of this art form, its patterns and shapes, and its essential logic.

In Ikat, cotton or silk thread is resist-dyed in sections to pattern the warp and/or weft. At the dyeing stage, the pattern is hidden, mapped out in abstract sections along the line of the thread. It is only when the weaving begins that the mapped design on the warp and the weft come together, and the pattern in the fabric is slowly revealed.

Here, Krishnan interprets the Ikat technique both in the temporal dimension within the structure of the book, as well as in the spatial dimension of this gallery site. The eye of the viewer shifts between the marks along the surface of a single thread, and the overall pattern created by the markings on the many threads that come together.