Textiles by Women

In recent times key exponents of crafts have attempted to correct this wrongly skewed view of the world. Some of these iconic voices are: Ela Bhatt, Founder of SEWA; Laila Tyabji, Chairperson of Dastkar; Runa Banerjee, Founder, SEWA Lucknow; Jaya Jaitly, Founder, Dastkari Haat Samiti; Vijaya Rajan, Purnima Rai and Gita Ram of Crafts Council of India; Uzramma, Founder of Dastkar Andhra, amongst others. This exhibit draws inspiration from these leading ladies and brings to light some of the work done by craftspeople and textile artisans who are part of some of the organisations that these ladies have helped create. While showcasing their work we traverse across the country, grass by grass, yarn by yarn and weave together the vibrant fabric of Indian crafts. A continuing heritage that has never been as much danger as in the last 20 years. Entire communities of traditional makers are opting out of crafts and textiles to be unskilled workers or migrant labourers. What we see here are some of the rare success stories and some who have with luck and sheer determination remained true to their heritage.These photographs are part of the collection of JD Centre of Art (JDCA). The vision of JDCA is to preserve and promote traditional and contemporary art, without boundaries. It has a collection consisting of contemporary art, traditional art, craft and textile, films and publications. At the JDCA we are keen to tell the stories of the people and places behind the collection. 

The embroiderers of Kashmir carry the legacy of the Central Asian heritage of embroidery over the centuries into India. The refined elegance and the meditatively quiet arduous work is awe inspiring. While it is a male preserve, textile expert and entrepreneur, Jenny Housego helped bring women into this male preserve. In happier and abler past, when she left the museum world of London and Paris for Delhi, Kashmir with it’s gentle and warm people became her muse. We see the deft ari and sozni work across fabrics and apparels, in myriad colours, fit for the royals.

Khadi, the fabric of freedom, has had a mixed fate since independence. It is either considered to be the fabric of the poor that needs to be subsidized so that people can buy it for cheap, or is ludicrously expensive meant of haute couture. However far from these contrasting worlds, in Sandur, is an idyllic Khadi and Cottage Industries establishment. Women spool the cotton yarn, prepare the warp and weave to create the Khadi fabric.

The legacy of block printing apart from small islands of printing workshops of Machalipatnam and Kutch, is largely the preserve of Rajasthan. Large textile and fashion houses like Fabindia, Anokhi and Soma have mainstreamed these crafts. We find women working shoulder to shoulder in the highly patriarchal Rajasthani society. Sunny and Meeta, started their collaboration with a family of block printers in the village of Kaladera, called Chaubundi. Funky adaptations by designers show whacky block designs take shape on the textiles, dyed in natural colours but often with chemical additives.

As aesthetes we all love raw and tussar silk, it’s irregularities that create a muted woven pattern. However, the way the silk is drawn from the cocoon is heart-breaking. The images of women in Adilabad District of Telangana (formerly Andhra Pradesh), make apparent how the yarn is drawn from the cocoon, and rolled against their bare thighs with a little oil. The reddened thighs tell a story of hardship. In the same village, the drawn yarn, is spooled and then warps are prepared and woven into beautiful yardages of silk fabric. These are dyed due to the strategic intervention of Dastkar Andhra with natural dyes.

The handwoven piece here brings together contemporary design with the artisanal prowess of our traditional weaving technique. The piece was conceived as a contemporary tapestry based on the notion of monsoon. Mulberry silk was specially dyed in selected colours in Bangalore, long famous for its mulberry silk. The industrially drawn yarn was deftly handwoven into the contemporary piece depicting the monsoons.