A Factory-Made Saree

Samant uses identical industrially produced bottle caps, to create unique individual pieces. ‘A Factory-Made Saree’ uses soda-bottle caps, linked with metal shackles to create a ‘fabric’ with motifs representing a Tangail saree popularly worn by women in Calcutta at the time of Durga puja.

The work sets up a conversation between handmade textile traditions, industrial practices and consumerism. Its placement next to the embroidery piece from Sindh and the weaver’s house, from the Museum’s permanent collection, also evokes the politics of the methods and modes of production as increasingly handmade becomes a rarefied luxury item and many skilled weavers have lost their jobs to become factory workers.

The work was featured as part of the exhibition 'Connecting Threads: Textiles in Contemporary Practice'. The exhibition was curated by Tasneem Zakaria Mehta and Puja Vaish and attempts to trace textile practices, traditions and histories in Contemporary Indian Art.