Reflecting on the innovative fields of art, design, fashion and craft, the Jawahar Kala Kendra (a non profit arts and culture centre) in Jaipur launches an exhibition to showcase unparalleled handicraft textiles produced in the Indian subcontinent since 1947!
Curated by Mayank Mansingh Kaul and designed by Reha Sodhi, this exhibition is going to be an out and out celebration of art and culture through the ages. A feast for the culture vulture in you, mark your calendars from 20 June-30 September 2018 to experience the extravagance of the Indian aesthetic- presented through paintings on cloth, tapestries, sculpture, carpets and rugs, saris, garments and other forms of creative expression on fabric. Sustaining processes of hand manufacture in textiles through a diversity of skills and technologies, vocabularies of patterns and motifs, or the gaping large scale of production capacities; there has been a consistently constant attempt at metamorphosis in inherited traditions. Commonly mistaken to be rigid and static with regard to its strict rules of production and utility, the Indian handicrafts have always made room for multiplicity. Dynamically influenced by diverse climates ranging from cultural, political, social, economic to scientific stimuli, Indian textiles have been known to accommodate the aforementioned seamlessly into its being.
Seen in the context of the predominant impulses of various periods in India’s post-independence trajectories, the textiles are presented through broad themes: The National Movement, Khadi and the effects of the European-colonial encounter in the early to mid 20th century; the engagement with International Modernism from the 1950s till today; an intense revival period in village-based crafts and textiles beginning with the 1970s which has informed the present ecology of urban design; the negotiation of roles between artisans- craftspeople, designers and artists; a return to historical vocabularies from the 1980s onwards which moulds contemporary fashion and mass consumerism; textiles as a means and metaphor for sculpture; as well as Indian minimalism.
Works of artists and designers like Andrew Ananda Voogel Aneeth Arora, Amit Aggarwal, Anavila Misra, Ajit Das, Ashdeen Lilaowala, Asif Shaikh, Bashobi Tewari, Berenice Ellena, Bhikari Maharana and many more will be exhibited. Some of the studios, brands and organisations represented include- 11:11, Abraham & Thakore, Akaaro, Anokhi, Avani, Bandhej, Himmatsingka Seide, Khamir, Lesage, Malkha Marketing Trust, The National Institute of Design, The Registry of Saris; and many more.
The presented works are additionally drawn from relevant art and textile collections including The Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi; Ms Lekha & Mr Anupam Poddar, New Delhi; Ms Priya Paul, New Delhi; The Museum of Art & Photography, Bangalore and Dr Monisha Ahmed, Mumbai. Contributing galleries include Nature Morte and Art. Motif in New Delhi and Jhaveri Contemporary in Mumbai.
The Information
Venue: Jawahar Kala Kendra, 2, Jawahar Lal Nehru Marg, Jhalana Doongri, Jaipur, Rajasthan 302004
Timings: 11 am to 7 pm
The exhibition will open with a preview between 14 June- 19 June and will be on view daily from 20 June through 30 July 2018, with the exception of Mondays and Public Holidays.