
FRAGMENTS OF OUR TIME
Text by Uthra Rajgopal
Fragments of Our Time is a contemporary textile art exhibition featuring South Asian artists brought together for the first time from the UK, USA, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. Curated by Uthra Rajgopal for British Textile Biennial, these artworks consider sustainability in the context of the environment, economics, and society. The materials, techniques and concepts highlight themes of labour, networks, migration, spiritual and emotional connections to textiles. From natural fibres and natural dyes to found objects, discarded clothing and debris, this exhibition presents an extraordinary display of woven, stitched, dyed, collaged, and felted artworks, ranging from the immersive to the delicate.
Bhasha Chakrabarti critically examines practices of global garment production and the ‘aesthetics’ of distressed clothing. Based in New Haven, USA, the artist engaged in a playful yet intensive exercise of buying, mending, and returning designer jeans, positioning herself as consumer, interlocutor, and activist. Her work explores the marketing of “distress”, the visibility and invisibility of work, the limits of the marketplace, and the unexpectedly fine line between damage and repair.
Image: Phoenix, 2022-23 Woven fabric, 11 x 16 feet, ©Boshudhara Mukherjee. Image above: Work, Rest and Play, sub-series I, Found Indian textile garments. Polyester, cotton, chiffon, steel hooks & embroidered thread on calico. ©Kajal Nisha Patel.
Boshudhara Mukherjee based in Bangalore, India cuts strips of fabrics, garments and painted canvases to weave, stitch, and crochet them into gargantuan nets. Through the silent processes of meditatively deconstructing and reconstructing layers of fabrics, her sculptural installations immerse the viewer in complex webs of the wardrobe as archive.
Dhara Mehrotra based in Bangalore, India explores the resilient and sprawling networks of mycelium. Drawing inspiration from scientific research and observation, her work unlocks a meditative, multi-coloured mesh of embedded fibres and fine lines, meticulously presented on circular canvases.
Image: JEEBH KATNA (2023), cotton, linen, polyester, button, beads, cotton thread, plastic, polyfill, glass. 20x22x11.5 inch © Gurjeet Singh.
Gurjeet Singh creates joyful and monstrously exuberant, soft sculptural heads. Based in Chandigarh, India, he repurposes remnants of brightly coloured Indian clothing embellishing them with decorative beading and stitching to celebrate the LGBTQ+ South Asian community.
Kajal Nisha Patel presents a holistic and politically charged work of deconstructed South Asian garments and offcuts, collected from tailors in India and charity shops in Leicester. Collaged onto flat panels and subverting the British patriotic colours of red, white, and blue, her work offers the viewer a dislocated version of the Union Jack.
Image: Attract, Jan 2022, commissioned by Mental Fight Club Charity @mentalfightclub_art, Coat hanger, cable ties, cardboard packaging, treasury tags, staples, hole punch stickers, nylon thread, string, stickers, foam pads, receipts, tags, straws, card, tissue paper, wire, wood, permanent marker, biro, wool, plastic, masking tape, 130cm x 70cm x 3cm. ©Liaqat Rasul.
Liaqat Rasul is a Gay, Welsh, Pakistani dyslexic artist based in London. His specially commissioned mobile face sculpture, made from mixed media materials, remnants of yarn and textiles references the fragility and vulnerability surrounding issues of mental health and multiculturality. Their bold, odd colours and real-world experiences create unique, buoyant collage tableaux.
Image: I wish my hair was as long as yours (ongoing), Found fishing rope, vintage silk, textiles. Dimensions, variable. ©Madi Acharya-Baskerville.
Madi Acharya-Baskerville, based in London, UK, delightfully repurposes, and combines vintage textiles, discarded junk items and floating debris found along the shorelines of Britain’s rivers and seas, where she frequently undertakes mud-larking expeditions to seek out washed-up, found objects, collecting and treasuring them for long periods of time, reflecting on their previous lives before transforming them into tongue-in-cheek works of art, referencing her diasporic journey and the environmental chaos we are contributing to and living in.
Melissa Joseph presents needle felted artworks combined with found architectural objects to consider themes of memory, family history, and the politics of how we occupy spaces. She intentionally alludes to the labours of women as well as experiences as a second generation American based in New York and the unique juxtapositions of diasporic life. Rehana Mangi is a visual practitioner and contemporary miniaturist based in Lahore, Pakistan. Using human hair to embroider extraordinary cross stitch miniatures, her works also relate to cultural references of black magic, emotional pain, loss, and resilience.
Robina Akhter Ullah is a multidisciplinary artist based in Manchester. Her large-scale, brightly coloured iridescent work draws on techniques of piecing, stitch, and embroidery and combined with her printed upholstery fabrics the artist’s work draws on her experiences of her British- Pakistani heritage, identity, memory, and journeys.
Sagarika Sundaram creates large-scale felted installations using raw natural fibre and dyes. Based in New York, her work observes and abstracts natural phenomena in the form of handmade textiles that generate power and presence. Through intricately patterned, shredded surfaces that express chaos and control the work employs abstraction to reinterpret textile as mutant, botanical, and psychedelic forms.
Image: Nirrti 1, 2023, 197 cm x 150 cm, Cotton cord, vintage quilt, Gamchha (traditional towel), dyed cotton. © Sayan Chanda.
Sayan Chanda based in London, UK, works intuitively with dyes and strips of old kantha quilts to hand weave tapestries. As such they reimagine votive objects, folk narratives and indigenous rituals as hybrid ambiguous forms that function as totems, portals, and talismans.
Sibaprasad Karchaudhuri, based in Santiniketan, India explores abstract form in tapestry, using hemp and brightly coloured fibres such as wool and cotton. His works draw inspiration from thinking about the holistic way we live in and with the earth, sky, and seas.
Shrujan Living and Learning Design Centre, situated in Gujarat, India is a unique, dedicated museum to the living crafts of Kutch, holding an extensive archive of regional textiles. Founded in 1969 the team continues to work tirelessly with a vast range of communities and artisans - often spread across miles of open land - to ensure they keep alive their traditional way of life and earn a dignified living.
Smriti Dixit has long been committed to processes of recycling in her art, incorporating fabric, found objects, plastic price tags and other elements of the detritus of everyday life. Based in Mumbai, India, her sculpture brings visibility to slow hand-made processes, labour, and women.
Ujjal Dey has a deep fascination with colour. Creating his own natural dyes and pigments from his home in Santiniketan, India, the artist produces large-scale wall-hangings using gestural techniques to paint and print onto the fabric, recalling vernacular architecture.
Yasmin Jahan Nupur is a visual and performance artist whose work is influenced by the ecological and community driven aspects of life. Based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the artist explores class distinctions, and the social discrepancies people face, particularly women and migrants of South Asia, in an effort to increase understanding between people of different backgrounds.
Fragments of Our Time will be on show at The Whitaker Museum and Art Gallery between 29 September -10 December 2023.
Find out more:
www.thewhitaker.org
The British Textile Biennial will take place on 29 September - 29 October 2023. To find out more visit: britishtextilebiennial.co.uk
Read more about the legacy of the textile industry in Lancashire and its roots that spread across the globe in Selvedge issue 114: Regeneration.