Tracing Place: Archana Pathak’s Textile Cartographies

Artist Archana Pathak creates textile works that act as both personal archive and universal meditation. Rooted in her dual heritage and informed by a life of movement and reflection, Pathak’s practice weaves together cartography, ephemera, and handwork into poetic explorations of belonging. Her Tree of Life series invites us to look closer at the landscapes - internal and external - that shape us, and to find beauty in what is fleeting.

Self, 2017. From the 'Layers of Being' series.

At the heart of Archana Pathak’s artworks are themes of identity and transience. Her work is founded in both British and Indian heritage, often drawing on her experiences of travel and displacement as a student studying at the Chelsea college of art. Her work is organised into an ongoing series Memories of Being and she writes of discovering her style of art as a means of collecting and documenting her lived experiences. 

“I collect and work with found memory artefacts, such as old photographs, letters, diaries and maps. Often those artefacts are old maps – they bring forth the evolving nature of boundaries, both physical and psychological…Memories of Being is a mix of collected old maps of places we know, lived in, travelled to, were displaced from or longed for.”

Inside Archana Pathak's Studio. 

Pathak builds on the transient nature of living and interpretation, by using commonly found and recognisable objects and manipulating them for her own work. The cartographic artworks featured here are more recent revisits of a concept Pathak developed during her time at Chelsea, where she “wanted to carve out everything but those green spaces and the River Thames, as that’s how I saw the city”. 

Tree of Life, Paper.

Pathak often refers to her connection to nature as a place where she is both “filled with energy and joy by the ephemeral beauty” but also “sadness knowing it was transitory and brief”, then seeking to “heighten awareness of the beauty of impermanence directly influenced by moments in nature”. Meaning that the impermanence of nature is a source of the beauty of the experience. 

Tree of Life II, 2018.

Pathak has noted that after carving out the river and green spaces she loved, she noticed that the remaining shape resembled a tree, hence the “tree of life” title.  The later iterations of the series, backed on black fabric are a reflection on the changing relationship Pathak has held with London and the green spaces. Pathak reflected that “black represents seeing in darkness, moments of meditation and a colour of creation.  I present that colour as a liminal space between two stages of existence – one dissolved in darkness and the other not yet known, heading toward light and life.” It is an open space, laced with meaning which can be interpreted by the viewer.

Tree of Life III (Black), 2024.

In transforming maps into metaphors and stitching histories into fabric, she invites viewers to enter a space that is at once intimate and expansive. Tree of Life becomes a quiet witness to the shifting ground beneath us, and a celebration of the richness found in what is transient.

Words by Elise Maynard

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Further Information:

Website: Archana Pathak

Instagram: @archanapathakartist

Image Credits:

Lead Image: Archana Pathak - Tree of Life III, 2023. Heat transfer printing, hand stitch. Vintage linen, handmade threads.