From the mundane to the mythical, India’s identity is deeply intertwined with its textiles. They have nurtured craftsmanship, built communities, played pivotal roles in national revolutions, and paved the way for the creation of global trade networks. Yet, despite its rich and storied history spanning centuries, textile art has garnered relatively few enthusiasts within the broader arts community. Today, however, a growing number of textile-based exhibitions are gradually working to change this narrative.
The ongoing Delhi Contemporary Art Week (DCAW) offers an ideal platform for exploring how artists are drawing inspiration from India’s diverse and intricate textile traditions. The exhibition, Threads That Bare, showcases how textiles can be a powerful medium for storytelling, allowing artists to present multifaceted narratives. Presented at a time when both curators and galleries are increasingly embracing textile-based shows, this showcase marks a significant moment for the art form. Examples of such exhibitions include Vayan – The Art of Indian Brocades, curated by Mayank Mansingh Kaul at Delhi’s National Crafts Museum in 2023; Sutr Santati at the NGMA in Mumbai planned for 2024; and Entwined – Edition 2 by Apparao Galleries.
Among the artists featured at DCAW is Natasha Das, who transitioned from traditional oil painting to working with textiles. Das found the medium of paint to be limiting, and instead turned to thread, fabric, and the weaving communities of Assam. “I shifted to memories and touch,” she shares. “When the pandemic hit, I closed my studio and started working with thread, layering it like oil. Textiles gave me a platform to feel, bond, and be present. My choice to use eri and muga silk in my works stemmed from this experience.” Her piece Lahe Land 2 (where lahe lahe means ‘slowly’ in Assamese) is a tribute to the culture and landscape of Assam. Das describes it as a “visual map constructed from memory,” incorporating dense blocks of color and playful threads to connect these spaces, each carrying its own tale and memory.
Threads That Bare also features works by Geeta Khandelwal and Khadim Ali. Khandelwal has spent decades mastering the art of quilt-making and showcases recreated miniature royal garments from the 18th and 19th centuries, using techniques such as hand-sewing and quilting. Ali, on the other hand, draws from miniature and tapestry traditions to reflect on family migrations, loss, and the trauma resulting from conflict zones in Afghanistan and Pakistan. His monumental mixed-media work, I’m the Third Script 2, employs intricate embroidery on cotton and silk, weaving his childhood memories into the fabric.
“While the market may seem small currently, I believe it’s on the cusp of expansion with the backing of gallerists and collectors who genuinely appreciate and engage with textile art,” says Sharan Apparao, Curator-director at Apparao Galleries.
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Artists find different inspirations for their work in fibre, some driven by concepts and experiences, while others are inspired by the inherent qualities of the materials themselves. “Textiles have the ability to adapt, making them receptive to different ideas, stories, identities, and emotions,” notes Rajarshi Sengupta, an art historian and practitioner. His textile works inspired by the kalamkari tradition were featured in the recent Entwined exhibition. Sengupta’s inquiries began with master carvers Kondra Gangadhar and Kondra Narsaiah in Andhra Pradesh’s Machilipatnam region, and extended into the dyeing practices of the coastal communities of the Coromandel. His piece Catalogue Konda is a continuation of this exploration and ethnographic study of Deccani textiles and their artisanal histories.
Delhi-based curator Mayank Mansingh Kaul sees the current surge of interest in textile-based art as a reflection of a global trend. “Contemporary visual arts periodically draw from various creative sources. We’ve seen this before with architecture, film, and so forth. Textiles seem to be the current fascination. While this is welcome, those who’ve long worked with textiles hope this does not remain a passing trend but translates into a sustainable market for fibre-based artists and commercial viability for galleries,” he explains.
This newfound interest is also being analyzed from a gendered perspective. Historically, textile-related materials, styles, and processes have been categorized as “women’s craft,” and have often been excluded from fine arts. Today, many artists—predominantly women—are challenging these traditional classifications. Varunika Saraf’s The Longest Revolution, part of the 2023 CheMoulding show at Chemould Prescott Road in Mumbai, was created using embroidery on cotton textiles. “I am interested in women’s agency, women as makers of their own futures and agents of socio-political change,” says Saraf. “When I thought about the hopes, beliefs, and fears that I share with the women in my life, it seemed natural to embroider.”
Kaul adds to this discourse stating, “Globally, curators have noted that the current fixation with textile-based art is partially rooted in a heightened focus on women-based art practices. Moreover, there is a growing interest in materiality and abstraction. Perhaps this is only natural, given the long neglect of textiles by the art world.”
The seventh edition of DCAW is running until September 4 at Bikaner House, highlighting the intricate and emotive power of textile art in contemporary practice.
