A Confluence of East and West at the Textile Design Showcase at Conflictorium

An array of creative textiles has been sequenced at the Indian Street textile exhibition which will be stationed at Conflictorium from November 11, 2017, to November 26, 2017. Curated by Katy West, a designer and lecturer hailing from the Glasgow School of Art, the exhibition is a confluence of designers, artists and artisans to create a new design paradigm of sustainable textile production. The show has seven artists in the programme, where Indians, as well as Scottish designers, learnt intricate textile patterns from local artisans and small-scale procedures of Ahmedabad and Kutch region at were involved in the grassroots procedures of making and dying textiles. The designers took inspiration and followed the ethos of the designs from the Bombay Sample Book, an industrial catalogue that catalogues the designs that were originally printed on the world famous Turkey Red Fabrics. The Turkey Red was extensively used in the cotton dying industry of the 19^th century India and Turkey, and it later moved to Europe during the Industrial Revolution era. The final result achieved through the process is magnificent.

One can see hanging Khadi and Leheriya fabrics, imprinted peacock design pyjamas and block dyed t-shirts displayed in the three section divided exhibition. “The Turkey Red Industry was thriving in India, which was produced in a factory in Scotland until the Swadeshi Movement was unleashed in India by Bapu in 1960. The Scottish Turkey Red textiles were comparable to the Indian Bandhani, Ajrakh and Telia Rumal” informed West. The exhibition is not only helping to recreate an archival value towards a lost textile art but also helped the designers to understand the complexities of the business model, production course, design, fashion and the product sustainability.

When we asked the founder ofConflictorium, gallerist Avani Sethi about how she was able to convince herself to house this showcase she uttered, “Ahmedabad is a heart of textile philosophy, and this exhibition is trying to bridge all the leftover textile fissures of east and west under a single roof. The event is not just restricted towards an exhibition. During all these days we are encouraging diverse activities including Industrial heritage walks at Mirzapur, puppet show storytelling, art therapy session, historical discussion on women of arts and crafts sector, pottery and poetry workshop for children and numerous enriching activities.”

The designers involved in the process were Laura Spring, Emlyn Firth, Lokesh Ghai, Sanjay Garg, Gabriella Marcella, and Charlotte Linton. 

The exhibition is a new flavour, exploring multiculturalism and creativity through domains of textile art. CY recommends connoisseurs to schedule a trip to Conflictorium to engage with the rare exhibit.