When a weaver meets an artist

In a unique collaboration, artists are taking weavers and techniques out of the factory and onto their canvases

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The world of Raman Goswami got shaken a bit when, about a year ago, artist Puneet Kaushik landed at the factory in Panipat where he worked. Back then, Goswami, a weaver, didn't quite realise what was coming his way. Kaushik, too, didn't entirely know what he was getting into.

The two had been brought together by Raj Group, a Panipat-based manufacturer and exporter of high-end rugs and carpets. The weaving industry was growing, but weaving traditions were slowly dying as weavers moved to less labour-intensive jobs. Sumeet Nath, the company's managing partner, felt that weavers needed to see their craft as more than what it was - merely a skill that created products for retail. They needed to see it as something creative and respectful. The idea had the group reaching out to artists in Delhi and bringing them to its factory in Panipat.

Over the last one year, 11 artists, including Kaushik, travelled to the factory where they and the weavers worked closely with each other, learnt from each other and eventually transcended the boundary that separates the world of art from the world of craft.

The exhibition, Fibre Fables, is the culmination of this unique year-long collaboration. Each artwork, be it installation, photograph, video or sound art, has been created in the factory using techniques (tufting, braiding, kilim and pitloom weaving) or experiences of the weaving industry.

"Multiple things happen simultaneously in the factory; there are looms running, screen printing and spray dying work happening, raw wool is being converted into yarn and the yarn into finer fabric," says Shailin Smith, the curator.

Shivani Aggarwal’s Shuttle that uses the techniques of technique crochete, yarn wrapping and sculpting to on wood, wool and lurex

"The scale of the techniques and the possibilities they opened up was mind-boggling," says Shivani Aggarwal, whose work is inspired by weaving tools like the trimmer or the panja (used to push the layers of woven thread down on the loom). These tools, embellished with embroidered thread, are at the centre of her works. Her canvases too are embroidered and then blended with paint, creating a whole new narrative.

Similarly, Kaushik's installation, Roots, has metal wire woven with wool on the kilim loom. "Ordinarily, it would make no sense to a weaver if you asked him to put metal wire on to the kilim," says Smith. But with the artist standing by his side, explaining the process and going through the journey with him, the weaver pushed the boundary and entered a hitherto unexplored realm. "I did tufting even on lace. I didn't think it was possible," says Goswami, who joined the weaving trade in 1989 - "right after Class X".

If the artists introduced the weavers to creativity, the weavers introduced the artists to the many techniques and skills the artists had no idea about.

One fascinating piece of work is a sound installation by film maker Abeer Gupta. He has recorded the ambient sounds of the factory. Close your eyes and you are transported into the factory, where in the midst of the loud sounds of the hammering and clanging of machines you can hear the gentle tinkling of the bangles as the factory women pick the cotton wool.

Another intriguing creation is Vibhu Galhotra's Music Instrument. It resembles the loom, but has acoustic strings that can be played in the same technique you would employ while weaving. It is about weaving music.

Dhvani Behl, whose installation Time Continuance greets you as you walk into the gallery, says of the experience: "When we met, the weavers were out of their realm. And I as an artist was out of mine. But we somehow met in this common space - inside a factory."

There came a point in the collaboration when the artist in the weaver emerged. "Then, instead of the artist guiding the weaver, the weaver started telling the artist where the technique would work and where it wouldn't," says Smith. The journey had come full circle.

Fibre Fables can be viewed at The Stainless Gallery in Delhi till December 31