Turning 'loom into string instrument,' Mexican artist conjures

Mexican artist Tania Candiani gave a brief but emphatic performance on the inaugural day of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale by replacing the strings of a loom with that of the sitar, thus highlighting the way everyday sounds impact humans.

Collaborating with compatriot artist Carlos Chinchillas and Kochi's Ranesh Reju (guitarist) and Vinay Murali (violin-maker), the team at Aspinwall House went on to transform a traditional weaving loom into a musical instrument with strings.

For the project, Candiani used a local loom in disrepair condition.

"The idea was to showcase the slowly dying art of handloom weaving in Kerala," she said on Wednesday, having replaced the loom threads with sitar strings.

"We ensured we won't tamper with the aesthetics of the loom.

So we used the same technique and design to reproduce and repurpose to the logic of sound to produce music."