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Curated by Somedutta Malik
Textiles contain, within their thread and texture, time.
From the very time of their creation through varied usages, textiles oscillate between two states of dimensionality: two-dimensional and three-dimensional. This incertitude often occurs because of the textile’s unique capacity to stretch and shrink, absorb and resist, fold and unfold, or conceal and reveal at the same time. Human civilization makes use of textiles’ ability to the fullest through diverse making processes followed by a wide range of consumptions. The makers give shape to their imaginations as well as meet the necessities of everyday life through a variety of woven, painted, printed, dyed, stitched, and embroidered fabrics. This often defines how a textile piece exists in a space and interacts with human subjects closely associated with it. For example, warp and weft, entwined with each other, create a tangible, voluminous fabric, which serves as a surface for dye, block printing or embroidery.
Later, when the length of the textile is cut into pieces, tailored, and stitched together to build something as grand and capacious as a royal tent, it replicates the grandeur of an architectural space. This talks about the journey of textiles through spaces and also the kind of space they create and represent.