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Textiles are the passion de jour. They pervade every creative sphere from design to art to photography to couture. Gopika Nath of the many talents wears several hats textile artist, writer and healer. Which one does she identify with herself the most?
No surprises here. Textiles. “My training is in textiles. Thread and fabric define my identity. However, without the other two derivatives, it would be incomplete,” says Nath who is showing at Gallery Art Positive, Delhi, along with seven other artists.
The exhibition, titled ‘Fibre of Our Lives’, offers an insight into the versatility of contemporary art practices inspired by textiles, weaving and embroidery techniques.
But the new twist in Nath’s weft is the camera. Like many successful artists today, she is at ease with amalgamated innovations involving other mediums: in her current exhibition, her work is a combination of photography on canvas, pen and ink, embroidery and stitching, and crochet, says the artist.
Inspired to embroider, rather than paint, Nath has given new meaning to the form and function of textile as a medium.
From crocheting shells onto delicate lace using a finer count of yarn that she dyes to her specification, to sometimes having the edges singed—her ultimate creation is often a mash-up of patches, but at the same time surprisingly presents a smooth visual.
Against a grey gallery wall, a Nath canvas framed in broad white seems like a wild display of emotions. It has anguish, despair and hope together woven into a beautiful tapestry of life.
Sixty-two-year-old Nath has been working with textiles for over four decades, “I trained to be a weaver; hence thread is fundamental to my creativity,” she says.
She started painting saris and scarves. “In the beginning, I held biannual sari exhibitions. But I couldn’t keep pace with the demand,” says Nath, who now is full time textile artist.
Nath uses a variety of textile techniques such as weaving, screen printing, block printing, knitting, crochet and embroidery. The innate relationship between different mediums is the force behind the final piece.
Nath is currently working on a series of works that interprets the idea of ‘washed ashore’ inspired by the sea and its relationship with consciousness. So you have the brilliant work that she calls ‘Thought Net’.
Using wool, she knits together a colourful, but haphazard, canvas that instantly reminds us of the chaos in our minds.
“It took me four years to arrive at the creative core of the series, but more is left to explore,” she admits, going into artspeak, “The elevation of consciousness and taking control of one’s life by totally surrendering to the nature of being becomes more than just a visually creative endeavour.
It becomes the fulcrum of life’s purpose and the journey towards it. It’s about being present. It’s about savouring every moment for what it brings the rasa that experience includes every emotion from love, separation, disgust and more. The key is to be the rasa and the rasika.”And to the tapestry of the past.
Inspired to embroider, rather than paint, Gopika Nath has given new meaning to the form and function of textile as a medium
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