Weaving tales on India's traditional textiles

GURGAON: The Devi Art Foundation, in its own understated way, has been hosting an exhibition since January this year, a kaleidoscopic look at India's many-layered and multi-hued tradition of textiles. It's a masterclass of curating, proof that Gurgaon has come of age as an art hub.'FRACTURE: Indian Textiles, New Conversations' sees a band of designers - not all of them with a background in textiles - express themselves using India's age-old 'tapestry' of handlooms. Thoughtfully and elegantly put together, the exhibition is a joy to behold.More than 30 artisans are featured in FRACTURE, and the works displayed here, some individually and others collaboratively, are clearly labours of love, endeavours that draw from a rich past while seamlessly embracing contemporary idioms.There was the lushly put-together 'Shikargarh', where scenes of hunting are depicted on velvety materials that back on to mirrors. There was Swati Kalsi's eye-catching 'Sujni and Quilting', metallic yarn on cotton magnificently evoking a blood-red sunset with streaks of gold. Meanwhile, the 'Kalamkari' of Berenice Ellena and Sri Niranjan (natural dyes on cotton) brings together the worlds of ancient India and Greece with the touch of a magical realist.Sachin George Sebastian showed how the spirit of textiles can be channelled through paper. Metal shared space with fabric in funky fusions, and, in an extraordinary upending of custom, designer Rimzim Dadu forgoes traditional cotton to weave a Jamdani sari using silicon 'yarn'. The final exhibit is also the simplest, raw but beautiful muslin khadi, as redolent of a timeless India as anything else.Mayank Mansingh Kaul, Rahul Jain and Sanjay Garg, FRACTURE's curators, can take a bow. The show is a fulfilling (and enlightening) coda to a conversation each of them has been having, over a period of time, with the artisans. An immersion in these creations is like being introduced anew to the history of India, a history as seen through her weaves.