The Arunachal Pradesh State Weavers Co-op Federation Ltd in association with design firm Desmania are gearing up to showcase a collection of weaves and fabrics from Arunachal Pradesh in the national capital from Tuesday.
The exhibition, titled ‘Enigmatic East – from Zero to Infinity’, to be held at Atelier in Lado Sarai of Delhi, designed and curated by textile revivalist Sandhya Raman, will continue till January 30, 2019.
According to a report published on Monday by Indian Express, Sandhya Raman, who had been mentoring the weavers in Arunachal Pradesh for quite some time, wished to get their voices and crafts in the mainstream narrative.
Sandhya Raman, also the founder of Desmania, has been working to bring the Northeast, especially Arunachal, into focus for the last two years.
The report quoted Sandhya Raman as saying: “I have been a consultant with the Weavers Federation of Arunachal Pradesh, a government initiative, for about two years.”
Sandhya Raman has worked for the past three decades towards reviving weaves, handlooms and textiles and making them sustainable.
She also stated: “The Arunachal Pradesh State Weavers Co-op Federation has been working tirelessly to bring the handlooms and weaves of the state under one umbrella.”
The report further quoted as saying: “The weaves native to Arunachal are so simple, made on the backstrap loom, that’s as pure and handwoven as it gets. Yet the result is so dramatic. The idea is to let the colours, fabrics and the texture speak for itself, instead of letting it all get shadowed with glitzy cuts and designs.”
It has been reported that Sandhya Raman has incorporated the native designs and motifs from six of the existing 26 tribes, including Apatani, Aaji, Galo, Nyishi, Adi and Tagin and 106 sub-tribes, and other communities existing in the Himalayan State.
Stating that the weaves are very much art of the lives and history of the Arunachali tribes, Raman added: “We see these efforts — all frills and frivolous — of cutting something here and there and sticking it somewhere else. This will just dilute the essence of the craft. The need of the hour is to recognise the sense of each particular art and craft in textiles and play with that.”