A textile exhibition slated for next week will bring together Indian and Australian crafts. Titled Karri-djarrk-durrkmirri (we work together), it features designs by indigenous women who are part of the Bábbarra Women’s Centre in Maningrida, a town in Australia’s Northern Territory.
The exhibition is the result of a two-year collaboration with Bengaluru-based Tharangini Studio, which specialises in woodblock printing.
The show will feature 21 unique textiles with prints made from a total of 77 individual blocks. The indigenous communities of Maningrida work with linoleum printing. However, the motifs and designs, which have been created over 20 years by the women at the centre, were replicated on woodblock prints in Tharangini for the special collaboration. It will also feature Porgai embroidery on handblock prints. Of the pieces, two bring together Indian and Australian motifs. textile
The designs depict food, hunting, local flowers, and ancestral stories. Motifs like floor mats woven from pandanus leaves are significant in their cultures, say Raylene Bonson and Abigail Namundja, two artists from the Babbarra Women’s Centre, who are in Bengaluru for the exhibition.
The prints have been done on ethical cotton blend and silk textiles with natural and Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) dyes.
The show is curated by Prithi Pais, Anshu Arora, and Jessica Stalenberg. The exhibition will also see the screening of a film by Indian-Australian filmmaker Naina Sen and photographer Anahita Ananth.
The Tharangini Studio, run by Padmini Govind, was set up in 1977. It is renowned for its woodblock-printed textiles. The Bábbarra Women’s Centre was founded in 1987 and was opened as a place for women to find refuge. Over the years, it has transformed into a textile art centre.
The exhibition is from October 4-13 at Bangalore International Centre, Domlur. For details, visit bangaloreinternationalcentre.org