The Secret Life of Burrows
This is a tapestry piece I had made for the Cubbon Park Metro Station in Bangalore as a part of Festival of Stories (6). The piece was inspired by a walk in the Cubbon Park when a slithering brown snake glided past me and disappeared into a gaping hole under the exposed root of a tree. I suddenly became aware of the world underneath me and I began to weave a fantastical narrative of the underground. The forms are meant to probe the boundaries between the overground and the underground, the dead and the living, the animate and the inanimate.
The aim was to lure in the traveller by using tactility as a tool, get the sense of touch involved so as to create an intimate experience. Different materials and techniques have been used on the piece from wool to cardboard to actual dried leaves collected from the park.
I had started the piece in the station and the days I spent in the metro station led to conversations which turned into momentary friendships and I found myself face to face with the city. People saw a glimpse of what I was making and were curious to know what was coming up, these interactions turned this place of transit for me into a space of humane interactions. The process led to a dissolving of walls and allowed me to briefly become a part of the station community.
Here is a link to a video of people interacting with the Installation at the Metro Station.
Process Sketch
This was the initial sketch I had made to translate the story of the snake crawling into the burrow. As I started sketching the narrative of the burrows evolved.
Kantha Tapestry
I had translated the sketch on paper onto a drawing on cloth by using stem and running stitches. The base fabric used is cotton and the black mounts have been created with synthetic polyester fabric.
Process of Making the Final Installation
The base material used was a plastic sheet used for shower curtains. Some of the material used to add texture are- wool, jute thread, coconut coir, cardboard, foam, scrap pieces of fabric, plastic gunny sacks(collected from the streets), felt and wire. A combination of embroidery and crochet techniques have been used to manipulate the material. Some of the fabric used has been naturally dyed with turmeric and pomegranate peel.
Final Installation
