Conversations on Design - fourth WCMT blog
Also while I was in Ahmedabad I had meetings with present and past staff and students of the National Institute of Design, and with Adhaar, an NGO which supports craftspeople in various ways, including a fiilm festival and access to low cost, high quality graphic design.
'Innovative' craft here doesn't mean what it does in the UK. Here, using an embroidery technique historically used for saris, on new products such as table-runners is innovation. In the UK, innovation is synonymous with "cutting edge" ; a paradigm shift is 'innovation', a shift in response to market demand, supply of raw materials or similaris not enough of a paradigm shift.
I learned a lot about the history of intervention in craft in this part of my visit. At one point, I decided that I should have asked the WCMT if they could provide me with a time-travel component, as the India I reall should be visiting was the India of fifty or so years ago, when craft was seen as a major component of the new state, and treated accordingly. But soon I realised that today's India is the one which I can learn from, although the passion of a state for its own living heritage is something which could hope to have.
I have been imagining that - away from the politics of India's future - Gandhi and Churchill chatted about their shared love of crafts: Gandhi congratulating Churchill on mastering flemish bond, Churchill asking Gandhi about regional variation in hand looms. In my creation, the differences in approaches to craft of these two men lie under a friendly conversation.
No images from these meetigs, but here is a foretaste of my next stop, Lucknow. This is part of the British Residency, showing damage from the first Indian Mutiny.
'Innovative' craft here doesn't mean what it does in the UK. Here, using an embroidery technique historically used for saris, on new products such as table-runners is innovation. In the UK, innovation is synonymous with "cutting edge" ; a paradigm shift is 'innovation', a shift in response to market demand, supply of raw materials or similaris not enough of a paradigm shift.
I learned a lot about the history of intervention in craft in this part of my visit. At one point, I decided that I should have asked the WCMT if they could provide me with a time-travel component, as the India I reall should be visiting was the India of fifty or so years ago, when craft was seen as a major component of the new state, and treated accordingly. But soon I realised that today's India is the one which I can learn from, although the passion of a state for its own living heritage is something which could hope to have.
I have been imagining that - away from the politics of India's future - Gandhi and Churchill chatted about their shared love of crafts: Gandhi congratulating Churchill on mastering flemish bond, Churchill asking Gandhi about regional variation in hand looms. In my creation, the differences in approaches to craft of these two men lie under a friendly conversation.
No images from these meetigs, but here is a foretaste of my next stop, Lucknow. This is part of the British Residency, showing damage from the first Indian Mutiny.