Ecstatic beyond words to share the news that Dr. Kamini Gupta @kaminig and I have secured the @culturalkings "Sanctuary Season Creative Collaboration Seed Fund" to translate Dr. Kamini’s research on the role of workplace for the Embroidery Women Artisans in Kashmir into a lens-based interdisciplinary work.
Ever since Kamini and I have reached Srinagar we have initiated our ethnographic research, focusing on the cultural, personal and societal epistemologies of the region.
This project is a collaborative effort driven by shared passion of the Kashmiri Embroidery artisans, Kamini and myself.
The discourse surrounding conflict in Kashmir has casually unarchived the impact on and the role of women, instead being predominantly male-centric.
This work will sit at the intersection of culture, arts and gender identities that may have its foundation in the Kashmir context but will hopefully resonate with a wider global audience.
Thank you so much once again to @culturalkings for their support.
PS: what you see here in the images is only a proof-of-form artwork that I have made and not the final works.
Ever since Kamini and I have reached Srinagar we have initiated our ethnographic research, focusing on the cultural, personal and societal epistemologies of the region.
This project is a collaborative effort driven by shared passion of the Kashmiri Embroidery artisans, Kamini and myself.
The discourse surrounding conflict in Kashmir has casually unarchived the impact on and the role of women, instead being predominantly male-centric.
This work will sit at the intersection of culture, arts and gender identities that may have its foundation in the Kashmir context but will hopefully resonate with a wider global audience.
Thank you so much once again to @culturalkings for their support.
PS: what you see here in the images is only a proof-of-form artwork that I have made and not the final works.
A Brief Note from my first trip to Kashmir in November 2024 with Kamini for this project. I will be returning in April 2025 again:
Past few weeks spent in Srinagar have been complex. A city moving in parts despite its deep scarring.
How do you undo generations of silencing? Fuzzy, forgotten, suppressed memories… reconstructed at times through forced imagination. Some gaps you realise in your story only when someone asks a question. A question that hasn’t been ever asked before.
@kaminig Kamini and I often played the fine act of being present and yet absent… just so the narrator could speak freely with the comfort that the room perhaps is wholly empty.
Trust despite a history of abandonment is easy currency in Kashmir. So is love.
We made progress we hope. To become one with the story and yet remain truthfully outside of it.
But try as I may, I couldn’t help myself from becoming a little bit of Kashmiri myself. The endless cups of Kahva and haak-paneer, doon chetin and nadru yakni… tea and food seem to be a radical solution to all problems in my life now.
I’ve developed bonds. I’ve found places, songs, birds, clothes, colours, smells, sounds… even silences in Kashmir that are a reflection of me.
Thank you so much @kaminig for choosing me to collaborate with you on this important project. Thanks a lot @shehjar97 Assma for being the most generous and extraordinary human and thanks so much to all our women artisan collaborators. We have a long way to go from here together but the start has been nothing short of exceptional.
See you soon.
Also find below some images from our time making the work.
