Nila House will host the Jaipur edition of the Corona Quilt Project, presented in collaboration with Healing Arts India. The public art installation will celebrate the creativity and resilience of artisan communities across Rajasthan. The art installation will be accompanied by an exhibition and direct-to-artisan sale of hand-made textiles, representing the unique quilting traditions of communities across 5 Indian states.
The NILA organisation joins the Corona Quilt Project and Healing Arts India (the India chapter of the international Healing Arts Initiative, presented by The Art Lab Studio) to present an immersive experience of the textile craft of quilting.The series of public art installations, exhibition-sales and artisan-interaction sessions at Nila House celebrate the resilience of craft communities through the challenges of the pandemic, whilst also showing the depth of their skills and creativity.
The Corona Quilt Project is a community engagement initiative by founded by contemporary artist Dia Mehhta Bhupal and Neha Modi in May 2020, offering an uplifting, inclusive channel of collective healing through creative expression.The Jaipur edition of the Corona Quilt Project is a site-specific public art installation at Nila House, created from specially commissioned artworks made by craftspeople across Rajasthan.
The installations have been created in an inclusive, collaborative process - the themes of ‘Nature’ and ‘Rhythm' were shared with artisan communities across Rajasthan, with the free range to express these themes onto 15-inch textile squares using their craft skills.The artwork commissions directly supported artisans whilst also creating a rich tapestry representing Rajasthan’s multitude of textile crafts such as such as hand block printing, dhabu mud-resist printing, kantha and tagai stitch, applique and ralli embroidery, leheriya and natural indigo dyeing.
With the open, public nature of the installation, the idea is to create opportunities for connection between people, their stories and shared histories.With Healing Arts’s expertise with creating forms for engagement with art as a tool for mental healthcare, the project and final artworks have been designed to bring a special focus on art’s potential for collective catharsis, using crafts that are an organic, everyday part of life in India.The artwork also recognizes the struggles of the vast and historically deep textile-based craft ecosystems that were made particularly vulnerable in the last year and a half; a reminder of how intrinsic they are to our sense of cultural well-being and the urgency to lift communities during this critical time.Through its collection of individual creative gestures, the quilt installation hopes to evoke a sense of togetherness and present a positive direction for healing.
The opening of the Corona Quilt installations will be accompanied by a vibrant programme of events including a two-week exhibition- sale of exceptional quilts made by nomad communities across Rajasthan (Kalbelia and Jajam quilts), Gujarat (Ralli quilts from Kutch), Maharashtra (Godhadi quilts) and Karnataka (Kowdhi quilts).With workshops and craft demonstration sessions taking place in tandem, the exhibition-sale will be an opportunity to celebrate the diversity of quilting traditions as well as support artisan communities through direct purchases.
Carrying on the theme of ‘Quilts of India’, Nila House will also be hosting a curated exhibition of rare, handmade quilts that will be shown in the specially designed underground exhibition space.The exhibition of quilts will be on view till July.
Read our interview with the Corona Quilt Project here.
Date 17-03-2022