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Currents of Memory (Turquoise silk )
Currents of Memory (Turquoise silk )
Medium - Textile assemblage constructed from layered silk and Indian sari fabrics, decorative woven borders, wool blanket backing, curtain-cord ties, and machine stitching.
Dimensions - 50"X100"
Description of Artwork:
Currents of Memory transforms a silk bedspread I originally designed from Indian sari fabrics into a ceremonial public-art drape. Its translucent turquoise layers, flowing borders, and shifting blue-green tones evoke water, sky, movement, and the passage of memory.
Rather than cutting apart the original textile, I preserved its history through folding and layering. A woolen blanket provides an internal structural foundation, while curtain cords attached to the underside allow the drape to be secured around the sculpture without placing excessive stress on the delicate silk.
The title refers both to the fluid movement suggested by the turquoise fabric and to the memories carried by textiles that have moved from India, into the intimacy of the home, and now into a public setting.
Artist Statement
Artist Statement
Coming to art after decades in medicine, I am drawn to transformation, memory, healing, and the ways materials carry lived experience. My mixed-media practice brings together painting, collage, texture, fabric, and handwork.
As an Indian American artist raised in Kolkata, I return frequently to color, pattern, textiles, and ornamentation as carriers of personal and cultural memory. For Draped in Heritage, I reimagined two domestic textiles as public art. I preserved the original fabrics through folding, layering, and structural support rather than cutting them apart, allowing their earlier identities to remain visible.
This process parallels The Great Elephant Migration’s transformation of invasive lantana into monumental art. I hope these drapes honor Indian textile traditions, Indigenous artisanship, conservation, coexistence, and the possibility of giving familiar materials a new form, purpose, and public life.
Pictures: Work in Progress
Pictures: Work in Progress
Pictures: Draped on Elephants
Pictures: Draped on Elephants
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