A New Union, Europe
Offered theme and materials, Akshata has drawn on ancient European culture and specifically the Greek notion of khaos: the primordial state preceding creation and the layer separating heaven and earth.
Layering, materiality and connection are evident in this panel woven from flax and linen forms from Scotland and our neighbour ‘linen nations’.
Our Linen Stories exhibition, Dovecot Studios
https://ourlinenstories.com/exhibition/featured-designers/akshata-mokashi/
https://ourlinenstories.com/exhibition/featured-designers/akshata-mokashi/
Trapped
Nature in its raw form must be distressed with the foreign elements introduced to it by man. As the lockdown ushered tension and anxiety to humans, with restrictions to move about, the artwork amplifies the trapped feeling of Mother Earth, bearing the burden of uninvited materials imposed upon her. Wouldn't she be feeling trapped all the years? The concept is suggested through the amalgamation of natural fibres in contrast with engineering material used in constructions, ironically found from within the earth's crust.
Can traditional craft act as a translation, inclusive of the blind?
Imbibed in nature and entwined as a woven structure, this sculptural piece seeks the sighted as well as the unsighted to engage with it. Inspired by the lush landscapes within the Scottish Borders, it uses sustainable fibres – wool and jute of varying thickness along with metal wires, adding to the sensory elements of touch and smell through rosemary and lavender leaves. The inspiration for the art piece also comes from the five elements of nature namely, Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space.
Hand weaving and basketry have been traditionally rich crafts, but today on the verge of becoming a memory. It is worthwhile to sustain it, while thinking about the user to whom its tactility can be an asset.
Hand weaving and basketry have been traditionally rich crafts, but today on the verge of becoming a memory. It is worthwhile to sustain it, while thinking about the user to whom its tactility can be an asset.
The John Byrne Award online entry
Migration
Modern Mumbai was built on the economic foundations laid by its textile mills. In 1887, first textile mill was bulid in Bombay Swadeshi the first of the factories that spread over many part of the island city in the next decades. After a prolonged and destabilizing confrontation of the great Bombay textile mill strike in 1982 and after collapse of the strike numerous mills were closed. The closure of textile mills across the city left tens of thousands of mill workers unemployed and, in the succeeding years, most of the industry moved away from Bombay and settled in Bhiwandi, a small city in Thane district. Of late the city seems to be almost seamlessly transformed from a manufacturing centre to being a significant node for finance capital, driven by the service economy. The closure of textile mills and the conversion of their real estate into palatial high-rises or luxurious offices
herald the birth of the new global-city.
herald the birth of the new global-city.
Work by textile designers Akshata Mokashi, Tanvi Parab and Zeenia Dalal seeks to interrogate this public profile of contemporary Bombay by listening to the experiences of an almost invisible but crucial and expansive textile workers.
Tales Between Borders, Clark House Initiative, Mumbai & Taiwan
