top of page
Untitled-1C.jpg

DROP CLOTH, Hamilton Artists Inc., March 25-May 13, 2023
Photograph by Toni Hafkenscheid

Prendre_Empreinte_par_Alexis_Bellavance-11.jpg

 When Was Modernism?, 2023-2034, made with Salemamad Khatri, Mukesh Prajapati, Jasuben Prabhu Rabari, Madhubhen Vana Rabari, and Jivaben Rupa Rabari (Qasab Kutch Women's Collective). 

Installation, "Prendre empreinte ー Holding Knowledge", curated by Manel Benchabane, Stewart Hall Art Gallery, Pointe-Claire
Photographs by Alexis Bellevance

Kabir Was Both Kori and Julaha, 2020
Recycled plastic weaving from biscuit wrappers and garbage bags
Photograph by Toni Hafkenscheid

Prendre_Empreinte_par_Alexis_Bellavance-9.jpg
IMG_6112.jpg
Tamhane_Notes on Drawing.jpg

Achadiya III, 2020-2023,  made with Salemamad Khatri
Dropcloth, indigo, mirrors, embroidery, and aluminium
Photograph by Toni Hafkenscheid

Achadiya III, 2020-2023.jpg

Achadiya, 2020-2021, made with Salemamad Khatri
Dropcloth, indigo, mirrors, embroidery, aluminium, and steel stands
Photographs by Brandon Brookbank

The “achadiya” is the dropcloth that block printers lay over their long tables, prior to starting the printing process. The achadiya is usually a heavier cloth that may have imperfections or is recycled, and absorbs the excess resist from the printing process. While artisan-designer, Salemamad Khatri, was printing the panels for my artwork “Mobile Palace”, I asked him to keep the “achadiya”, which he also uses for printing Ajrakh motifs on dupattas and saris. These dropcloths have been mordanted and dyed in indigo, revealing an incredible imprinting and layering of my motifs that quote Corbusier’s Mill Owners’ Association Building, and the Ajrakh motifs, which are believed to be from Islamic architecture. I am responding to the imprints with the additions of mirrors – an integral part of Kutch within embroidery traditions and the indigenous architecture (bhungas, and the mud-mirror craft of lippankam). The mirrors are secured with embroidery, and instead of embroidering the edges of the mirrors as with traditional shisha-kam, I have drawn the thread across the mirrors – almost like scars. I have treated the process of placing the mirrors similar to how I work with drawing and mark-making.

SWAPNAA_12.jpg
ROM2022_18364_25.jpg

Achadiya, 2020-2021, made with Salemamad Khatri
Dropcloth, indigo, mirrors, embroidery, aluminium, and steel stands
Photograph by Paul Eekhoff/ROM
Collection of Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

bottom of page