Framed, unframed, sculptural works and installations fill the galleries at Experimenter Ballygunge as we walked in to see the ongoing exhibition Trace. Lead by Karishma Swali, Founder & Chairperson, Chanakya School of Craft, Mumbai, this exhibition by the School is a display of textile through weaves, embroidery, beads, where the surface cloth becomes a repository of living memory and handwork, a medium of transferring tradition through communities. Karishma spills the beans on choosing Calcutta as the venue and how the layers of thread speak volumes about a community and civilization.
How did the idea of this exhibition come about?
Within our school’s artistic practice, textile is approached as a language that translates gesture and intuition into form. As the practice deepened its dialogue with layered textile practices and inherited knowledge systems, a larger inquiry began to take shape, one that naturally connected contemporary thought with ancient processes.
Trace emerged from this exploration. Across cultures and centuries, cloth has absorbed the personal alongside the collective, becoming a palimpsest where stories are deposited, layered, and preserved. To trace a line of thread is to follow an unbroken lineage of knowledge that binds people to land, to one another, and to their communities.
How does the exhibition serve as a bridge between ancient processes and contemporary thought?
Within craft traditions, innovation has always been present. In Trace, this understanding forms the foundation of how the exhibition bridges ancient processes with contemporary responses.
In the body of the work titled Flowers in the Night, the works are woven on Saori looms, the panels draw on herringbone, basket weave, and chevron, among the earliest systems through which fibre was organised into meaning. Using hand-dyed cotton, linen and jute, these structures trace a continuum from early loom technologies to contemporary practice.
Similarly, the large triptych Trace (III-V), combines thread and bead as the surfaces emerge through gradual layering, often reaching twelve layers of depth, similar to how traces are built in time, retaining a stone-material quality of landscape, yet embodying the suppleness of thread. The immersive installation Dwelling, inspired by deconstructed bhunga forms from Kutch were traditionally sites of communal exchange, these structures are re-imagined within the gallery space as environments of gathering and reflection, foregrounding women’s shared labour and solidarity within weaving communities.
The bridge, therefore, is built through practice itself, through a pedagogy that is women-centred yet collectively held and through recognition that knowledge systems embedded within craft are sophisticated frameworks of design and philosophy.
Do you feel the role of women in this regard is still quite unacknowledged?
In India, craft traditions have often been passed down through generations of men, while women have long practiced them within homes and communities, yet with limited creative and economic agency. Their presence has always been constant, but their authorship has not always been fully acknowledged.
We often see women embroidering in communities or preparing the loom. What is less visible is the depth of knowledge embedded in these gestures: the structural intelligence, the rhythm, the design memory that shapes the textile long before it is complete.
In many weaving traditions, women’s roles have historically centred on preparing the loom and the shuttle. These preparatory acts are foundational to the making of cloth, yet they have often been understood as supportive rather than creative contributions. Within the Chanakya School of Craft’s collective practice, we sought to reframe this history. The “shuttle wrap” technique emerged from this inquiry, transforming what was once considered a peripheral task into a site of authorship and expression.
Today, handwork with thread is battling the rapid digital boom. Where do you see the future of threads?
Craft is a container of knowledge that has travelled across generations, carrying both cultural memory and individual expression. I see the future not in opposition to technology, but in conversation with it. Digital platforms allow craft practices to travel further, connecting practitioners and audiences across geographies. When innovation and heritage move together, these traditions continue to evolve while remaining rooted in their cultural origins.
Trace was the debut solo exhibition in India. Why this debut solo in Calcutta?
Calcutta felt like a meaningful place for this solo. Priyanka and Prateek (Raja) have built Experimenter with remarkable vision, creating a space that has consistently nurtured rigorous artistic dialogue in India. The gallery’s foundation in Kolkata, a city with such a deep intellectual and cultural history, made it a very natural context for Trace. The exhibition marks an important beginning for the Chanakya School of Craft’s artistic practice within the contemporary art space. We see this as the start of a larger journey, and we are now exploring opportunities to take this body of work into other cities in India and internationally, continuing the dialogue between craft, material practice, and contemporary thought.
Trace is on display at Experimenter- Ballygunge Place till March 21, 2026
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