AHMEDABAD: For the world, Paris sets off the highfashion wave and its crest is currently illumined by the creations of two Gujarati cultural grandees.
Ahmedabad-born Manu Parekh, 83, a Padma Shri awardee, are featured alongside those of Madhvi Parekh, 80, a pioneer in using Indian folk motifs in contemporary renderings, at a top fashion event in Paris. That event consecrates not only the international standards of elegance and artistic genius but also the state of being en vogue.
The world’s fashion aristocracy bowed to the Gujarati couple’s visions, which form the backdrop to the unveiling of the spring-summer 2022 haute couture presentation. The event is being held at Paris’s Musee Rodin, fittingly the home of perhaps the most thought-provoking sculpture in human history, “The Thinker” by Auguste Rodin. The Parekhs’ 22 works
are manifested as embroidered textile pieces. The Parekhs worked on this project with designers and artisans from a Mumbai craft school. “This collaboration between artists, artisans and designers has successfully blurred the divide between art and craft,” Manu Parekh said.
“The project has evoked a new collaborative language. ” Selected artworks from the Parekhs’ oeuvre have been translated into large-scale hand-embroidered textile panels, which will be displayed throughout the show space at the museum till January 30. The panels have been created employing traditional Indian fine-needle zardozi stitches using raw threads.
The Parekhs’ works depict traditional Indian iconography that celebrate synergies between male and female, real and surreal, and indigenous and spiritual. A gigantic installation of their works has created a magical frame for introducing the world’s latest fashion trends. The installation was created by 320 artisans who worked for three months, embroidering 340 square metres by hand. “This effort brilliantly created an immersive experience,” said Madhvi Parekh. “This endeavour preserved and celebrated India’s art, craftsmanship, and indigenous techniques and championed the cause of Indian art. ” The project was spurred by a year-long exchange between the distinguished designer Maria Grazia Chiuri and the craft school’s director, Karishma Swali. Swali’s Mumbaibased craft school reinterpreted Parekhs’ artworks as embroidered textile pieces.
Magical world
Madhvi Parekh, conferred the National Award by the Lalit Kala Akademi, amalgamates modernism with traditional Indian craft motifs. Folk traditions are her muse. She spent her formative years in Sanjaya village in Gujarat and was fascinated by the beauty of rangolis and embroidery. She enjoyed watching the Bhavai travelling theatre. Interestingly, she never aspired to become an artist nor is formally trained as one. Her husband Manu inspired her to take up art and she started painting in the 1960s when she conceived her first child.
To interpret her artworks through embroidery, Karishma Swali developed a folk narrative by using dimensional techniques in repetition to form background textures. They conjure up a magical world of folktales, deities, forests, animals, children, and amorphous forms. “One of my artworks ‘World of Kali’, the embodiment of Shakti or feminine energy, was represented through craft by using raw linework techniques,” Madhvi Parekh said. “They lent an energetic charge to the installation. ”
Spiritual voyages
Manu Parekh’s art constantly invites the viewer to travel through mental landscapes and spiritual abstractions. His deep-rooted commitment to spiritualism has made him one of the most dominant presences in contemporary Indian art. His landscapes capture the complex syncretism of the ancient pilgrimage town of Banaras.
He is also known for his vibrant portraits of flowers. To interpret Manu Parekh’s famed Banaras, Chant, and the Third Eye series as tapestries, meticulous attention was paid to creating layers that gradually reveal hidden details.
