The sari adds a new dimension to the country's heritage. Madhubani ‘dhuli' and wall art, Kalahasti's temple craft Kalamkari, Kanthas and weaves from Bengal's Company Art are some art forms which literally transform the sari into a piece of art.
The Central Cottage Industry Emporium, Temple Towers, Nandanam, brings together a collection of heritage saris as part of its Festival Collection of Saris, which celebrates the best of weaves, art and design.
Take National awardee Lakshmiamma's work. She translates the temple art form of Kalahasti on to saris that make ethnic statements.
A brilliant conceptualiser, she uses elephants, peacocks and flowers as prominent themes on pallus or borders of tussars. Peacock blue, green, red and brown meld effortlessly in her creations.
Paintings on Tussar
Madhubani artists have created Bhagalpur paintings on tussars for the first time. Bright colours, particularly orange, blue and yellow, add a vivid touch and vignettes of rural life, festivals and marriages are interspersed with typical motifs of fish, circles, animals and stylised flowers.
Once upon a time, Kantha embroiderers wove whole stories of village life and festivities with running stitches that held together scrapes of discarded cloth! Today, a Kantha artist brings that to a sari. CCIE's collection has superlative examples of this stitch.
Deep red, off white and ‘swarnachari' or gold define the fabled Baluchari silk, which is now a vanishing legacy. Artisans have created Balucharis woven with wedding and ‘bidaai' scenes as well as Englishmen of the 18th Century smoking with Bengali aristocracy!
Orissa's Vichitrapuri black, red and white sari in tussar and silk, Bengal tussars with tribal block prints, Maheswari with unusual blocks, Chanderis with ‘gheecha pallu' and a series of temple bordered tussars are part of this exhibition, which is on till October 26, including Sundays. Also on display is an array of clay diyas.
