‘The Cloth of the Mother Goddess’ is the only textile book from an Indian publisher
Jagdish Chitara with his family
A unique textile book by Tara Books has had the rare honour of being a part of the collection at the prestigious Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The Cloth of the Mother Goddess is a unique work that can only be described as a work of art itself — it tells the story of the Goddess through art by Jagdish Chitara, who is an expert in Mata-Ni-Pachedi (Gujarat’s equivalent of south Indian Kalamkari). V Geetha, editorial director at Tara books, explains the process behind the book, which is a part of the ongoing Indian Seasons event held for the Fabric of India exhibition at V&A. In Geetha’s words, “The book is not about textile art, rather it is textile art in itself. Around 2011-2012, we met Mata-Ni-Pachedi artist Jagdish Chitara when we were working on our book The Great Race. We then got the idea of creating a book out of his unique art.”
Gita Wolf storyboarded the book based on Jagdish Chitara’s narrative. Each ‘page’ of the book was hand-block printed using wood pieces that were painstakingly cut into intricate designs. All this was done to tell the story of the mother Goddess, sometimes depicted as Vihat, the patron goddess of artisans. On some pages she is seen riding a buffalo, holding a sacrificing cup, weapons and a piece of leather also known as chamar.
According to V Geetha, on such projects the prime objective is to show the artist as the primary author. “Many of our artists come from marginalised communities, but their intelligence is inspiring. Whatever direction a project takes, the one basic premise is that we would like each artiste to be the author, the active creator of a book,” she says. Ever since Tara began working with indigenous artists 15 years ago, they have been building a database. Even on this book, they found block-printing artist Dakshinamoorthy through a friend and artist Trotsky Marudu. “We work intensively with the artist, pushing boundaries and creating the best outcome. This book was no different,” explains Geetha.
Getting selected for the exhibition was a pleasant surprise for Geetha. “When we were in the process of creating The Cloth of the Mother Goddess, the V & A got in touch with us for its Indian Seasons exhibition, asking for a suitable submission. We offered Cloth of the Mother Goddess, since it appeared to fit in well with the larger textile story the exhibition focused on, and yet brought it up to date in an inventive sort of way. We’re so happy to be exhibited, as it tells a little known story of an artisanal form and its poignant social origins,” she concludes.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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