top of page
3.jpg

What The Tide Brought In: An embroidered data visualisation

Plastic waste

The project began as an exploration of embroidery as a medium to express data. Stitches can be units that are counted down, making them ideal to show numbers. The metaphors of cloth and thread melding together made me think of plastics in the ocean.

I chose kantha embroidery on organza as a way of depicting the plastic waste that was collected along 10 km of beach in three countries during beach cleanup days, as per the Ocean Conservancy Report, 2019.

 

Organza, because it reminded me of both plastic and water. Kantha, because the running stitch dips in and out of the cloth, playing with its translucence and because it can be twisted into all manner of aquatic-inspired shapes.

Bhalunath.jpg

Foot of Bhalunath

Date: c.a. 400-200 BCE

Culture: Central Indian

Region: Chamba (India)

Material: Terracotta

Technique: Coiling and slab

 

Bears were once worshipped and raised by the tribal community of Mandadiya in the hills of Chamba (present-day Uttarakhand). Bhalunath is believed to have been the pet bear of Uttam, the erstwhile Mandadiya chief.

 

The bearclaw was probably once placed on a ledge behind a waterfall as a practical joke upon the unsuspecting.

Tapaknaak Water Jug

Date: ca. 700-900 CE

Culture: Indic

Region: Madhya Pradesh (India)

Material: Terracotta

Technique: Wheel and slab

 

Tapaknaak was a mythological demon. He was cursed by the bad-tempered sage Gaurav,  whose meditation was disturbed by Tapaknaak's loud sneezes, to have a perpetual cold. This made the demon a figure of fun for the people of central India.

 

It is said that he could never afterward effectively plunder and loot villages because he was always pausing to blow his nose.

Tapaknaak.jpg
My-eyes-are-up-here.jpg

My Eyes are Up Here

Contemporary

Concept for terracotta vase/water vessel

Terracotta water and ink on paper.

Explorations, ideas, and documentation from a visit to the Shreyas Museum in Ahmedabad and the Poshina trip are included in the gallery below.

bottom of page