Dior Tapestries on Display at Mumbai Exhibit
MUMBAI, India — After being a centerpiece of Dior’s spring 2022 couture show, the 22 large-sized tapestries that provided an embroidered, multicolored backdrop are making their first foray into an exhibition at the Snowball studio in Worli here.
Although it’s hard to compete with the magnificent surroundings of the Rodin Museum in Paris, where the show was held, the tapestries have an edge in the exhibition — no longer the backdrop, their details of threadwork and nuance of embroidery can be studied closely
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The exhibition is called “Mūḷ māthī,” which means “to the roots.” The art was created by Madhvi and Manu Parekh, a husband-and-wife duo with vastly different styles. Their works were translated into a new medium by the Chanakya Atelier in Mumbai, led by their director Karishma Swali — creating the same art entirely with embroidery, working with Dior’s creative director for women’s collections Maria Grazia Chiuri. These were created by 320 artisans working over 190 days.
The exhibition is part of Chiuri’s vision to bring the worlds of fashion and art together and to keep artisans’ techniques going.
The opening of the exhibition follows Dior’s pre-fall 2023 show at the Gateway of India, which brought celebrities and fashion followers from around the world to Mumbai and showcased the work of the Chanakya Atelier and its school. The exhibit runs through April 22.
Describing this as an “exceptional event,” a statement before the show said that Dior wished to shine a light on the wealth of India’s rich and diverse savoir-faire, past and present. “Perpetuating the pioneering vision that preserves and promotes these virtuoso skills, the house is firmly devoted to paying homage to the wonders of India’s heritage, both architectural and artistic. Thus, Dior continues to rise to the challenge of honoring priceless legacies,” the company said.
The huge works of embroidered art in the exhibition are part of that legacy. The show was curated by the Asia Society India Centre in collaboration with Dior and the Chanakya School of Craft.
“It is interesting to see how craft added new dimension to those works, giving a new movement and energy into them. It gives an untethered ability to really command attention and has a completely different ability to transform the way we look at craft itself,” Inakshi Sobti, chief executive officer of the Asia Society India Centre, told WWD.
“It gives us a chance to deconstruct the works, to understand the craftsmanship that went into it, how textures were used to create certain effects, the way the direction of threads or their layering can change the art. The figures that Madhvi created, for instance, goddess figures which exude primal energy, use different threads to show the hair or the inside of the face to denote movement. An exhibition like this can show transformational change,” she said.
“The way we designed the exhibition — just given the scale of the works — we wanted to keep the sense of surprise; that’s why the angular walls, the other work popping out, which then gives each work a spotlight of its own instead of a full cheek-by-jowl display which takes away the uniqueness of each,” she added.
Talking about the exhibition and the reason these panels came up in the first place, Chiuri maintained that fashion “is a territory where you can work with different kinds of artists, with many different backgrounds” and that tapestry itself was very different. “It has more freedom and also you realize it is more difficult — it is like painting, where you can paint and you don’t have to think about the weight, how wearable it is, it is much more artistic, and has less limits. With clothes, you have more limits.
“When we started the project with the artists it was like to show the space like a gallery, they had to think of the space empty and they had to use it like a gallery,” she said.
“I think at the school we have begun to witness that there is certainly a paradigm shift in the way creativity works. Today it is so much about collective effort. The artists bring a certain vision with their beauty and design, and then it is up to us to interpret that art through our craft and allow the women to explore different genres that they have learnt and to work with these artists. For example, when we worked with Manu and Madhvi Parekh, it became an exchange that was tremendously enriching for both,” said Karishma Swali.
The works of art, and the exhibition, also bring out a different kind of love story, of age and creativity: At 82, Manu Parekh said that he was still discovering the world through art, which gives him joy each day, as it does to his wife, who is 80.
“Madhvi has her own style, we don’t make paintings together. We have been married for more than 60 years, and she still continues to surprise me each day. The art has given us another window of enjoyment of the world, as well as each other,” he said.
Did he ever imagine it would lead him into the fashion world?
“No,” he said simply. “This is the first fashion event I am attending,” he said, referring to the Dior show.
Each art form is leading each other, to find the roots of their own vision.
“If you go back in history it is through patronage that the most beautiful works of art have come up, in terms of architecture, or clothes or design. It has to be an investment in time and effort to achieve the magnitude and scale,” Asia Society’s Sobti observed.
Chiuri herself is not quite done.
“We hope to explore more. There are more artists who want to collaborate, now they have met personally the girls of the Chanakya School of Craft; it is also inspiring for them to speak with this big community, it can give them another point of view for their creativity and they can explore.
“We are really happy with what we are doing,” she said.
Launch Gallery: Dior Presents Mūḷ Māthī / from the roots Exhibit
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